‘I love the challenge.’ Kentucky women’s soccer begins new era under Troy Fabiano.
Troy Fabiano’s coaching style comes from his upbringing.
His mother and father worked in factories their whole lives. His father’s shifts on the docks near Lake Michigan in Wisconsin lasted from 5 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., followed by time spent coaching high school soccer, and then club soccer.
This built Fabiano’s core principles when it comes to soccer: Competitiveness, hard work and an intense work rate where training should simulate games.
A career featuring lengthy head coaching stops at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside (NCAA Division II) and Milwaukee (NCAA Division I) provided the résumé for Fabiano to be named the new head coach of Kentucky women’s soccer last December.
The process of engineering a worst-to-first turnaround for Kentucky in the SEC — consistently one of the deepest women’s soccer conferences in the country — began in earnest Thursday night as UK swept aside Ball State, 3-0, at the Wendell and Vickie Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington, which also marked the first UK Athletics contest of the new school year.
That turnaround, should it be realized, will take years to occur.
For now, it’s time to work, something Fabiano is more than happy to do.
“It’s just going to be a matter of time of getting it right, getting the right people in that fit our need and our culture and the way we want to play and we’re going to be successful,” Fabiano told the Herald-Leader during a wide-ranging preseason interview inside his office.
“I love the challenge.”
New faces in UK soccer program
Fabiano’s debut season in Lexington will feature a revamped roster, while still boasting a couple familiar faces.
Of the 32 players listed on the UK roster, 17 are newcomers, including four players who previously played for Fabiano at Milwaukee, one with past SEC experience (grad student forward Hailey Farrington-Bentil at Mississippi State) and a national champion in sophomore defender Taya Hjorth, who redshirted last season at Florida State while the Seminoles won the NCAA title.
Bringing players into the UK program from winning cultures was a priority for Fabiano.
“I believe winning is a habit, but also losing is a habit,” Fabiano said. “I think that was an important piece, getting good people but also kids that have had success. . . . Those kids are not used to losing and they’re not going to accept it.”
This was crystallized during one of Fabiano’s first meetings with his Kentucky team.
“That’s one of the things we told the team day one: ‘I’m not going to accept losing,’” Fabiano recalled. “And if we’re going to lose, it’s not going to be because of effort.”
One of the transfers to Kentucky illustrating this value is redshirt senior defender Maggy Henschler, who spent four seasons with Fabiano at Milwaukee.
A former hockey player, Henschler is a physical, veteran and vocal player at center back for the Cats, as well as a guiding presence to help others understand Fabiano’s playing system.
“(Fabiano) finds a way to take a drill and make it ‘game-like’ and we just literally apply what he shows us to the game,” Henschler said after the Ball State win. “You’ll see those situations like two v. ones and the way that we defend, attacking when the goalie has the ball, the way our forwards defend. It’s all stuff that we learn in practice and we apply.”
Among the 15 returning players are senior forwards Jordyn Rhodes (team-high 11 goals last season) and Hannah Richardson (eight goals and three assists last season), along with promising junior midfielder Úlfa Úlfarsdóttir.
All three players were on the scoresheet Thursday night, with Rhodes scoring her 31st all-time goal for Kentucky.
How have the two groups come together this offseason?
“I think we’ve really meshed well off the field, so on the field it’s been quite easy to actually be able to communicate with each other because we do have that chemistry off the field,” Rhodes said prior to the Ball State game. “It’s been a lot smoother than most of us expected with all the new people.”
UK will also have a new goalkeeper this season: Redshirt freshman Tallulah Miller played all 90 minutes and didn’t face a shot on goal during the shutout win against Ball State, which came in front of UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart, who presented Fabiano with a game ball following the match.
While Rhodes called it “a fresh start everywhere” given the influx of new players and coaches, she said the stylistic change for the Wildcats on the pitch hasn’t been substantial.
Something that is substantial (at least in the short term)?
Kentucky’s season-opening performance.
The Cats’ win over Ball State marked UK’s first season-opening win since 2018, and saw three new players record a goal or assist.
Turning the Wildcats’ fortunes
With the micro of the 2022 season now discussed, let’s discuss the macro of the Kentucky women’s soccer program.
Kentucky hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2014, which was also the last time UK posted a winning record in SEC play.
UK reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2014, which also marked the last postseason victory of any kind for the Cats.
A program that boasts notable women’s soccer alums — including current NWSL defender Arin Wright — who went by Arin Gilliland during her time at UK — has spent most of the last decade mired in the SEC cellar.
How has Fabiano begun the process of changing this?
“You’ve got a group of players that are working hard. It’s a lot of information thrown at them, and I think, ‘How much can they actually take in and now translate it on the field?’” Fabiano said. “I think they understand what we want from them effort-wise. I think the biggest thing now is a lot of us are reacting compared to anticipating. I think that’s where the repetition has to come in, (when) it becomes natural to do the things that we want them to do.”
One of things Fabiano has been pleased with so far has been UK’s team organization, shape and structure.
The next step is forming a squad that’s adaptable and flexible in different game situations (UK started the Ball State match in a 4-2-1-3 formation).
What has an experienced player like Rhodes already taken from Fabiano?
“I learned a lot about preserving myself, not just run, run, run, (but) being able to make decisions on when to go and when not to go defensively,” Rhodes said. “Just working hard, our work rate in practice and during games. I think we’ve all learned from that.”
Kentucky practices now feature constant motion.
Players are always moving during the shorter, faster-paced sessions, which Fabiano prefers to better mimic the flow of a soccer match.
Players even jog when water breaks occur.
“We weren’t really used to that,” Rhodes said, noting that the intensity of practice helps with fitness instead of strictly running sprints.
Still, for the progress achieved by Fabiano in a short span of time — and with only one game played — he still wants improvement in other areas.
“The biggest thing we really want to see them do better is just the physical traits, because once you get into the SEC you have to have that physical presence,” Fabiano said. “Because if you don’t you’re going to get run over.”
Grading first-year success for Fabiano
As with most first-year head coaches, success for Fabiano in his debut season will lie more in the qualitative than the quantitative.
There’s no benchmark amount of goals by an individual or wins as a collective that he’s seeking, at least publicly.
Among the things Fabiano wants is success in the classroom and evidence of a competitive edge and hard work on the pitch.
“Did you put in everything? Play hard, play fast, play smart, finish. That’s what we tell the kids,” Fabiano said directly. “People think finish means scoring goals. No, I mean, if we’re doing sprints, don’t be that player that, here’s your finish line, and you decide to stop 2 yards in front. Be that kid that sprints past it and now your recovery is 3 yards past the line. So that’s what we mean by finish, finish off that play. Don’t assume.”
The size of the task in front of Fabiano doesn’t overwhelm him.
He’s had an up-close look at the elite of college women’s soccer in recent seasons, having played the likes of Florida State, Santa Clara and Virginia in recent seasons at Milwaukee, which boasted an RPI of 36 last year (UK’s was 151).
Strides in overall athleticism and conference-play performance will need to follow, but Fabiano’s confidence in his ability to turn UK women’s soccer around can be exemplified by when he introduced himself to the Wildcats team.
There was no powerpoint or other kind of planned-out presentation.
Just a couple bullet points, and honesty.
“I just told them, ‘This is who I am. This is what I’m about. These are my goals. These are what’s important for me to make this program be successful,’” Fabiano said. “I think it goes a long way, just being honest with people and telling them, ‘This is what I’m about. This is what’s expected of you.’ And setting those goals and those guidelines, this way it’s not a surprise and I’m going to hold you to that and I’m going to hold our staff to that.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2022 at 7:57 AM.
