For the Syracuse men’s soccer program, one moment in time encapsulated a year of discord — the team’s worst season since 1971.

On March 25, 2009, at 8:49 p.m., a file was created on Elliott Townsend’s computer. The file would become a letter. Townsend, a former Orange forward, said the letter was written by himself and ‘a couple of upperclassmen with the support of the whole team.’ It was addressed and intended for SU Director of Athletics Daryl Gross.

Signed ‘Respectfully, The Syracuse Men’s Soccer team,’ it called for the removal of former SU men’s soccer coach Dean Foti five months before the season began.

Foti was eventually fired that fall, following the completion of SU’s 3-15 season in 2009.

‘We have dedicated years of our lives to arrive at this point, only to be greeted by underachievement and failure,’ the letter — obtained by The Daily Orange — reads. ‘In response, we have taken it upon ourselves to see that our concerns are, at very least, heard. We hope that you will kindly consider our appeal.’

The creation of the file was just the beginning of a tumultuous path for Syracuse. Metaphorically, it would set the tone for the dismal season to come. Some players who supported the letter reneged, Townsend said. Support for an organized coup was never finite.

Factions formed within the team, said Melvin Andujar, a rising sophomore midfielder. Some underclassmen and alumni pointed the blame at Townsend and those who supported the letter. (Townsend, a contributing writer at The Daily Orange, declined to provide specifics concerning which of his teammates joined him in drafting the letter.)

Because of it, Andujar said, the team was split. One side for keeping Foti and the other against it. On the field, the effects were obvious. The ability for the team to inwardly motivate was nonexistent.

‘I think the team wasn’t very united from the beginning,’ Andujar said. ‘We had two different groups. I mean, obviously we were a team and we all were friends and that obviously you could see there wasn’t any chemistry on the field. So I think that played an important part as to why there wasn’t any motivation at all.’
 
***

The letter never got to Gross.

‘No, I have not seen a letter,’ Gross said in a telephone interview Monday morning. ‘It’s symbolic and more than anything confirms the pulse that we were feeling.’

But on Nov. 10, 2009, he made the decision some Orange players had hoped for anyway. Foti was fired after 19 seasons and a career 141-171-33 record coaching the Orange. He left with just one Big East tournament win (1999) and zero trips to the NCAA tournament. In the three years before the letter was drafted, nine players voluntarily left the program, according to the letter.

Ian McIntyre, the former head coach at Hartwick, was hired as Foti’s replacement on Jan. 6, 2010. Foti did not return several phone calls and messages left at his home.

‘The progress I was looking for wasn’t occurring,’ Gross said. ‘And that’s what does it if you look back at the moves I’ve made over the years. … The expectations are high and we want to have leadership that carries those expectations and change the culture to make sure we have those expectations, so that’s what it’s all about.’

Aside from the lack of continuity within the team, though, signs of Foti’s departure surfaced early in the 2009 season and followed the coach throughout the year. The team lost eight of its first nine games and only secured two wins against Big East opponents.

Syracuse was ranked 170th in the country (out of 196 teams) in scoring offense. On defense, Foti’s specialty, the Orange ranked 176th in goals-against average.

The problems on the field were evident. Off the field, things weren’t any better.

***

After getting wind of the letter that was drafted, Foti decided to take time out before practice one day last spring to address the issue, both Townsend and rising sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Jones said.

He drew the team together first and then met with each player individually in regard to the letter.

‘He met with everyone right after the meeting individually and asked, ‘Where do you stand, do you support what was associated with this letter? Or do you wish to disassociate your names with the claims that were made,” Townsend said.

Jones, who would later come out against the letter, said the team decided to ‘move on’ and put the incident behind it. Clearly, the rift between Foti’s supporters and dissenters were made apparent.

‘The coaching staff handled everything from there,’ Jones said. ‘I think Dean handled that pretty professionally.’

In the weeks prior to drafting the letter, things were different, Townsend said. He made sure to run his ideas, and the ideas of the others in support of firing Foti, by the rest of the team.

So, Townsend and a handful of other players opened up their houses to the rest of the underclassmen for several meetings pertaining to the letter.

‘Last spring the group had gotten together,’ Townsend said. ‘Seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen and I talked about all of the things we wanted done, and basically we came to the realization that the things Dean was doing were not in the best interest of the program. We had a few informal meetings at upperclassmen’s houses.’

As Townsend recalls, those meetings provided unity among the players regarding the drafting of the letter.

‘The first few times (we met) people seemed fully behind it,’ Townsend said. ‘It was really put into motion by the upperclassmen.’

But from there, things quickly started to unravel. Not soon after, numerous players — including Jones — withdrew their backing of the letter.

Jones said only a handful of players were behind it, making the letter a case of misrepresentation.

‘I know for a fact that the whole team did not approve of it,’ Jones said. ‘And that was the thing where the people that did approve it should have signed their names rather than saying that it was from the Syracuse men’s soccer team.’

***

When Ezra Prendergast visited Syracuse for the annual SU alumni game last April 25, he could sense that something was different. Around the watercooler for that alumni weekend, Prendergast noticed the current players talked less and less about the good and more about the bad.

‘I got a bit of feedback from the players,’ said Prendergast, who now plays semipro soccer in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn for Olympic 78 FC. ‘I sensed a lack of taking responsibility amongst the players, lack of desire to take responsibility.’

Prendergast and former SU defender Pete Rowley — who last played professionally for three teams in 2009 — said Foti was never the root of the problems within the team.

Prendergast, a midfielder who last played for SU in 2005, and Rowley, who played at SU from 2004-08, place the blame more on the leaders of the 2009 team for what transpired. They place the blame on the seniors.

‘I respect the shit out of Dean Foti,’ Rowley said. ‘I now know the game better than 90 percent of people in the soccer community having played for Dean. You cannot question his knowledge or anything like that.’

A year after Prendergast returned for that alumni game, as SU prepares for its first alumni game under head coach McIntyre this Saturday at 10 a.m., Prendergast doesn’t mince words.

He puts the blame for a lack of on-field motivation and communication on the players he got a bad vibe from last year. Not Foti. And he wishes the same confidence and passion they put into that letter for Gross was brought to the field.

‘I realized the issues about separation, and again a lack of responsibility amongst the players,’ Prendergast said. ‘I then heard about it (the letter) and when I first heard about it, I thought it was a bold move on the players’ part. I wish that same strength they had to get someone fired they had on the field. … Forming like a lobbying group within the team, that takes a lot of courage, and if they had the same courage on the field I think this would be a lot different of a team.’

Tom Perevegyencev, a departing senior whose relationship with Foti was notoriously negative, even came to the realization that not all the blame could rest on the coach.

The last time the two spoke was Syracuse’s last game — a 2-0 loss to St. John’s on Nov. 1. And in that time since, Perevegyencev has had time to consider the situation.

He said motivation comes from the top, and for that Foti needs to take responsibility. At times, Perevegyencev felt ‘there was a lack of motivation to even motivate.’ But part of him also feels that he and other players in leadership roles failed.

‘I failed,’ Perevegyencev said. ‘I failed at motivating the other players and a bunch of the other guys did, too. It was just all the leadership. Every leader on the team failed to motivate each other. We weren’t winning. We weren’t focused. The leadership wasn’t there. It was all basically out together and it just didn’t work.’

***

At 8:49 p.m. on March 25, 2009, the file that was created was a last-ditch attempt to create some kind of unity. Some kind of team.

Weeks after it was written it was apparent the letter failed, and it never reached the intended target.

Fourteen months after it was written, with the team licking its wounds from one of the worst seasons in program history, it is clear the team failed, too.

March 25, 2009, was a flawed attempt at a new beginning. A new beginning that didn’t come until some of the authors had already left.

Said Jones: ‘(The letter) could have been a little bit of foreshadowing of the whole situation.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on April 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm