College Soccer

Pitt Soccer’s Turnaround: From afterthought to Championship Chasers

by
Griffin Floyd
August 21, 2024

Photo courtesy Pitt Athletics

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, Pitt Soccer midfielder Michael Sullivan and forward Eben McIntyre have had a front row seat to the program’s meteoric rise to the heights of collegiate soccer.

For much of their respective childhoods, Pitt sat in the midst of an NCAA Tournament drought that lasted 54 years—1965 to 2019—with an all-time record well below .500. In a region not traditionally known for its soccer prowess, one would be forgiven for overlooking those early Panthers teams.

Sullivan noted another ignominious tidbit, Pitt’s lack of a home stadium of their own. Between 1999 and 2011 the Panthers played at Founder’s Field in Harmarville, half an hour outside of Pittsburgh. To hear McIntyre tell it, the program was an afterthought… and that might be putting it kindly.

“I remember going to a few games and they weren’t, it wasn’t the greatest team, they didn’t play the greatest style of soccer,” McIntyre said. “When I was younger obviously I didn’t hear too many great things about the program.”

Things started to change in the early 2010s as Pitt’s athletic department began to divert more resources to the program.

“I think the university really starting to invest in soccer has been a huge help as well,” Sullivan said. “Now we’re playing at Ambrose in front of 2,000 people… to give us a place like the PSC [Petersen Sports Complex] where we can go in and have our own space, have a training room, our locker room, speaks to what the university’s all about, how much they care about their athletes and what they want to put forth on a national stage.”

Increased attention from the athletic department proved one crucial piece in the puzzle of Pitt’s turnaround. Another piece was the 2015 hiring of a head coach with a national championship to his name: Jay Vidovich.

Coach Vidovich Arrives

McIntyre described Vidovich’s impact succinctly. “I think my whole perception of the program flipped completely around when he got here.”

Sullivan said that the program’s insatiable desire for success under Vidovich is what helped him decide on Pitt. During his senior year of high school, the Panthers sat atop the AP Poll for several weeks, eventually making it all the way to the National Semifinals.

“At the time I was being recruited, they were the number one team in the country. It’s hard to turn down when a team in your own backyard is playing that good of soccer and is interested in you,” Sullivan said. “Bringing me into an environment like that, [asking] how can we push that a little bit farther, I think that was the biggest thing for me…their ability to sell it on ‘hey, look, we would love for you to be a part of the project: how can we take this another step farther?’”

The Panthers have now made the NCAA Tournament for five years in a row, including three straight runs to the quarterfinals and a pair of appearances in the College Cup, shattering a handful of ‘firsts’ in program history in the process.

Despite that run of success, the heights of the sport remain elusive… a trip to the title game or a chance at sporting immortality through bringing a national championship to Pittsburgh. After a now-uncharacteristic early exit last season, when Pitt fell at home to JMU in the Round of 48, you can bet that the theme of unfinished business is on the Panthers’ minds as they open the 2024 campaign this week by hosting Georgetown at Ambrose Urbanic Field (Thursday night, 8 p.m.)

“The Fire That Lights Under You”

Sullivan didn’t hold back when describing the impact of the early offseason.

“Any time that you go out earlier than you’d hoped, you always have a bad taste in your mouth… that was the earliest start to the offseason I’ve had since getting to Pitt and I think just having to watch all these other teams play games the next three, four weeks going throughout the tournament, it hurts,” Sullivan said. “It hurts to watch, it hurts to go and look at the scores, seeing teams that you’ve played throughout the season or played in past years, getting results that you’re at home having to watch… it’s the fire that lights under you when you have to go and watch that and you can’t do anything about it for nine months.”

For Sullivan, a senior, the need to finish the job is all the more poignant.

“I think the work that we did in the spring and the summer too, all of it comes back to that last game when we played JMU,” Sullivan said. “What kind of taste is going to be left in your mouth? What kind of taste do you want to have at the end of this season? What’s the lasting impact that one, for myself as a senior, I want to have in my last year, but also on the program’s history?”

As has been the case in just about every year under Vidovich, the Panthers will embark on an ambitious schedule this season, with many tough non-conference matches, but also once again they’ll be put to the test in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s gauntlet that includes eight teams who are ranked in United Soccer Coaches Preseason Top 25 poll. For the first time since 2019, Pitt is not among those teams in the preseason Top 25.

A Breath of Fresh Air

A junior, McIntyre described the effect that last year’s disappointment had on younger members of the team: in particular, the growing pains of realizing exactly what it takes to play championship-caliber soccer.

“I think it was kind of a wakeup call for a lot of the younger guys in the program, that ‘what kind of mark do we want to leave after we leave this program?’ Because the teams before us are known for Final Fours, Elite Eights, ACC regular season championships,” McIntyre said. “That kinda woke us up and brought us to the realization that maybe we need to change some things if we want to get the team to where it needs to be and where we want it to be to leave a lasting impact.”

McIntyre also related a different current of energy in the room this season, the way they’ve bonded both in terms of mentality and complimentary play styles.

“For me, there was a different feel about the team, a different vibe about the team basically as soon as we came back in the summer session. Obviously that’s carried into the training and I think the group’s really gelling well together,” McIntyre said.

“We have a lot of qualities that compliment each other, we all are seeing the same vision, having the same goals in mind. Nobody’s just out there for themselves… It was very apparent from day one that everybody who came in and the guys who came back from last year are here for a reason and we’re all gonna be one brain, work together and just keep getting better day by day.”

Just Getting Started

Like McIntyre said, despite the renewed emphasis on team play, both he and Sullivan know that the Panthers can’t get complacent: the season hasn’t even begun yet, with their first home match of 2024 set for 8pm Thursday at Ambrose Urbanic Field against Georgetown, a perennial powerhouse.

They’ve played scrimmages against Maryland and Akron, getting a chance to test the summer’s gains in a live environment. Even with encouraging early returns, Sullivan reiterated the need to take things day by day, whether it’s their bond as teammates or their energy on the pitch.

“I don’t think there’s ever an ‘aha!’ moment anywhere in team sports. It’s always going to be a process where you’re getting small gains every day, you’re getting a little bit better, you’re getting a little bit closer, the chemistry’s coming together a little bit more,” Sullivan said. “Throughout the process… just being able to build day by day, getting that one percent better and just seeing things click one at a time and being able to build off them.”

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Vidovich once again scoured the national and international recruiting trails, and will be bringing a host of new players to the mix, while the Panthers still return a good number of players to the roster.