By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – On the precipice of Cornell athletics' return to traditional competition, all of the athletes, coaches and various layers of support staff can fairly employ the adage "it's been a long time coming". The incipient COVID-19 pandemic wasn't selective when it sabotaged best-laid plans across the department in March 2020 and threw everyone into unchartered waters for 12-18 months.
 
But even within that metaphor, most Big Red programs were already on an established course. The dearth of intercollegiate competition and periodic dashed hopes for earlier recovery provided challenges for everyone, yet the women's soccer team can probably lay claim to having the largest proverbial mountain to scale among all of Cornell's 37 varsity athletic programs. The Big Red was coming off a third straight winless Ivy League season and saw a change at its helm, when Rob Ferguson was first promoted from assistant coach to interim head coach shortly after completion of the 2019 season, then from interim head coach to head coach in February 2020.
 
By then, the race was on to get ready for competition. That is, until the pandemic brought the athletic world to a screeching halt about a month later.
 
"In some senses, it altered the plan massively – because we planned to have a preseason and play games," Ferguson said. "So we couldn't proceed with the plan in its whole. But part of the plan we could prioritize. … It gave us time to focus in on the core values of what we wanted them to be."
 
So the Big Red was in a unique position. The promotion of Ferguson to the head coaching role provided some continuity, as did the return of a core leadership group led by its tri-captains, fifth-years Maddie Hoitink and Naomi Jaffe, and senior Miranda Iannone. But nowhere within those primary steerers of the team has there been a desire to just stay the course. A conscious decision was made for the Big Red to reinvent itself.
 
"We've said it to the players, to the parent group, to the alumni group and anyone else that wants to listen – we're looking to change everything within the program," Ferguson said. "Every facet of the program is, at least, being assessed as to how do we make it better – on and off the field."
 
On the dawn of its first in-season training session unrestricted by pandemic protocol since November 2019, it was easy to envision a peaceful morning at McGovern Fields with the oboes and flutes of Greig's "Morning Mood" playing inside everyone's heads before the action kicked off. But no complete season within any team in any sport is always sunny – and this particular day, however symbolically ceremonious a docile backdrop would provide, was no exception. Unexpected steady rain persisted as the team took stools to the far side of the practice field to sit in a circle and engage in team-driven discussion.
 
It was a conversation that could have easily been conducted within warmer, drier confines. But in a way, it was an exercise in applying some of the core culture changes put in place over the previous 18 months. What's a little liquid adversity after all of the hardships since the program's last official game?
 
"It's pointless being negative. We can be miserable all we like and we can complain all we like, but a) there's far worse things going on over the last 18 months than our inability to play and train for soccer properly. And b) even if there weren't, we'd get nothing from griping over it," Ferguson said. "I think it's developed a resilience, it's developed a focus, and it's developed more passion to go get it right."
 
That passion is shared across a coaching staff that has two familiar faces and two new ones. With Kelsey Ferguson shifting from an assistant coach to a volunteer assistant coach, Jackie Firenze and Dani Britt have joined the program as full-time assistant coaches. Firenze has been onboard since during the early stages of the pandemic, while Britt stepped into the same role in recent months.
 
The sum is a staff of four coaches with the deepest set of credentials the program has ever seen. But the formation of the group wasn't solely determined with the on-paper qualifications – it's a group that complements each other with different areas of expertise. Via four years of an assistant coaching role at Binghamton, Firenze arrives not far removed from 71 starts as a midfielder for Syracuse. Rob Ferguson explained that her instinctual attacking mindset complements his general default toward free-flowing play making. Then there's Britt, a goalkeeper during her undergraduate days at UAlbany, giving another layer of specialized coaching – specifically to the squad's three goalkeepers.
 
"Once I got a sense that they were a really good fits for us, it was really all about finding out if they were going to buy in," Ferguson said. "If I could sense any doubt or if I didn't sense legitimate excitement in the conversation of where our program is and what it's doing, I would have been really hesitant to hire either of them. But right away, you could tell it was exciting for them. So we're in a really good place with the staff."
 
With the season rapidly approaching, we'll take a closer look at the team and its new tactical approach on Thursday.

Assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas is entering his 11th season as his office's primary contact for the team. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.