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This vignette was featured in the first episode of the new season of "Behind the Mask," the show that goes beyond the game. USF Athletics' cable television show profiles all 15 varsity sports for the Dons, and can be seen monthly on CSN California. Upcoming re-airings of the episode are slated for next Friday, Oct. 9 at 9 p.m., and Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 3 p.m. Check local listings for your cable provider's station guide.
On August 3, 2015, Fiona O'Sullivan suited up with her Football Association Women's Super League team, Notts County FC (England), to play in the FA Cup Finals at Wembley Stadium. The next day she was reporting to camp along with the USF women's soccer players she would soon be mentoring in her first season as a collegiate coach.
Now in the midst of her first year as a USF women's soccer assistant, O'Sullivan knows that life is full of transitions. Making those transitions is easier knowing that you're coming home in a sense. O'Sullivan's transitions have taken many forms over the years, but coming home, both literally and figuratively, has helped her ease into her newest shift from player to coach.
O'Sullivan joined the USF coaching staff in the summer of 2015 following a decorated professional career that sent her around the globe - Sweden, France, Germany, England, Ireland. O'Sullivan's life map has been littered with stops along the way, but ultimately led her back to USF, where she was a standout for the Dons from 2004 to 2008, graduating with a degree in international politics.
The opportunity for O'Sullivan to morph from world class professional player into novice college coach was the result of months of conversations between O'Sullivan and fourth-year USF head coach Jim Millinder. O'Sullivan reached out to Millinder and expressed her interest in potentially coaching the Dons. O'Sullivan had been following the program since her departure in 2008 and was intrigued by the prospect of returning to the Hilltop, but admits that when Millinder actually called to offer her the job in the spring of 2015, she was hesitant about immediately accepting.
| "I was doing exactly what I'd always dreamed of doing - playing professional sports... I had to ask myself, 'What more do I want from soccer versus what can this offer for my future?'" |
"To be honest, it wasn't a super easy decision," said O'Sullivan, whose professional accolades include a 2011 Football Association of Ireland International Player of the Year honor. "I was doing exactly what I'd always dreamed of doing - playing professional sports. But I also had to think about what I wanted to give back to USF and where I wanted to finish off after soccer. It was just such a good situation in so many ways that I had to ask myself, 'What more do I want from soccer versus what can this offer for my future?'"
All athletes inevitably face the most daunting of questions: What's Next? This dilemma loomed over O'Sullivan even before Millinder offered her the assistant coaching position. The fickle nature of professional sports leaves little room for certainty in an athlete's life, and O'Sullivan's seven-year pro career taught her some valuable lessons in self preservation.
"One thing I've learned in my life is that you can plan and shape an idea of how you want your life to be, but what actually happens can be completely different," said O'Sullivan. "I think one of the reasons I've been successful and been able to play in Europe is that I'm kind of a chameleon. I'm able to adapt easily to new situations or to a change in plans. As an athlete you're always looking ahead to your next move. I've been around long enough to know that even the greatest players can get hurt one day in training and their career is over the next day. I think any athlete would be a fool to not be continuously thinking about their next step. Even if you're Michael Jordan and you retire, you still have the next 40 years of your life, what are you going to do?"
Even though O'Sullivan would admit that she still has some years left in the tank physically as a player, her mindset and priorities began to shift as she mulled the different ways she could make an impact in a different role.
"I thought Jim and I would work well together. I took a look at what his goals were, where he wanted to take the program, how he treated his players, a lot of these different things. I thought long and hard - am I into coaching? Coaching is way different than playing. These are all things I talked about with Jim, and I was pretty honest with him. So far it's been very enjoyable and rewarding, which I had a feeling it would be."
Once she decided to accept the job, part of O'Sullivan's strategy was to help bring European players to USF, tapping into her network developed playing professionally in five different countries. One of O'Sullivan's "recruits" was current USF sophomore midfielder Sonja Giraud, with whom O'Sullivan had formed a relationship during her tenure with SC Freiburg of the German Bundesliga from 2012 to 2014.
"Sonja and I were friends before I got the job here. When I first got hired I called her up and told her and she asked if we could still be friends," O'Sullivan says with a laugh. "I said, 'Yeah, we can still be friends, but it will just be a different type of friendship. I still want to be there for you and support you, but it'll just be different.'"
"I played with girls that were this age and now all of a sudden I'm part of the leadership on the coaching staff. It's a real role reversal. Recruiting is something that I'm really interested in and it's something I really feel like I can bring to the program."
O'Sullivan's desire to help build the USF women's soccer program stems from the experience she enjoyed as a student-athlete on the Hilltop and the myriad ways she was able to parlay her USF education, both in the classroom and out, into a once-in-a-lifetime experience overseas.
"I had a great experience at USF," commented O'Sullivan. "I feel that USF had a great way of educating the mind and the heart. That's something I think is really important; it served me well. Thinking from the heart is something that translates into how you build relationships with people. People can count on you, they trust you and they can tell that you really care."
"At USF, I met a lot of new people and learned a lot about them. That's something that allowed me to meet friends from all over the world when I was traveling. There are so many different cultures out there and ways to do things.
| I feel like USF taught me how to have an open mind and be open to things that are so different. I feel very fortunate. I've had so many great periods in my life, but USF is definitely one of those special ones where four years is gone before you know it." |
Now that she's back on campus, O'Sullivan's education is still very much ongoing, albeit through different means than sitting in morning political science classes or writing term papers. She has essentially taken on the role of student once again
"I've always believed that you learn a lot more by listening than by talking," explains O'Sullivan, "so I watch and listen to Jim a lot; watching how he handles different situations and stepping in where I can step in. I think my role is to understand what Jim's looking for and figure out how I can compliment what he's trying to do."
"I feel that I've been humbled a little bit by Jim," admits O'Sullivan. "I guess I was a little bit arrogant initially coming in thinking I knew because I'd played for so many great coaches. It's just a little bit of an ego balance. I feel like I learn something new every day. I love coaching, I love helping people. It's such a rewarding experience and soccer is just one way for me to do that."
O'Sullivan is a firm believer that one can learn from any experience in life, good or bad. Everything one does and everything that happens can serve as a life lesson, a nugget of worldview to be filed away for the right moment. Now as a mentor of sorts, O'Sullivan is figuring out how to synthesize her breadth of knowledge and life experience into lessons that she aims to impart on her players.
"I always tell the girls, 'You don't always get to pick your hand, you just have to play what you get.' Every situation is positive and negative; how you interpret that or what you do with that is your decision. Live your life, take chances, don't be scared to fail. It's on the soccer field every day, it's in your life every day; you've got to figure out a way to make things work around you."
"One thing I always tell the girls is that everyone will make a mistake, everyone will stumble. I'm less concerned with that and more concerned with how you get up after that. And that's something I feel like I've really been able to connect with the girls about, on top of the tactical stuff, because I feel like if you really want to be able to last a while, you have to be able to be flexible and you have to be able to react in the best way to the situation that's presented in front of you."
While O'Sullivan can't predict what her future holds, she knows she wants her future to be rooted in the Bay Area. A graduate of Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, Calif., O'Sullivan wants to remain close to her family and always knew she wanted to start a family of her own one day in the area. But for now, she wants to make sure her players glean one vital directive from her coaching.
| "The thing I want them to take away is to be the best player and person that you can be. That is your goal and if you try to achieve that you'll always be successful." |
"The thing I want them to take away is to be the best player and person that you can be," explains O'Sullivan. "That is something you can control. You can't always control what happens to you; all you can control is being the best you can be. That is your goal and if you try to achieve that you'll always be successful."
Which leaves O'Sullivan - the enlightened world traveler, the thoughtful sage, the lifelong learner - with her final recruiting pitch, the message she wants to deliver to inspire the next generation of Dons to grace the pitch at Negoesco Stadium and help fulfill her charge of elevating the USF women's soccer program one life lesson at a time.
"I traveled the world; I've seen it," remarks O'Sullivan. "San Francisco is one of the most vibrant cities around. There's stuff happening here and friendships you're going to make here that you're going to lean back on for the rest of your life. USF really taught me how to get the most out of myself and I can help be part of that process for you and we can help get you there. This is somewhere where you can really create an experience for yourself that will last beyond the days on the Hilltop."
Fiona O'Sullivan is enjoying a life changing transition and she's doing her part to help bring the USF women's soccer program along for the ride.
