One-on-One with HPU Women’s Soccer Coach Brandi Fontaine
By Colin Giuliani// Sports Editor
When Brandi Fontaine first arrived at High Point University as an assistant coach in 2009, everything was different. The Witcher Athletic Center had not yet been constructed. Campbell University and Longwood University were not yet members of the Big South Conference. And the culture of the team was almost toxic.
“When we first started nine years ago,” said Fontaine, “I remember one of the first things we did was take the team to go bowling. When we went to go bowling, I remember Marty [Beall] and I looking at the team, evaluating each player and how they handled themselves, and they had no relationships whatsoever. They didn’t know each other, and didn’t care about each other.”
After that disappointing team-building exercise, Fontaine and head coach Marty Beall sat in the car, coming to the realization that these teammates didn’t even enjoy being around each other.
“It was like, ‘man, we have a long way to go,’” Fontaine thought to himself.
What followed after one bowling outing was nine years of unparalleled success in the Big South Conference, where HPU went from a good team to a mini-dynasty.
In the nine years that Beall was the head coach, HPU made it to the semifinals of the Big South Tournament eight times. HPU had six seasons in that stretch with 10+ wins. For perspective, Charleston Southern (which has been in the conference for women’s soccer since the conference sponsored the sport in 1993) has six of these seasons total. And, HPU won the Big South Tournament four times (2009, 2010, 2014, 2017). In those nine years, HPU made it to the championship more times (five) than not (four).
And the man leading the charge through all of this was Beall. He won 96 games over his career, which is more than every other coach in HPU history combined since the Panthers made the jump to the Division I era in 1999. He finished as one of three head coaches in Big South history with 50 conference wins. He became one of just seven coaches in Big South history to win Big South Coach of the Year twice. And he finished his career with 15 Big South Tournament wins, which is the second most in conference history, only behind Ben Sohrabi of Radford (18 wins).
But shortly after HPU’s season came to a close with a 3-0 loss against UNC Chapel Hill in the NCAA Tournament, Beall took the head coaching position at the University of Richmond.
Now, for the first time in her collegiate career, Fontaine is going to be without Beall by her side.
“It’s great because he’s been a mentor of mine,” said Fontaine, “I still talk to him a couple of times a week to ask questions and reach out and get guidance as I’m going through things. His leadership is going to be something that I miss.”
Fontaine played at Francis Marion while Beall was the head coach of the school’s women’s soccer team. When Fontaine graduated in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, she became an assistant coach at Francis Marion for the 2008 season. Then, when Beall became the head coach at HPU in 2009, Fontaine followed him and spent the past nine seasons as an assistant under his wing.
Between being a player and a coach, Fontaine has had Beall by her side for nearly 15 years. Now that the two won’t be on the same sideline, Foutaine says that it’s going to feel a bit odd. When asked about what that was going to be like, she had one word to describe the situation.
“Weird… very weird.”
Beall and Fontaine have worked for the past nine years on changing the culture from what it was into a champion mindset. Last season, in particular, Beall’s primary objective was that transformation of the culture. There were three beliefs in this culture –loving each other, positive actions, and relentless dedication. With the increased urgency on last season due to the large size of the senior class, this was a huge point of emphasis. In fact, he emphasized that point so much that in every interview I had with him prior to a game, he brought up the culture multiple times without being prompted.
Safe to say, even though Beall isn’t here anymore, that’s not going away anytime soon.
“It was exciting because even though we implemented [our culture playbook] here last fall,” said Fontaine, “this was a piece that I had spent all of the last summer putting together. For me, it was something that I wanted to continue having here and wanted to continue driving off of.”
While the culture isn’t quite where Fontaine wants it to be just yet (she knows that it’s going to take anywhere from 18 months to two years to make it what she wants), she says that it’s something that the team is working toward every day.
Off the field, the question is how the culture is going to continue to change and improve. On the field for 2018, the question is simple. How is HPU going to replace its senior class?
The 2017 senior class was a historic one for the Panthers. They entered and closed out its career with a Big South Championship. In total, 47 percent of the team last season consisted of seniors. There were 15 seniors on the team in 2017. To compare, HPU only had 11 seniors in the previous three seasons combined. And of the 22 goals scored by HPU last season, only four of them were scored by players on the 2018 roster.
To replace all that talent in your first season as a head coach can be a pretty daunting task. And admittedly at first, Fontaine says it wasn’t easy at first to make that adjustment.
“At first it was pretty difficult,” said Fontaine. “It was hard just because you’re not sure who’s going to step up, who’s going to lead, and who’s going to be your go-to people on the field… so this spring at the beginning, it was very difficult.”
However, the expectations are still high for HPU this season. Despite the losses, HPU is picked to finish first in the conference according to the preseason poll, and out of nine possible first-place votes, HPU received seven. It’s just the second time ever that HPU is picked to finish first in the conference, and the first time since 2011 that the Panthers received this honor.
And now that the season is about to begin, Fontaine is excited about the challenge that awaits the Panthers.
“It has a really great feeling to it [now that] we know who’s going to be leading us and who’s stepping up to the plate when we need it,” said Fontaine, who has already seen significant contributions this season from freshmen like Skylar Prillaman and Caitlin Shepherd. “It’s been great to see them as a group step up and realize that they’re able to perform at a very high level.”
HPU opened up their season on August 17 at home with a 4-0 victory against Appalachian State and will begin conference play on Saturday, Sept.15 at home against Longwood.