Boston College Athletics
Trading in Tobacco Road for Maroon and Gold
February 08, 2019 | Women's Soccer, #ForBoston Files
Jason Lowe is a Wake Forest product, but now he hopes to take BC to the next level.
Boston College women's soccer head coach Jason Lowe didn't have much downtime after he accepted his new position. The first-time Division I head coach barely packed away his Wake Forest black and gold when he had to board a flight to Chicago for the 2019 NWSL College Draft. So, the equipment team at Boston College made sure that his landing would be cloaked in the proper colors.
It was the kickoff to a busy first month for the new head coach in Chestnut Hill.
"I hit the ground running as soon as I was hired and went to the NWSL Draft and the coach's convention," Lowe said. "Our equipment team sent me some BC gear so I could have the right logos in Chicago, and then after I started recruiting, just to talk to some of the athletes who were already committed (to BC). Two weeks later, I knew what I needed to know, and the last couple of weeks, I've been meeting the team and getting into those training sessions to break the ice."
For Lowe, the frenetic pace is the start of what he hopes will be the final transformation for an already-established Boston College program. The Eagles opened last season with a perfect 10-0-0 record and finished 2018 with 14 wins and an NCAA Tournament berth. BC drew the No. 4 seed in the Stanford bracket as one of the nationally-ranked programs, but a loss to Hofstra in the first round ended the team's College Cup dreams.
"When you're rebuilding, you have the opportunity to take your time and build for a few years," Lowe said. "I like the pressure of looking at where we're at as a program. I don't think this team was far off from deeper runs through both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. There were some things that I felt I could address early on, and we can get to those places where we're meeting the expectations. It's a puzzle, but I love this starting point over a complete rebuild. These girls have a program in which they know how to win. They just want to win more, and that's a good jump-off point for me."
It was the inverse of the Wake Forest team that Lowe helped lead to the Round of 16. The Demon Deacons were one of the last teams into the tournament with an 8-8-1 record, but an extra time win over Ohio State preceded a win over second-seeded West Virginia in penalties. Wake lost 1-0 at Penn State in the Round of 16, ending its dreams in a bracket topped and won by Florida State.
It was the second straight season in which Wake Forest qualified for the NCAA Tournament after a short absence. That absence was after a run of 18 consecutive tournament berths in Winston-Salem, and it allowed for perspective of the evolving changeover under head coach Tony da Luz.
"The big thing at Wake wasn't our success," Lowe said. "The biggest learning point for us was in the years where we didn't make the tournament. We had made it all those years in a row, but we were at the point where we wanted to fix some culture and talent gaps. It wasn't a rebuild for us as much as a reboot. It started in 2014, and by 2016, we were turning the corner. I really appreciated the culture that we had implemented. We diversified the roster domestically and internationally, and we learned that improving the chemistry, even if it's good, can go a long way. That's what we're already hard at work with here, and that's what the team has been receptive to."
It won't be a Wake Forest replica, though, because BC is a unique program. There are similarities between the private schools, but coming to Chestnut Hill enabled Lowe, a former Wake Forest men's goalkeeper and graduate from the late-1990s, to dig into why the Eagles became a powerful program in their own right. Lowe's tenure as a player preceded BC's time in the ACC, but the last couple of years opened his eyes as to how this particular program operates so uniquely within the highly-competitive league.
"BC is always competitive every year, and the games against Wake Forest were always battles," he said. "This past season went to overtime, and it's always been a close game (between the teams). I always had so much respect for the program because they always seemed to have a little different pocket. There would be battles for players on Tobacco Road with Wake Forest, Duke, North Carolina and NC State. But nobody ever really knew what BC was up to.
"Boston College always had its own market in the Northeast," he continued. "That was intriguing to me because BC is the best destination, in my opinion, in the Northeast. I liked the dynamics of a private school with self-driven, smart kids. Plus, it's in Boston. The ACC has such a different spectrum of markets, where you have small towns opposite big cities. I wanted to jump at this opportunity."
For Lowe, the presence now becomes tinkering with the Eagles just enough to maintain success with eyes on the future. The 2013 Boston College team advanced to the national quarterfinals before losing to Florida State, and it followed up the success with another tournament in 2015.
So, the question becomes how BC can maintain the current success built on the program's foundation. The Eagles advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals in 2013, then made the tournament again two years later before this past year's success.
It will be answered even as the ACC continues to find new levels of improvement. 10 of the league's 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament last season, eight programs finished the season ranked. The top eight teams advanced to the conference tournament, and seventh-place Florida State eliminated the top three teams en route to the championship.
Seven of the 10 teams in the national tournament advanced to the Round of 16, and both North Carolina and Florida State enjoyed a rematch in the College Cup Finals. That's where the Seminoles, who had beaten No. 1 Stanford in the Semifinals, won it all with a 1-0 win over the Tar Heels.
"Whenever I talk to another ACC coach, we joke about how people don't understand how difficult this conference is," Lowe said. "We beat each other up during the season, then we beat each other up again in the ACC Tournament. Then after that, we all expect to go deep into the national tournament. Last year, Florida State finished seventh and won the national championship.
"I have a lot of pride in just how good the ACC is from top to bottom," he said. "Every program is either competitive or doing things to become competitive. It really proves itself time and again against other conferences. It's hard, but it's so much fun because the players are playing against the best players in the country. And on your off days, you have some awesome men's games to take in. As a fan and as a player, the opportunity to be in this league is pretty cool."
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It was the kickoff to a busy first month for the new head coach in Chestnut Hill.
"I hit the ground running as soon as I was hired and went to the NWSL Draft and the coach's convention," Lowe said. "Our equipment team sent me some BC gear so I could have the right logos in Chicago, and then after I started recruiting, just to talk to some of the athletes who were already committed (to BC). Two weeks later, I knew what I needed to know, and the last couple of weeks, I've been meeting the team and getting into those training sessions to break the ice."
For Lowe, the frenetic pace is the start of what he hopes will be the final transformation for an already-established Boston College program. The Eagles opened last season with a perfect 10-0-0 record and finished 2018 with 14 wins and an NCAA Tournament berth. BC drew the No. 4 seed in the Stanford bracket as one of the nationally-ranked programs, but a loss to Hofstra in the first round ended the team's College Cup dreams.
"When you're rebuilding, you have the opportunity to take your time and build for a few years," Lowe said. "I like the pressure of looking at where we're at as a program. I don't think this team was far off from deeper runs through both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. There were some things that I felt I could address early on, and we can get to those places where we're meeting the expectations. It's a puzzle, but I love this starting point over a complete rebuild. These girls have a program in which they know how to win. They just want to win more, and that's a good jump-off point for me."
It was the inverse of the Wake Forest team that Lowe helped lead to the Round of 16. The Demon Deacons were one of the last teams into the tournament with an 8-8-1 record, but an extra time win over Ohio State preceded a win over second-seeded West Virginia in penalties. Wake lost 1-0 at Penn State in the Round of 16, ending its dreams in a bracket topped and won by Florida State.
It was the second straight season in which Wake Forest qualified for the NCAA Tournament after a short absence. That absence was after a run of 18 consecutive tournament berths in Winston-Salem, and it allowed for perspective of the evolving changeover under head coach Tony da Luz.
"The big thing at Wake wasn't our success," Lowe said. "The biggest learning point for us was in the years where we didn't make the tournament. We had made it all those years in a row, but we were at the point where we wanted to fix some culture and talent gaps. It wasn't a rebuild for us as much as a reboot. It started in 2014, and by 2016, we were turning the corner. I really appreciated the culture that we had implemented. We diversified the roster domestically and internationally, and we learned that improving the chemistry, even if it's good, can go a long way. That's what we're already hard at work with here, and that's what the team has been receptive to."
It won't be a Wake Forest replica, though, because BC is a unique program. There are similarities between the private schools, but coming to Chestnut Hill enabled Lowe, a former Wake Forest men's goalkeeper and graduate from the late-1990s, to dig into why the Eagles became a powerful program in their own right. Lowe's tenure as a player preceded BC's time in the ACC, but the last couple of years opened his eyes as to how this particular program operates so uniquely within the highly-competitive league.
"BC is always competitive every year, and the games against Wake Forest were always battles," he said. "This past season went to overtime, and it's always been a close game (between the teams). I always had so much respect for the program because they always seemed to have a little different pocket. There would be battles for players on Tobacco Road with Wake Forest, Duke, North Carolina and NC State. But nobody ever really knew what BC was up to.
"Boston College always had its own market in the Northeast," he continued. "That was intriguing to me because BC is the best destination, in my opinion, in the Northeast. I liked the dynamics of a private school with self-driven, smart kids. Plus, it's in Boston. The ACC has such a different spectrum of markets, where you have small towns opposite big cities. I wanted to jump at this opportunity."
For Lowe, the presence now becomes tinkering with the Eagles just enough to maintain success with eyes on the future. The 2013 Boston College team advanced to the national quarterfinals before losing to Florida State, and it followed up the success with another tournament in 2015.
So, the question becomes how BC can maintain the current success built on the program's foundation. The Eagles advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals in 2013, then made the tournament again two years later before this past year's success.
It will be answered even as the ACC continues to find new levels of improvement. 10 of the league's 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament last season, eight programs finished the season ranked. The top eight teams advanced to the conference tournament, and seventh-place Florida State eliminated the top three teams en route to the championship.
Seven of the 10 teams in the national tournament advanced to the Round of 16, and both North Carolina and Florida State enjoyed a rematch in the College Cup Finals. That's where the Seminoles, who had beaten No. 1 Stanford in the Semifinals, won it all with a 1-0 win over the Tar Heels.
"Whenever I talk to another ACC coach, we joke about how people don't understand how difficult this conference is," Lowe said. "We beat each other up during the season, then we beat each other up again in the ACC Tournament. Then after that, we all expect to go deep into the national tournament. Last year, Florida State finished seventh and won the national championship.
"I have a lot of pride in just how good the ACC is from top to bottom," he said. "Every program is either competitive or doing things to become competitive. It really proves itself time and again against other conferences. It's hard, but it's so much fun because the players are playing against the best players in the country. And on your off days, you have some awesome men's games to take in. As a fan and as a player, the opportunity to be in this league is pretty cool."
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