Staying Power: Bohon Leans on 5th-Year Returning Trio

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Before taking the pitch, the Florida soccer team engages in a pregame goal-setting exercise.

On Friday, in advance of the Gators' 2024 home season opener against Western Carolina, Coach Samantha Bohon will ask each player to write down a short list of short-term objectives they intend to carry through the ensuing 90 minutes of action. Every player's list will be unique to that individual's role, maybe even a tad personal, with the exception of the last item. That one will be the same for all 33 players.

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"Fight Together No Matter What," grad midfielder Delaney Tauzel said in recitation.

That's the motto the team will carry into Year 3 under Bohon, one that already has dropped a season's worth of adversity before the first free kick in the form of season-ending injuries to two players (more on that below). Yep, it's barely the middle of August and the Gators are fighting together, but that's nothing new for Bohon, Tauzel and a couple of her fifth-year teammates.

Tauzel, defender Anna DeLeon and goalkeeper Alexa Goldberg arrived at UF in the fall of the Covid-decimated 2020 season that eventually was split in half and became a fall 2020 and spring 2021 season that ended with a 6-8-3 record and the fewest wins in the program's years under icon Coach Becky Burleigh. Burleigh, the only coach in Florida history, retired after the season. Enter Tony Amato, by way of Arizona, whose approach not only did not work (the 4-12-4 record was an all-time worst) but prompted a second coaching change in less than year.

The Gators then turned to Bohon, a former All American at Duke who built a strong Division II program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical in Daytona Beach, Fla., but inherited an abject mess and massive turnover that one year was not going to stabilize. The 2022 Gators went 2-14-1, including 0-9-1 in Southeastern Conference play. Then came more transition, which Bohon managed to spin into a 6-5-6 record in 2023 – the program's first winning season in four years – that springboarded the Gators into 2024 with elements of forward momentum and optimism.

Here they are.

Tauzel, DeLeon and Goldberg lived through it all, opting to stick by Bohon and return for a fifth season they hope – and believe – will be the bridge to Florida soccer the way it used to be. As in the days the Gators won a league-leading 14 SEC titles, went to 22 of 24 NCAA tournaments, including two Final Fours, and captured the 1998 national championship.

The frustration of going 12-34-8 – a winning percentage of .259 – over three seasons under three different coaches did not deter the trio of players to go searching for greener pastures in the portal. No. Their orange and blue roots ran too deep.

Or put another way: They fought together … no matter what.

"I love them," Bohon said of her three graduate pillars. "We will be telling stories 10 years from now about those three. We leaned on them so heavily when we had to make changes to the culture and the standard, and we leaned on them to sell it to our players. They did it by example and got everybody else to buy in. They've put so much sweat equity into the program that there's no chance of leaving without enjoying the fruit of their labor – and truly their labor has been more laborious than other people in their careers. They're so bought in, so loyal, and in this day and age that's really unusual. I'm just really, truly grateful for them."

The feeling is very much mutual. Perseverance is one thing, and Tauzel, DeLeon and Goldberg have that in their DNA. But they wouldn't be back and soldiering through without a deep trust in Bohon and her emphasis on Student/Person/Player (another team mantra) combined with the culture, chemistry and commitment the coach demands.

"I love it here and want it to work," said DeLeon, who hails from Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. "I've trusted the process. There have been struggles with the unknown, of course, but how much I love this place and being a Florida Gator kept me here."

Goldberg, a St. Petersburg, Fla., product, went in the portal after Amato's lone season. She had high-major offers from some very good programs. She stayed, too.

"I talked to Sam, learned about her philosophy and how she tried to build a culture of amazing women and how that played out on the field. It intrigued me and convinced me to stay," Goldberg said. "I think Sam really sees how important connections are and how important we are to each other, with what we try to build away from the program when it comes to things like community outreach and leadership workshops. Those things, that time together as a team, they matter."

As for their time together on the field, that matters too. On that front, the Gators suffered a pair of crushing setbacks when they lost sophomore Megan Hinnenkamp and junior Tatum O'Coyne, both forwards, to season-ending injuries during the preseason. Hinnenkamp, the 2023 SEC co-Freshman of the Year, led the Gators in scoring last season with eight goals. O'Coyne scored twice during the team's spring season exhibition matches against LSU and Mississippi State and was poised for a big jump and more significant role this season.

The ability to find the net has been the Gators' biggest Achilles heel in Bohon's first two seasons. UF lost a NCAA-leading nine games in '22 by one goal. Last season, they averaged 1.7 goals per game.

The charge of scoring-by-committee already has begun, with Bohon and her staff tweaking their technical, ball-skill system in hopes of creating more opportunities on the attack. It's a work in progress, with UF's two preseason exhibition games netting a 2-1 win over South Florida and 0-0 tie at Georgia Southern. Neither opponent was able to break down the Gators' defense, which will always be sound under Bohon.

To take that next jump, though, they need goals.

"We have the talent to manufacture some things on offense," Bohon said. "We're just young."

Unlucky too, as far as those injuries, but the games must go on.

"Obviously, it was heartbreak losing both of them," DeLeon said. "It's almost like a joke that we like to make it harder on ourselves."

They're not laughing. They're doing what they've committed to do.

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And the three Gators who know adversity best – and stared it down to come back for more – shall lead them.

"I would rather stay and work through the adversity then leave and take the easy route. Doing it this way builds character," said Tauzel, from St. Johns, Fla. "Now, it's a whole new scenario for the three of us. We're the older [players] and the younger ones are looking to us for stability and guidance. It may be harder, but I feel that will help me in life."

More than likely, it will help the Gators in this season, as well.

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Staying Power: Bohon Leans on 5th-Year Returning Trio

Players Mentioned

Anna DeLeon

Alexa Goldberg

Megan Hinnenkamp

Tatum O'Coyne

Delaney Tauzel

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Staying Power: Bohon Leans on 5th-Year Returning Trio

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Players Mentioned

Anna DeLeon

Alexa Goldberg

Megan Hinnenkamp

Tatum O'Coyne

Delaney Tauzel

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