Photo courtesy of Creighton Sports Information
By FRANCO PANIZO
After spending nearly a quarter of a century with the University of North Carolina, Elmar Bolowich longed for a new challenge.
He found that challenge this past spring in the form of Creighton University, a solid soccer program that was looking to make the jump to proverbial powerhouse after a 13-5-2 season that ended with a heart-breaking penalty kick loss to SMU in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
Eight starters return from last year's team, including leading goal scorer Ethan Finlay. But Bolowich has the tricky task of mixing those experienced players with a bevy of new ones, as 17 players listed on the Bluejays' roster are entering their first season with the program.
No worries for Bolowich though, as this is just the type of challenge he desired.
"I had achieved everything I could with North Carolina," said Bolowich. "We were going three times back to back to back to the College Cup, and we had a wonderful team together, but I was also 23 years at Carolina.
"The time came where I felt like maybe I'm ready for another move, maybe I'm ready to move at least once in my career somewhere else to see what it's like. Can I do it again somewhere else in a very different environment, a much smaller school, a different part of the country where I needed to, again, generate a new recruiting network?
"So there was an attractiveness there with Creighton University because it's a wonderful school, it's a great program, it has tradition and it was not something I had to rebuild. It was already running strong, it just needed some fine-tuning and looking into the program, I got more and more excited the more I learned about it."
Fans of Creighton should be just as excited about their new head coach. Despite scoring 40 goals last season, Bolowich is planning on making the Bluejays a more offensive team, one that attempts to set the tempo early with an aggressive style of play.
Just days away from opening their season on the road against Denver, Creighton's players have bought into Bolowich's offensive tactics.
"The plan is to play a 4-3-3 formation, and I think it's going to work great for us; we have great personnel for it," said Finlay, who is a question mark for the season opener with an MCL sprain. "And we're going to be a high-pressing team whether we're home or away. We plan on coming out guns firing."
That's not to say that Creighton is willing to sacrifice defensively in order to get more production from its offense. Senior Brian Holt is expected to man the pipes while senior defenders Jace Peters and Andrew Duran play in front of him. Then there's also young outside backs Tyler Polak and Eric Miller, who are rated highly within the team.
Put those players together and throw in a new defensive approach such as the one Bolowich is implementing, and Creighton has a defense that could improve on the 22 goals it allowed last year.
"We used to be a high pressure team, but I think he's taken it to the next level with the philosphy of we're going to attack the ball," said Finlay. "In our defensive way, (if) we don't have it, we're going to go get it.
"That's a different mentality than what we've had at Creighton, which I think has really been the basis of all the changes. We're going to work hard, we're going to be the hardest working team in the country, we're going to high press, we're going to make sure that when you come into Morrison Stadium that you're uncomfortable right away, and he's always pushed those things."
Bolowich is also pushing all of his seniors to assume leadership roles, on and off the field.
That's understandable, given the influx of new faces on the team. But that makes Finlay, Holt and the rest of the seniors' guidance to the younger players that much more important if Creighton is to have success in a season that includes games against top 25-ranked teams such as Maryland, UC Irvine and Indiana.
"I think (the seniors have) to partake in that and take that load on their shoulders and be responsible in that regard," said Bolowich. "They're all willing and able and capable of doing, so whether they are starters or not starters, it really does not matter."
Anything but a return to the postseason tournament would be a failure for Creighton, which was ranked no. 10 in the NSCAA preseason poll. But reaching the tournament is just the beginning of what the Bluejays are hoping will be a dream season.
"We definitely have the tools and personnel to get us to a national championship game," said Finlay. "But we're really going to take every day for what it is and not focus too much on that because if we take care of every day then at the end of day, on December 11 we will be in Alabama and hopefully playing for a national championship."
If Creighton was able to win a national title in its first year under Bolowich, the program would take a huge stride towards being the perennial heavyweight it wishes to become.
Bolowich believes it is possible to become a powerhouse with one successful season. He also acknowledges, however, that Creighton needs to do well beyond this year in order to earn the reputation of one of the nation's best.
"You have to build a foundation that is unshakable, you have to have strong players every year," said Bolowich. "You cannot just have one great recruiting class coupled with two mediocre recruiting classes. That does not allow you to stay on the top because the other teams are seriously competing for those spots as well.
"So you have to every year have a better recruiting class, you have to a good foundation that the team can function on and run on and that would be the ingredients."
Creighton may be hoping that this season springboards it into the conversation of a national powerhouse, but the foundation for that may have begun with the signing of Bolowich this past spring.
