MORGANTOWN — Nikki Izzo-Brown did not coach in the NCAA tournament last season.
Still, the sun came up. Financial markets did not go into ruin. The sports world continued on, albeit one that saw an amazing run come to an end for Izzo-Brown and the WVU women’s soccer team.
For 21 consecutive years, Izzo-Brown built the Mountaineers into a program that reached the NCAA tournament.
In 15 of those seasons, the Mountaineers advanced past the first round. In 2016, WVU was ranked No. 1 in the country and played for the national championship.
While difficult for most to sum up those experiences in just a few moments over a Zoom call, Izzo-Brown nailed it like a perfectly placed penalty kick.
“Pressure is a privilege,” she said. “Twenty-one straight NCAA tournaments, there was an expectation of greatness. When it doesn’t happen, I have to live up to that. I’m the one who is the leader and I should be held accountable for that.”
To put the Mountaineers’ run into perspective, the last time WVU didn’t play in the NCAA tournament before last year was 1999, when people were still renting movies from Blockbuster, gasoline was $1.60 a gallon and there was no such thing as an iPhone.
“I think it’s a terrible disease I have, because you never really think and go, ‘Wow, we made 21 straight,’” Izzo-Brown said. “I do believe the 21 teams that achieved those 21 NCAA tournaments have so much to be proud of. I will say this, up until last year only nine other teams had done it in women’s soccer. So, now we’re talking about being one of the elite programs. It’s pretty elite what we did.”
It’s a unique perspective Izzo-Brown brings to WVU women’s soccer. She’s the only head coach the program has ever known, and she spent her first five years at the school simply trying to build a team that could reach one NCAA tournament.
Then one turned into two and two into three, and it began to snowball year after year and build momentum. Her former players began to turn into pros and Olympians. NCAA first-round victories became ho-hum, as expectations eventually grew into Sweet 16s and Elite Eights.
“Failure is your best teacher,” Izzo-Brown says, her way to describe how the Mountaineers are refocusing their goals and expectations toward the 2022 season, which begins at 7 p.m. Thursday with a home match against Indiana at Dick Dlesk Stadium.
Just one problem with that: WVU experienced very little failure during those 21 years.
And now, what’s next?
While it may be an apples to oranges comparison to put Izzo-Brown’s success side by side against any other WVU coach, there would still be a major hangover from 21-straight football bowl games or 21-consecutive NCAA basketball tournaments coming to an end.
“I’m a coach that loves to focus on the positive, but at the end of the day, that’s a fact,” Izzo-Brown said. “We didn’t make the NCAA tournament. That’s something we’ve talked about, but also moving forward, we’ve got to be mentally, physically, technically, tactically better. We have to be sharper. In order to be sharper, you go back to failure.”
Izzo-Brown doesn’t shy away from the challenge of climbing back up the mountain after a stumble. She says her players are motivated to do the same.
“Jordan Brewster will tell you this is revenge to her. She’ll tell you that times 100,” Izzo-Brown said. “Winning is hard. We had so many ties last year. We still had a winning season, but it still hurt not pulling out some of those games and not doing what we needed to do. None of these women were satisfied. They have a high standard of excellence. They know getting back to the NCAA tournament is absolutely important.”
The expectations aren’t what they once were. TCU is now the darling of the Big 12, while WVU enters this season needing to win just to get back into the top 25 polls.
“It was really important for me to go back and reflect and understand where were the breakdowns and do everything I can to make sure there isn’t a repeat,” Izzo-Brown said. “I just wanted to make sure we had a real good understanding of who we are and what we wanted to do this upcoming season.”
If WVU climbs back up the Big 12 standings — the Mountaineers finished in a tie for sixth in 2021 — or gets back to the NCAA tournament, it would likely surprise no one in the college soccer world.
It would still all add up to just a single digit, as in one NCAA tournament appearance looking to go for two in a row in 2023.
Izzo-Brown, and then her eventual replacement, would just need two more decades of success to match what she’s already accomplished.
Could such another streak be in store for the WVU women’s soccer team or any WVU sport for that matter?
“I hope to God, somebody else does 22 at West Virginia,” Izzo-Brown said. “Nothing would make me happier. I’m the old OG Brown, but I hope (when) the new Brown gets here, they get to the championship game.
“Nothing would make me happier to see Dawn (Plitzuweit, WVU women’s hoops) coming in new or Dan (Stratford, WVU men’s soccer) do that. It’s pretty amazing, when you think about it, what we were able to do for so many years.”
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