Class 1A girls soccer champs St. Anthony Village move up to new challenges in Class 2A

A sky tinted with grey clouds, and a wet turf glazed by rainfall served as Monday's backdrop ahead of St. Anthony Village girls soccer tryouts at Dennison Field.

By afternoon's end, the sun peeked into prominence — a positive omen, it must've been.

Co-head coach Sue Pawlyshyn finished her first day of practice in good health, a year removed from a torn right meniscus that she noted as her first injury in 58 years. Surely, that didn't stop her from tossing a crutch or two in celebration, when her team won the school's first state championship in a girls sport. That took place last November, a 3-2 victory over St. Paul Academy in the Class 1A title game.

Now she and her husband, co-head coach Paul Pawlyshyn, seek to reset ahead of the program's debut Class 2A campaign.

"No expectations," Sue said.

The Huskies lost 11 seniors, eight of whom were crowned state champions as starters. And such an achievement was the culmination of three long seasons together, under the direction of Sue and Paul.

"We're going to take our lumps, but we got to learn from losing," Paul said. "You got to learn how to lose."

When they took over in 2020, St. Anthony Village girls soccer was only three seasons old.

Prior to 2017, the school had fielded a co-op squad since the 1990s as part of a partnership with Spring Lake Park High School.

Patience was the Pawlyshyns' prevailing quality, so much so that they made a T-shirt represent their future vision. On the back, from top to bottom, it read: "Dream. Believe. Become."

In 2020, the Huskies dreamt. They struggled, but no state tournament was played because of COVID-19.

In 2021, the players themselves started to believe. A quarterfinals exit marked the end of the program's first state tournament appearance.

And in 2022, they became champions. Since-graduated striker Anna Isaacson, who came back Monday to help the coaching staff she once played for, said she and her teammates knew a historic run was within reach once they stepped foot on the field at U.S. Bank Stadium — the venue for the Class 1A semifinals and finals.

Athletic director Troy Urdahl watched it all unfold, a byproduct of smaller victories along the way.

"They just run the program in such a way that the success part, in terms of wins, takes care of itself," Urdahl said of the Pawlyshyns.

"It's more about the people that they're developing and the way they're doing it that is what sets the stage for a definition of success that transcends just a state championship. I think that's what their athletes will remember 10, 20 30 years down the line, too, is that connection, relationship and the time together."

The group that Sue and Paul gathered Monday included an overwhelming majority of underclassmen, with two of their three returning starters — all captains — in attendance: midfielder Meghan Przybilla and goalkeeper June McGrath.

A typical roster size includes 18 players. Paul said only five of those spots will be filled by those who saw time last season.

"Keeping an open mind, and realizing they're younger and they don't have the experience that most of my teammates had before," Przybilla said of her focus as a senior leader.

Needless to say, another three-year rebuild — or longer — appears to be on the horizon.

But if the mind-set of the Pawlyshyns or their returning players provide any indication, a winning culture will remain as St. Anthony Village girls soccer steps into a new stratosphere of competition.

"I hear a lot from the younger girls like, 'Oh, I have varsity easily, we're going to be terrible,'" McGrath said.

"As a leader, I personally just want to keep pushing that, that maybe right now we're not the prettiest team out there, we're not going to be best, technically — but we're going to work so hard all year and see what happens. … We're moving up a class. Anything's possible."