Compliment?

This week at trio rehearsal our new coach said something to the effect of "Wow, you guys are a lot better then I expected you to be." Our last coach said something similar near the end of last semester. Is that a compliment? What are they thinking? We are just finishing up the last movement of Beethoven Op. 1 No. 1 (this is a piano trio) and the coach gave us a trio by Glinka to take home and look at as a candidate for our next piece. Hmm. The first page of the cello part is all in tenor clef. My first clue that this may be a significant amount of work.