12/1/2022 other sports Edit

Backbone of FSU soccer's success: Listening, adapting, compromising

The FSU soccer team celebrates its win over Arkansas to clinch a spot in the College Cup. (Mike Olivella)

Bob Ferrante • TheOsceola

Editor

The situation was far from unique. But the circumstances, it can’t be denied, don’t happen all that often.

Mark Krikorian won three national championships, including one in December 2021. But just months later, he walked away from Florida State citing differences in funding for the soccer program as well as salaries.

For the veterans on the Seminoles’ roster, the 2022 offseason could have been on a cruise-control drive toward improvement as they tried to repeat. But instead it began a winding road with Krikorian's departure and Brian Pensky's hire on April 25.

“I think this year has definitely been one of growth and adjustment, facing adversity and trying to grow stronger through it,” senior Jenna Nighswonger told the Osceola this week. “Dealing with a new coach is something that's always scary and it's uncharted waters. But to have a coach like Brian and for it to be such a positive experience is something that I'm so grateful for. And it's turned out to be great. We're succeeding past what I did believe was possible and doing better. And I'm just so proud of this team for all that we faced and how we've come out stronger.”

FSU still went into the 2022 season with a roster that was the envy of the majority of the top programs in the country, although stars like Jaelin Howell, Emily Madril, Yujie Zhao and Gabby Carle had chosen either prior to Krikorian’s departure or after to move on to professional soccer. Even though FSU was picked as the No. 1 preseason team, there were doubts.

“I think sometimes for me, it's hard to see the green grass in every situation,” Nighswonger said. “I tend to sometimes look at the bad sides as well with change. Looking into this season, I said, ‘Oh, well, we lost a lot of players. We lost Mark and his coaching staff. How can we be as good as we were the year before?’ But coming into the season, I think it's just surprised me in a great way because yes, Brian's not Mark, and no one will ever be Mark except for himself. But we've learned new things under Brian that have helped us succeed. I think that we're a lot better in attacking transition than we were under Mark. And I think Brian's been able to see that and we've made it a great strength.”

FSU started slow, with two ties in three games, but went 8-2 in ACC play and 17-2-3 overall. The Seminoles haven’t lost since a 2-1 decision to North Carolina on Oct. 20. They have avenged regular-season losses to UNC and Notre Dame during the ACC Tournament and have outscored their four NCAA Tournament opponents 11-1.

Next up is the College Cup, which begins Friday with Round 3 of FSU-UNC at 6 p.m. (ESPNU) as well as Alabama-UCLA in the other semifinal.

If there is an overwhelming storyline to FSU’s year, not necessarily the 22-game season so far, it’s one of acceptance. While Krikorian was gone, most of the players kept an open mind. A few, including Madril, were very outspoken on social media. There were tough conversations once Pensky arrived in April, with him needing to re-recruit the roster.

“When you go through hard times and you have some tough conversations and great conversations hopefully you develop mutual admiration and mutual respect for each other,” Pensky said. “We went through tough stuff right at the start. We started the season No. 1 in the country. And eight days later we are 1-0-2 and I think we dropped all the way to 12th at some point. For this program, that is not the standard. Everybody’s thinking the house is on fire and it’s burning and we had to work through things together. When you work through things together with mutual respect and admiration that relationship just continues to grow.

“Hopefully they feel like we as coaches, the meat of what we’ve done and the game planning and the coaching that we’ve done, has allowed them to respect us. This summer, them choosing to return, I think is a little bit of a reflection of liking us and respecting the things that we said and all of that.”

Even the veterans who were skeptics, having made championship runs that resulted in titles or fell short, were not sure what to think going into this season.

“There was a lot of uncertainty going into the season, and just what the team would look like, what our season would look like,” seventh-year senior Clara Robbins told the Osceola. “But I think from the day that we started in preseason, the coaching staff was very good about just hearing all of us and listening to what we are accustomed to and then maybe introducing some changes where they thought we needed some change and then also keeping some things the same that have been working for us.”

Pensky spoke over the summer about his time spent listening to the players and getting to know them as people as well as players. He watched countless hours of film. And then there was a need to find a balance between his strategy and the strengths of the Seminoles, who were recruited to play for Krikorian’s style. Pensky has adapted, accepting what’s best for the players and the success of the team.

“I think they've been really gracious with all of that because it would have been easy for them to come in and just stick to what they were used to,” Robbins said. “But they were very good about being open-minded. And I think also the team has been pretty good about it as well. I think as the season has gone on, we've grown so much and I'm thrilled to be heading into the College Cup.”

Watch an FSU soccer press conference and Pensky's candor stands out. But also watch Pensky interact with the players for any amount of time and it’s evident he has a willingness to listen to them and continue to get an understanding of who they are and how they feel at that moment. Robbins said Pensky’s ability to listen and compromise with them is “something that I fully appreciate and still appreciate about him.”

“He's more of a listen first, talk second kind of person and coach,” Nighswonger said. “Which I think is really important when we were going through all this change. When he came in, he asked us about how we did things, what style of play, what sort of formation we liked, and he gathered all the information before he wanted to decide what things he wanted to implement and change. Which I think is really important because when you have a place like Florida State, you don't need to come in and change everything. So it was nice that we're able to still play a little bit of Mark’s style of soccer, but we also have Brian's new ideas and new tactics that have been working really well for us this season.”