Becoming Perfectly Suited for the Imperfect
Rams on cusp of program’s best season
Mike Brohard
The glitches have been anything but ideal, but the outcome is pretty darn close.
The reactions definitely have been.
Start the season dealing with lingering injuries. Alter the lineup to deal with losses to graduation and the training room. Have one star work their way back, have a setback, and then do it all over again. Have one young star finally get in the lineup, only to be lost for the season after 110 minutes played. Lose your record-setting goalkeeper just as the conference schedule heats up.
This would not have been the season by Keeley Hagen’s design. Colorado State’s coach is also a realist. What exactly in college athletics goes according to the best-laid plans? She anticipates a poll of coaches would produce a resounding nothing. Same as if you were to ask a host of seniors around the sport if their four-years playing went by design.
You better have an alternate plan on hand, which is what Hagen has successfully built in her four years.
“I think ultimately were trying to teach these young ladies life lessons and soccer is the vehicle from which we do it. You look at last year, we had so much adversity and we’ve ingrained that in our players,” she said. “You’re going to hit adversity in life and in soccer. For me, its we’ve been building off of that. That’s life in general. You can control your response, so why not have a positive attitude instead of poor me.”
The team has one final regular-season match in 2024, hosting Border War rival Wyoming at the CSU Soccer Field at 4 p.m. on Halloween in search of treats. At 7-1-2 in conference play, the Rams have already had their best conference season, the seven wins a record in Mountain West play. The 11 they have overall is one shy of the program record, set twice previously.
But there’s more doors on which to knock. A win means the team enters the Mountain West tournament as no worse than the No. 2 seed. If they win and Utah State beats Boise State, the Rams have a chance to grab their first conference championship in the 12-year history of the program, the decider being tiebreakers of conference goal differential, then conference goals overall.
Not that the team cares, which explains why the turmoil of the season has led to triumph.
“We’re probably very boring when it comes to that. I think everybody on the team would tell you we don’t talk about it,” fifth-year captain Kenady Leighton said. “It’s just the process and what we can do now to be the best version of ourselves and how we can get better.
“I think that was because of last year. We did the same thing last year. We’re focused on all the little things that will get us there, but we’re not talking about getting there.”
“There” is the tournament and even the championship game, where the Rams made their first appearance a season ago, dropping a 1-0 decision to Utah State. They never looked ahead then, and they won’t now. They probably won’t ever under Hagen.
Coming in as a first-time head coach, she had a design of what her program would look like, how her players would go about the day-to-day, and the next day wasn’t to be considered until the sun rose over the eastern plains.
Set long-term goals, certainly. Just don’t check on them until the time arrives.
“It’s right now. We’re right here and right now,” senior defender Katy Coffin said. “That’s what we talk about. There’s a goal, but the process is the most important part. It’s what I go back to with the expectations. The process is what gets you to that point. It’s not focusing your eyes on something and trying to get there. That’s why you have to focus on the here and now.
“We work for everything we earn. When we talk about winning, it’s not that we win, it’s that we earned that win. You earn your starting spot, or you earn your role you play. Nothing is guaranteed. It’s not getting complacent with where you’re at.”
They call it thriving in the role, be it a starter or a reserve. Expect your time to come, because as this season has shown, it’s just around the corner.
You roll with the punches, lean on your teammates. That’s been huge how everybody has been able to lean on each other.Katy Coffin
Olivia Fout, who set the program record with 12 goals a season ago, was working her way back from an ACL injury sustained in the 2023 championship game. She was playing limited minutes early to build back up when her road hit a pothole. She started from scratch, and as the conference season progressed, she’s registered a point in three of the past four matches.
Just about the time Fout was coming into full form, the team lost Sofia Coulombe to an ACL her fifth game into the season after missing the opening seven. She delivered an assist her first run on the field, a goal the next game, and right as her minutes took a big jump, she was out of the lineup again.
Two matches prior, it was Libby Brooker to the rescue. Starting keeper Shayna Ross – who had posted 10 shutouts in 2023 and had five more to her credit in 2024, went down in the second half of the Colorado College win. Brooker has two clean sheets to her credit.
Coffin had one of a handful of new roles at the start of the year. The lineup has been altered throughout the season, sometimes in a game. The team just shrugs off the missteps and regains footing, stringing together a 10-match unbeaten streak at one point.
Those are not things a team plans on, but they do have to plan for when forced.
“I always say to not put expectations on things and just do the best you can possibly do. When you start to expect things, you get disappointed if things don’t happen the way you thought they’d go,” Coffin said. “You roll with the punches, lean on your teammates. That’s been huge how everybody has been able to lean on each other.”
Which is why Leighton so desperately wanted to stay in Fort Collins with a covid-exemption year in her back pocket. She has started every game of her college career, 83 strong entering Thursday’s match. Her 7,296 minutes played stands as a program record. Yet, as she approached Hagen to come back, her humble nature didn’t just assume the return was a given.
It was an easy conversation once it officially took place.
“Kenady gave me a year heads up, which was really helpful with recruiting. There wasn’t ever a doubt in my mind we would not take Kenady,” Hagen said. “She’s the consummate teammate, everything you’d want as a coach -- positive attitude, works her butt off, smiles and never complains.
“At first it was, ‘OK, let’s see how things go.’ Before the end of last year, she said she really wanted to stay and I’m like, ‘great, you’re in.’ It was one of those of, why wouldn’t you stay? I get some players want to take a year somewhere else.”
Not Leighton. Not with the culture the team has created. She’s the bridge from the old regime to the new, and what the Rams have now wasn’t always in place.
She made sure it would change.
“I grew up not really having that. When I first came here, I shared my story,” she said. “About four days in girls came up and asked me, ‘what’s your name again?’ That how it was, and that was accepted. I didn’t want that experience for other girls. I hope to make this program better than I found it.”
Hagen set the parameters to follow. The pillars are ANCHOR -- accountability, no quit, character, habits, opportunity, responsibility. She provided the direction and over the years has watched them take over.
They work on leadership every day, with each class. Leadership looks different at every level, but there needs to be a leader in each class. Freshman Kaja Dionne was approached differently than was transfer Maggie Altman. Their assignments may differ, but both were given voices.
When Hagen talks of her program, she often refers to “their team,” not her program. It’s telling.
“That’s been happening ever since I got here. It’s been a growth mindset, but that’s since day one,” Coffin said. “It’s just gotten better and better.
“It’s anything and whatever the team needs. I know anyone would want to do anything to see the team succeed. We all support each other and share everybody’s competitiveness on our team, and that’s part of our culture. At the end of the day, we just want to do the best we can for the team.”
Leighton’s time will be done soon, but she’ll walk away with her head held high. It’s a program she’s proud to have helped develop, thrilled to have been part of and played a key role in building. The expectations are grander, and so is the outlook.
No matter what happens. Adversity, this season and in those prior, taught the team that much.
“We trust everybody on this team. When we hit adversity, no biggie,” Leighton said. We’ll brush that off, come back together and grow from that. Non-conference we had experiences we learned from. We didn’t let that knock us down. We’ve had adversity in conference, and we come back together and that doesn’t break us down. It’s being able to bounce back from things like that and knowing we’re going to be stronger.”
Ideally, that’s exactly where the Rams find themselves on the final day of the regular season.
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