Misery for Lobo men, joy for the women
Darkness, and then light.
The lowest of lows, and then the highest of highs.
Tuesday’s weekly New Mexico fall sports press conference featured two soccer programs, the men’s and the women’s, the bad news and the good. A morose and downtrodden coach Jeremy Fishbein, followed by an upbeat and confident coach Heather Dyche.
Maybe it was best that Fishbein went first. His wasn’t a tough act to follow.
But, actually, this was no act. Fishbein talked about a humbling 6-1 loss to No. 3 Kentucky on Saturday that dropped his team to 4-10-0, 2-4-0 in Conference USA. He also described the loss as a surreal experience as the men’s soccer program is nearing its end. The scheduled final home game is Saturday, 7 p.m. against Marshall.
Last week, he spent a lot of time fielding calls from other coaches who are interested in his players wanting to transfer. He has had many sleepless nights amid the fallout from the program being cut because of UNM athletics budget struggles.
Fishbein estimated 20 of his 24 players submitted their names to a NCAA transfer portal, a new database that reveals studentathletes who want to transfer and/or explore transfer opportunities.
“As a head coach I just feel awful,” Fishbein said. “I don’t know how to emotionally
feel, in terms of supporting our guys. Is it spending all my energy on helping them find another school? Or is it helping them win a game?”
Fishbein said it was tough for him to stand at the podium in front of the media to talk about the “worst defeat” in his 17 seasons at UNM. He would much rather talk about the promise of a postseason or developing young players for the future or overall excitement for the Lobos — basically everything that Dyche spoke about right after Fishbein.
“It’s just not natural to shop your players around,” Fishbein said. “A lot of time (spent). A lot of texts, phone calls and emails. A lot of it ... it’s the mental time vs. the physical time. It’s 24-7. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking about things. There’s no rest. It’s starting to affect things at home. That’s the biggest thing. My wife is a tough lady. I felt pretty bad this week.”
Yes, surreal. And, the same could be said of the contrast from the UNM men’s soccer situation to that of the Lobo women.
The dichotomy is fascinating.
The UNM women’s soccer team went 2-0 last weekend, clinched a spot in the Mountain West Conference tournament and pushed their MWC-leading goal count to 37. In addition, junior goalkeeper Emily Johnson was named Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Week.
Dyche spoke with pride when she referred to her team as the favorite that she has ever coached.
“I’m sure I’m going to get mean texts from my alumni the minute this goes live, but we’ve had very little drama, or issues off the field,” she said. “When you have great leadership, it lets us focus on the culture and the environment and teaching and growing, and learning . ... It’s really fun when you walk on the field with a team and you feel really proud to be a part of it. That part has been a blast this year. I do think they have a good time.
“I don’t feel like the season is almost over, so that tells me we’re enjoying it. Some years, you can’t wait for it to be over. This year, I don’t want it to be over.”
Dyche’s Lobos (10-5-2, 6-2-2 in conference) are in a three-way tie for second place, but just a game out of first. There are many scenarios that could unfold as the final match takes place today at San Diego State at 8 p.m., including having first-place Boise State (13-32, 7-1-2) losing to Utah State (2-13-2, 1-7-1 — so, not likely, but you never know), while the Lobos, Wyoming and San Jose State win.
If that happens, all four teams would share the MWC title and UNM would earn the No. 1 seed for the MWC tournament because the Lobos have the best goal differential, the first tiebreaker for seeding.
Dyche wants her team to be in control of its conference championship fate next season. But she is plenty proud for now, especially when you consider, as she pointed out, that UNM graduated 10 seniors last year, including Claire Lynch, the program’s third alltime leading goal-scorer, among the eight starters.
“I don’t think anyone wants to play us in the tournament,” Dyche said. “That’s right where you want to be.”