Taking Care of the Dirty Work: Pitt men’s soccer seniors spur a championship run

After reaching the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals for three straight years between 2020 and 2022—and reaching the College Cup in two of those three years—Pitt Men’s Soccer lost their way in 2023, struggling to a 6-7-4 record despite earning the No. 5 spot in the nation in preseason rankings.

They backed into the postseason with a 2-3-3 conference record before losing home playoff matches in the first round they played in the ACC and NCAA Tournament.

The Panthers’ senior class this season, composed of players like Luis Sahmkow, Guilherme Feitosa and Mikey Sullivan who played for Pitt each of the past four years and endured the highs and lows of the sport as a result, learned their lesson from last season’s disappointment.

More aware than ever of the legacy he will leave as his time with the Panthers winds to a close, Feitosa described his motivation for ending his college career on a high note following Pitt’s senior night win over Virginia.

“Just so thankful for being a part of this program. We walked here four years ago together, and now we’re grown men leading the program. Just so grateful for these guys that we’re around who do so much for the program every day,” Feitosa said.

[I] want a winning legacy. The program hasn’t won any [national titles] and we want to be the first ones to do it. The guys that are here, they’re gonna stay here after we leave. That’s the culture we’re trying to give to them: win every day, the small things, the small details, building the momentum, being together, being positive.”

Last season’s disappointment served as a sort of wake up call, spurring the Panthers (and especially their veteran leaders) to take nothing for granted. 

Call to Action

From the first stages of the offseason they emphasized unselfish play, building exquisite team chemistry as they played for one another. Before the season began, Sullivan described that shifting mentality (and their postseason disappointment as “the fire that lights under you,” while Feitosa said that the onus of that mentality starts with himself and the team’s older leaders, setting an example for the rest of the Panthers.

“The guys that were here last year, they really [hurt their] pride [after] what happened,” Feitosa said. “They were like ‘I don’t want to be part of a losing program, I don’t want to be part of a program that loses in the early stages of the NCAA Tournament.’ And us coming back with that mentality also raises the level of the guys at the bottom of the group.”

Sahmkow, who leads the Panthers in goals this season, gave due credit to how Pitt’s younger players bought into that same mentality, even if they don’t yet have the same poignant motivation of their time in college winding to a close.

“It’s just about setting a standard for the younger guys. Once we leave, leaving them in a better place. We talk about that all the time, really focusing on that,” Sahmkow said. “I think just coming here in the summer, knowing how bad of a season we had last year. That didn’t feel good on us. We came in the summer, we all bought in together that same goal: we want to achieve something big here at Pitt, and I think we’ve got the group to do it. I think we’ve got a really special group of guys that are willing to work for each other on and off the field, just good vibes around the team.”

That hard work paid off. Although last season’s speed bump left the Panthers with the lowest national expectations in half a decade, they caught lightning in a bottle, spending three weeks as the No. 1 team in the nation and clinching their first regular season ACC title in program history, setting them up for home playoff matches in the conference (and almost certainly the national) tournaments.

Senior Impact

Pitt Men’s Soccer head coach Jay Vidovich praised his seniors for the different paths they’ve taken to get where they are today, whether highly-touted international prospects or local kids scrapping until they earned consequential playing time: all have played a valuable role in the title chase.

“They all came in in different situations. Mikey is a local kid, Luis is a guy on a national championship team out of Texas. [Feitosa] is over in France playing, and they all bought into the vision of what we want to do, they all stayed the course. They all had their own journey here,” Vidovich said. 

“You look at Gui, starting off his career in his first year he played every position except for goalkeeper. He tore it up and he helped us to a Final Four. Mikey started off, he got a couple minutes, the speed of the game took him a while to find himself. Seeing the forms he put out there today, I bet he’s one of the best players around for us. Really stabilized the game… [and] Luis’ growth. He’s had his ups and downs, seeing his strength… so proud and happy for him.”

Vidovich also credited his seniors who haven’t spent all four years in Pittsburgh, players like first-year and graduate student Arnau Vilamitjana or senior Casper Grening, who transferred in from Kentucky this past season.

“It’s been a great journey and I’m glad they included me in it. I just feel happy. Hopefully now we have some more games together: hopefully we can bring back another match here, they get some more games to play here,” Vidovich said. “I thank them, just happy for them, and I just hope they can keep growing as people and players. They’re on a tremendous path right now.”

Taking care of the dirty work

A Division 1 head coach for 29 of the past 30 years who has an NCAA Championship to his name, Jay Vidovich has seen dozens of senior classes come and go. As such, he’s uniquely qualified to say what makes these seniors special as they prepare for postseason play. 

“I think every senior class is a unique one, and you love them for different reasons… Last year was difficult. It was a really hard year for them. And they decided they didn’t want a piece of that anymore. They wanted to improve the team, they wanted to leave the jersey in a better place,” Vidovich said. “And I think that ambition, that resilience that they had and their drive to create the culture and set the standard higher, that makes them unique. They left [us] in a better spot.”

Vidovich also said that his seniors’ willingness to take on the “dirty work” of coaching, holding each other to a higher standard after lackadaisical or selfish play burned them in 2023, helps make his life easier.

“It makes your job easier, it allows you to do different things. That means they’re taking care of a lot of the dirty work. This team is self-policed, it really does take care of a lot of the dirty work you don’t have to do,” Vidovich said. “When individually they’ve got that ambition to also police themselves, and then when the collective is doing it, that’s when you have something magic. And we’re hoping to get there.”