Nicole Lukic: Ready for the 2023 USL W League season

“I really give credit to the players we had last year for buying in and trusting the process. That’s a lot harder to do than players saying yes to this year, where we have proof of concept and we can show a full stadium.

“And then [credit] to the front office for [times when I said] ‘I think we need this to really make a difference in this area,’ and them saying yes and trusting me to build out the sporting side of the club.”

Lukic says building things is one of her favourite things to do, and getting to do so with Aurora was a dream project.

“There are so many situations in the world where you are new to a program and you get to build it how you want, but there was always an existing way,” she explains. “You have to change people’s minds about where you’re headed.

“I didn’t really have to change people’s minds, because it was so blank. I just had to get people on board and listen to others on what they wanted Aurora to be. 

“I knew I could build stuff if we could find the right people to build around it. I was really fortunate with the assistant coaches that came on board. I didn’t know any of them before the season started and now I can’t imagine not knowing them. 

“It’s my first time working with all female staff. It ended up being fantastic.”

This wasn’t necessarily intentional, Lukic says, but has become something that “makes us different”.

The core of the staff is Lukic, first assistant coach Jennie Clark, assistant coach Jen Larrick, goalkeeping coach Cassie Ulrich and soccer operations manager Mary Pipenhagen.

They all have certain characteristics that work to drive Lukic’s vision forward.

“I really thrive off being around people who are passionate, positive and always finding the next exciting thing,” she said, “I really like building a staff who are going to take control of the things they are good at - maybe things that I’m not good at.

“I want everyone to feel invested and have a part of it. All the coaches I have on my staff are good at different things and we, in a very short time, trusted each other to be good at what we are all good at, and talk about things to make it work together as one.

“We are all still pretty young, we can remember what it was like to be a player and we make decisions based on what we wanted to do as players and have those conversations of how can we build the best possible player environment. 

“Most of our players have aspirations to be professionals in the future. How can we create an experience and environment that mimics that for them, so that if they do get that opportunity in the future, they are better prepared?”.

Now, the staff, with the addition of mental skills coach Jenn Ireland, are doing some preparation themselves, for the upcoming 2023 season.

At the time of speaking, Aurora were three weeks away from their first training session, and 37 days from their first 2023 fixture, a home game against Rochester FC on May 24.

The 2023 season has been a long time coming, given that USL W Leagues are short – running from May until July. For Lukic, this time between seasons “feels like forever”.

 

Freedom in the attack - Aurora’s style of play under Nicole

“We are really attack-minded - thank goodness we have Jennie Clark on our staff who played center-back and can remind me that defending is important!

“We love giving players freedom in the attack to make decisions, be creative and take risks.

“Last year, we scored more goals than any other team per game. That’s something we were really proud of.

“It’s fun to score. Players love scoring. It makes everybody instantly happy, which is ultimately the reason why we play the game, because it makes us excited and feel good.

“We also have incredible support in our community and we will hopefully have a mostly full stadium again this year. I really believe that fans love to see goals scored. 

“We want to entertain our fans and keep them coming back. The best way to do that is scoring goals and having fun. 

“Our attacking style and our mindset won’t change. We’re excited to see if we can score even more goals and see what comes out of the players with their goal celebrations - that’s always a hot topic!”

‘SURROUND YOURSELF WITH GOOD MENTORS’ – Nicole’s advice for ALL female coaches at the start of THEIR journey

“If you want something, go after it. 

“I am where I am today because I was willing to grind out a lot of different positions, put in a lot of different hours and make a lot of different sacrifices. I’m willing to outwork anyone if I can.

“Surround yourself with good mentors. Reach out to people. Coaching education for me has been huge.

“I have my A license; going through the steps of that process was phenomenal. I was able to meet a lot of people on those courses that I still connect with and are in my network for asking questions.

“Then there’s doing other things like shadowing - I’m still doing that. I just got to go shadow Gotham FC and learn from their coaching staff, which was an incredible opportunity to see how an NWSL staff works together at that level. 

“Continue to surround yourself with people who can help you get where you want to be. And be willing to be a little bit uncomfortable at times.”

 

It presents a unique challenge from a coaching perspective – how to pace and manage preparations while banishing the temptation of overthinking.

“I think you could definitely outthink yourself with the amount of downtime,” Lukic said. 

“But Jennie and I have done a good job of laying out an overall timeline and then trying to break things down month-by-month of what we wanted to check off the list.

“The biggest thing for us initially was understanding which players would not be returning from the 2022 roster, trying to really think [about] what it looks like without them and who were going to be the right players to find that could help us be successful in 2023.”

And when players arrive, both those who are returning and the new additions, Lukic is ready to implement what she learned in her maiden year in charge of Aurora.

“As a first-time head coach, it is an interesting pathway to navigate, managing the individual humans on your team and knowing what they want or what they don’t want,” she said.

“At the beginning of the season, I tried to be very: ‘Here’s the starting line-up, this is why you didn’t make it,’ and open that door. As the season went on, I was like, ‘I opened the door. If you want to come and talk to me, I’m here’. 

“At some point, I think players do need to take responsibility for conversations that they want to have. 

 

“2022 was great. But hopefully when we’re 60, we can say 2023 was very cool as well...”

“For the players who are returning, I think I have sorted in my head how they like feedback so I can be better in fostering some of those individual relationships. 

“I think no matter who is in the head coaching role, [for players] it comes with this bit of scariness about having a conversation with them.

“Continuing to be approachable is something that I’m working on. I worked hard on it in the off-season to keep growing my relationships with the players who are coming back. Hopefully that shows.”

While grateful for the recognition and the accolades of 2022, Lukic is demanding full focus on 2023.

“It’s not ‘we did this last year’, it’s really about being present in this year,” she said. “Last year was great, but now we have to have neutral thoughts about it, because it’s over.

“We can be excited about it when we’re 60 or 70. 2022 was great. But hopefully when we’re 60 or 70, we can say 2023 was very cool as well.”

And what about beyond 2023 for Aurora? The club have made no secret that their vision is to be a fully professional outfit, with NWSL or USL Super League bids seemingly on the horizon.

With the founders’ vision, the backing of the community owners and Lukic front and centre, you can bet at 60 or 70, everyone involved with Aurora will have an incredible amount to celebrate.