Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
No-Shave November Continues for WVU’s LeBlanc
November 18, 2019 03:47 PM | Men's Soccer, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Marlon LeBlanc will be leaving his razor at home when his West Virginia University men's soccer team hits the road for its NCAA Tournament first-round match at Butler Thursday night in Indianapolis.
The beard has lasted as long as his team's three-match win streak to return to the NCAA Tournament, his sixth at West Virginia and just the 14th in the program's 59-year history.
"I shaved the day of the Akron game and I haven't shaved since," LeBlanc explained Monday. "The guys said I couldn't. I told them I'm cutting my hair, and they said I could do that.
"I didn't mean for it to be that way, but it took us 10 hours to get out to SIUE (for the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals) and I didn't feel like shaving after a 10-hour bus ride. It's kind of snowballed from there," he added.
Sort of like his team.
West Virginia was dead in the water just 11 days ago when it lost 1-0 to Akron to complete the regular season with a disappointing 6-8-2 record. In the prior setup, just the top-four teams were invited to play in the Mid-American Soccer Tournament, meaning the Mountaineers would have been putting the soccer balls away for the year.
But all six teams got in this year and West Virginia took advantage of its new lease on life at a time when some of its key players were returning to good health.
Major contributors Ryan Kellogg, Sebastian Garcia-Herreros, Pascal Derwaritsch and Andres Muriel Albino missed significant action this year because of injuries.
"That's four big, big players on our team missing multiple games," LeBlanc pointed out.
It was to the point where he didn't know who was or wasn't available right up until game time.
Getting all four back in some manner or form has helped, as has a stingy defense that has permitted just three goals in its last five matches. LeBlanc has also tweaked his offensive attack to help the guys in the back.
During its five-match losing streak spanning the entire month of October against San Diego, North Carolina, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois and Bowling Green, West Virginia gave up 17 goals.
"Self-inflicted punishment," LeBlanc said. "I think we had three own-goals during that stretch, and we literally turned the ball over in the back three or four times as well."
Since then, the veteran coach is has been getting exceptional play from 5-foot-10-inch junior goalkeeper Steven Tekeksy, who looks more like a midfielder than someone tending the net.
But the Raymore, Missouri, resident was phenomenal in West Virginia's two shutout victories over SIU-Edwardsville in the MAC quarterfinals and against Bowling Green in the championship game to earn tournament MVP honors.
And when Tekesky wasn't turning away shots, his teammates were. LeBlanc pointed out Logan Lucas' big deflection when Tekesky needed covered and Albert Andres-Llop taking another one off his chest that would have found the back of the net.
"This team has taken on a refuse-to-lose mentality," he said.
In all three MAC Tournament matches West Virginia scored first (the Mountaineers are 7-0 when scoring first this year) - something LeBlanc hopes to see his team do once again on Thursday when it faces 11-6-2 Butler, which is in the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in school history.
It will be West Virginia's first-ever meeting against the Bulldogs.
Down the road lurking in the same bracket is in-state rival Marshall, where the winner of Thursday night's match will go for a second-round game on Sunday.
"The way we've had to deal with injuries, I can't look ahead to the next minute of my life right now," LeBlanc said in response to a potential second-round matchup with the Herd.
LeBlanc said his next three days will be consumed by Butler tape to get his team prepared for Thursday's match.
He is very familiar with Butler coach Paul Snape.
"When I was an assistant at Penn State, (Snape) was an assistant at Michigan, so we go way, way back," LeBlanc said. "Clearly, they've won some good games that I do know about from being on the national ranking committee, and I'm a film junkie so I will become very familiar with his players."
More than anything, LeBlanc is happy to be playing soccer in late November – and not shaving for a while longer.
"This is not even close to being the best season we've had since I've been here, but it's been the most satisfying for sure," LeBlanc said.
"(The beard) is there until it doesn't need to be there anymore," he concluded.
The beard has lasted as long as his team's three-match win streak to return to the NCAA Tournament, his sixth at West Virginia and just the 14th in the program's 59-year history.
"I shaved the day of the Akron game and I haven't shaved since," LeBlanc explained Monday. "The guys said I couldn't. I told them I'm cutting my hair, and they said I could do that.
"I didn't mean for it to be that way, but it took us 10 hours to get out to SIUE (for the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals) and I didn't feel like shaving after a 10-hour bus ride. It's kind of snowballed from there," he added.
Sort of like his team.
West Virginia was dead in the water just 11 days ago when it lost 1-0 to Akron to complete the regular season with a disappointing 6-8-2 record. In the prior setup, just the top-four teams were invited to play in the Mid-American Soccer Tournament, meaning the Mountaineers would have been putting the soccer balls away for the year.
But all six teams got in this year and West Virginia took advantage of its new lease on life at a time when some of its key players were returning to good health.
Major contributors Ryan Kellogg, Sebastian Garcia-Herreros, Pascal Derwaritsch and Andres Muriel Albino missed significant action this year because of injuries.
"That's four big, big players on our team missing multiple games," LeBlanc pointed out.
It was to the point where he didn't know who was or wasn't available right up until game time.
Getting all four back in some manner or form has helped, as has a stingy defense that has permitted just three goals in its last five matches. LeBlanc has also tweaked his offensive attack to help the guys in the back.
During its five-match losing streak spanning the entire month of October against San Diego, North Carolina, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois and Bowling Green, West Virginia gave up 17 goals.
"Self-inflicted punishment," LeBlanc said. "I think we had three own-goals during that stretch, and we literally turned the ball over in the back three or four times as well."
Since then, the veteran coach is has been getting exceptional play from 5-foot-10-inch junior goalkeeper Steven Tekeksy, who looks more like a midfielder than someone tending the net.
But the Raymore, Missouri, resident was phenomenal in West Virginia's two shutout victories over SIU-Edwardsville in the MAC quarterfinals and against Bowling Green in the championship game to earn tournament MVP honors.
And when Tekesky wasn't turning away shots, his teammates were. LeBlanc pointed out Logan Lucas' big deflection when Tekesky needed covered and Albert Andres-Llop taking another one off his chest that would have found the back of the net.
"This team has taken on a refuse-to-lose mentality," he said.
In all three MAC Tournament matches West Virginia scored first (the Mountaineers are 7-0 when scoring first this year) - something LeBlanc hopes to see his team do once again on Thursday when it faces 11-6-2 Butler, which is in the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in school history.
It will be West Virginia's first-ever meeting against the Bulldogs.
Down the road lurking in the same bracket is in-state rival Marshall, where the winner of Thursday night's match will go for a second-round game on Sunday.
"The way we've had to deal with injuries, I can't look ahead to the next minute of my life right now," LeBlanc said in response to a potential second-round matchup with the Herd.
LeBlanc said his next three days will be consumed by Butler tape to get his team prepared for Thursday's match.
He is very familiar with Butler coach Paul Snape.
"When I was an assistant at Penn State, (Snape) was an assistant at Michigan, so we go way, way back," LeBlanc said. "Clearly, they've won some good games that I do know about from being on the national ranking committee, and I'm a film junkie so I will become very familiar with his players."
More than anything, LeBlanc is happy to be playing soccer in late November – and not shaving for a while longer.
"This is not even close to being the best season we've had since I've been here, but it's been the most satisfying for sure," LeBlanc said.
"(The beard) is there until it doesn't need to be there anymore," he concluded.
Players Mentioned
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