By Christopher Boulay
CCSU women’s soccer coach Mick D’Arcy has been awarded with the Northeast Conference Coach of the Year award, his fourth ever, and first since 2005.
“I’m a great believer that ‘to the victor, go the spoils,’” D’Arcy said. “And usually at the end of the regular season when the coaches are voting, my vote will usually go to whichever coach has won the regular season, or one that has had a massive improvement from the year before. But I think it is one of those awards that goes to the coach of the team that won the league.”
Though Coach D’Arcy is happy with the award, he directs the credit given to him, to his team, whom he believes did the hard work.
“It’s nice. It’s an honor to be recognized by your peers. It sounds like a cliché, but it really is a recognition of what the team has done,” said D’Arcy.
CCSU had a rough start to the season including a five-game losing streak. But they were able to rebound and surge through the NEC regular season, getting up to first place with a dominant late-season showing.
“I think it takes a little time to absorb and look at the bigger picture,” D’Arcy said. “Overall I think when we look back at it, we will say the team certainly overcame a lot of hurdles. Not only were we winning games, but anybody that came to see us in the last month was pretty excited to see the kind of soccer we were playing, it was fun, it was attractive.”
The Ireland native is the Women’s soccer programs winningest coach and helped the team finish 10-0-1 in the NEC, as well as an appearance in the NEC Tournament Championship game, where the Blue Devils lost in overtime to Monmouth, 1-0.
“To go unbeaten [in conference] is a great achievement,” D’Arcy said. “Just to be able to say that we beat every team in the conference is a significant thing to do. There’s always gonna be days where someone isn’t feeling well, the chances don’t go your way, or a couple of referee’s calls you don’t get, where you are likely to lose a game. To go through all of those games without a loss, I think says a lot for the team.”
This was the eighth-straight time that the team has qualified for the NEC Tournament.
