Princeton's Fiorito on Tierney's departure: "It was definitely a shock"
There were a plethora of reasons why goalkeeper Tyler Fiorito committed to Princeton, and one of them was the presence of head coach Bill Tierney. In June, however, Tierney left the Tigers for the same position at Denver.
The sophomore from Phoenix, Md., and a graduate of McDonogh acknowledged that Tierney’s news shocked the players.
"For our sophomore class, we were recruited by Coach Tierney and we thought we could bring Princeton back to what it had been," Fiorito said. "We hadn’t won a [national] championship since 2001, so we thought we could bring it back to the NCAA Final Four and a championship. But it was definitely a shock to all of us. But the great thing was, it kind of brought us closer as a team. It was now our team, not Coach Tierney’s team. For the seniors who are now here, they stepped up, and they were great about sending e-mails to all the guys. We had no one considering transferring, which was awesome. … The biggest thing was moving on and putting a new face on the program. Coach [Chris] Bates came in, and it’s been a great transition. The program has new life, and everyone’s excited this year to show that we’re starting a new program here without Coach Tierney. It’s Coach Bates’ era right now, and it’s about our team stepping up."
Fiorito said transferring to Denver or moving to another program was never an option for him.
"I never really considered going to Denver," he said. "When you look at Princeton and what it has to offer, there are thousands of kids that wish to be in my position. So we take pride in who we are as people, we take pride in who we are as a team. When Coach Tierney left, people thought we got abandoned, but we’re going in a new direction. I have a big opportunity to leave my stamp on the program as does every player in this program right now. We have a chance to leave a legacy at Princeton with bringing Princeton back to the NCAA Final Four and the championship."
