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35|35 Anniversary Website
This is the 13th installment of a series of 35 moments, milestones, and facts that will be featured throughout the 2013-14 academic year to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
John Basalyga
used to be a pretty darn good boys’ soccer coach at Turpin High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over his 24 years at the secondary level, he amassed 325 wins, three Ohio State Championships, and 22 consecutive winning seasons.
It was that success, and also his close proximity to Highland Heights, Ky., that provided him the opportunity to take over the Northern Kentucky University men’s soccer program in 2003. A local high school coach was given the reins to one of the perennial soccer powers of the Great Lakes Valley Conference at the time, a program already owners of four league titles.
Seven years later, on this very date, in blustery, snowy conditions on the Bellarmine University campus in Louisville, Ky., the public address announcer bellowed over the speakers counting down from 10.
Nine… eight… seven…
Basalyga took a brief moment on the sidelines, paused, and managed just one simple question to his assistant coach.
“Do believe what we just did?”
At that very moment, a distant dream had now become a very true reality.
A white Christmas, three weeks early.
Northern Kentucky University had just won the 2010 NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer National Championship – the first-ever for both the school and the GLVC.
“Before taking the job at NKU, I was a high school coach for 24 years and the thought of winning a national championship at the college level was like going to the moon and back,” Basalyga said.
Luckily for Basalyga, he quickly found his direction in the league having befriended his highly-successful and widely-respected coaching peers within the league.
“When I started at NKU in 2003, a handful of coaches in the conference showed the new guy respect,” Basalyga said. “(UW-Parkside’s) Rick Kilps, (Lewis’) Evan Fiffles, (Quincy’s) Jack McKenzie and (Rockhurst’s) Tony Tocco were always there for me. I have always respected these guys for what they have accomplished over their careers.”
After a few years at the helm, the Norse quickly started showing promise once again – a flashback to the old days when Northern Kentuckywas tops in the conference in 1987, 1992, 1993 and 1995.
Basalyga led NKU to one of the nation’s top turnarounds in 2004, as the Norse posted a 12-6-2 overall record while posting a 6-3-1 mark in the GLVC. His 2004 squad was led by GLVC Player of the Year Nate Madden.
In 2005, his NKU team pulled off a first-round upset of third-seeded UW-Parkside in the opening round of the GLVC Championship Tournament, which marked the first time since 1997 that the program had won a game in the conference’s postseason event. The Norse, who entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed, finished with an 11-8-2 record.
A year later, Basalyga led the Norse to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament and won the Great Lakes Region Championship as the No. 2 seed. The squad matched a school record with 16 wins, and posted a NKU-best .795 winning percentage on the year.
In 2007, Basalyga made GLVC history by coaching the Norse to a perfect 13-0 conference record, as well as the school’s second consecutive Great Lakes Region title. The Norse rattled off 20-straight wins en route to a 22-2 mark, both school records. The dominating performance earned Basalyga his second consecutive GLVC and Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year awards.
He then set a new standard for excellence in NKU soccer in 2008, taking the Norse to the Division II National Semifinal after claiming a third straight NCAA Midwest Region title. The Norse fell 2-1 in overtime to Dowling College and finished with a 16-3-4 overall record. Two of the team’s three seniors graduated as All-Americans, while sophomore Steven Beattie was named the GLVC Offensive Player and Division II National Player of the Year.
After a first-round loss to second-ranked Drury in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, the stars seemed to align for the “moon and back” trip for Basalyga.
The Norse claimed their first GLVC Men’s Soccer Championship in 15 seasons, advanced to their fifth consecutive NCAA postseason appearance, and proceeded to run the table en route to the school’s first national title in any men’s sport.
“After losing in the (national) semis to Dowling in 2008 and then to face them again in 2010, we were looking for redemption,” Basalyga said. “We wanted to make sure we finished the job we started two years earlier.
Following two tightly contested regional matchups against GLVC opponents, including a first-round 2-1 overtime win over Quincy and a 3-2 second-round result over Missouri S&T, NKU took control of its next two postseason contests. In the national quarterfinal, the Norse blanked West Virginia Wesleyan 3-0, and successfully earned that revenge over Dowling by a 4-1 count in the semis.
That set up a national title showdown against Rollins College in an atmosphere that played more to the advantage of the Norse than their opponents from Winter Park, Fla. As it turned out, the school only affiliated with winter in its geographic location.
“The weather leading up the Final Four was typical December weather—cold, windy, rainy and snowy,” Basalyga said. “We trained in this weather in only shorts and t-shirts, meaning no hats, gloves, long sleeves or long pants. When we trained the day before the semifinal, it was very cold and rainy. People there thought we were nuts when we took off our warm ups, hats and gloves. But I told our team the night before the game to go to bed and wake up hoping that it snowed overnight. I told them ‘If so, we will be good to go!’”
Others were not amused with the conditions, considering what was at stake.
“Before the game I was talking with Rollins’ coach and he was saying that the snowy weather was not a proper climate for a game of this magnitude,” Basalyga said. “I agreed and told him that we usually do not play games in the snow, but I didn’t think it was fair to play the game in Tampa two years earlier when it was 90 degrees and 60 percent humidity at game time.”
The unpredictable wintry weather seemed to help the Norse, who jumped out to a 2-0 lead at intermission on goals from Jack Little (9:06) and Jordan Grant (32:59). Eight minutes into the second half, however, Rollins responded with two goals to tie the game.
The game-winner came at the 64:16 mark on a header from 2010 GLVC Freshman of the Year Michael Holder – a player Basalyga referenced as the missing piece needed to complete the team puzzle.
Senior Mike Lavric, a four-year starter who shattered every single NKU goalkeeper record during his career, earned nine stops in the
3-2 victory. Beattie concluded his season with 26 goals and 16 assists and his third-straight GLVC Offensive Player of the Year accolade.
A year after the national championship run, Basalyga’s Norse made one final run in the NCAA Division II Championship Tournament before the school resigned from the GLVC and reclassified as a full-time Division I member in all sports.
This time, NKU was denied the opportunity to defend its title as it was eliminated in the second round in a 2-0 defeat to Rockhurst. The Hawks would then be forced out of the tournament a week later following a heartbreaking double-overtime scoreless draw to Millersville that ended with them falling just shy in penalty kicks.
Since that postseason setback and Northern Kentucky’s departure, Rockhurst has become the team to beat in the GLVC. The Hawks have earned the last two conference titles.
So perhaps it is fitting that on the three-year anniversary of Northern Kentucky’s national title, 14th-ranked Rockhurst sits poised and prepped in their Evans, Ga., hotel rooms, readying for its national semifinal contest against No. 1 Southern New Hampshire Thursday at 5 p.m. ET.
This is Rockhurst’s first-ever appearance in the national semifinals.
While a few Hawks will make the winter journey south to Georgia for the match, leaving behind a host of students, faculty and fans to watch from Kansas City, there will certainly be one follower looking on from the icy banks of the Ohio River.
“Tony has been showing class and passion for many, many years,” Basalyga said of the legendary Rockhurst coach whose 635 career wins are just five shy of the winningest active intercollegiate soccer coach, Ohio Wesleyan’s Jay Martin. “We always knew that when we played Rockhurst, we would have to compete and play our best game. At the same time, we had hoped to make them play their best game.”
This weekend is arguably the most significant moment in Rockhurst’s NCAA Division II history, and possibly the school’s overall athletics history, although the Hawks' soccer program has been a four-time NAIA Championship finalist.
But for a man who spent a quarter-century of his life in the high schools ranks, only to have the opportunity to serve over the elite NCAA Division II soccer program just three years ago, Basalyga is quick to reflect back to his first few seasons at NKU and note his search for success began with those conversations with his respected peers, including one of the game’s iconic figures.
“Anyone looking to start and model your program after another should look no further than Tony Tocco and Rockhurst University.”
Therein can be the go-to guide for a new coach. A championship blueprint. A road map of sorts.
One that could potentially take you places you never imagined possible.
Places like the moon and back.