SEYMOUR – Tom Cunningham has watched his daughter excel at three totally different sports activities all through her time at Seymour.
He noticed Mia Cunningham, a GameTimeCT All-State second-team choice, put collectively a terrific season with the Wildcats’ women basketball workforce final winter, serving to Seymour attain the Division III state championship recreation at Mohegan Solar Area. The Wildcats additionally reached the Class M quarterfinals in softball in every of the final two seasons.
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Tom has additionally watched Mia play soccer for 4 straight seasons. He had a greater seat for this specific sport: on the bench. Tom is Seymour’s head women soccer coach.
“Coming in and training her, she makes it straightforward,” Tom stated. “She’s a really coachable child. She’s a multi-sport athlete. She has had a number of totally different coaches rising up, so I do really feel I do know what works along with her.”
Seymour is having considered one of its greatest women soccer seasons ever, ending the common season at 13-1-2. Its lone loss to Holy Cross, 1-0, got here on Oct. 22.
Mia has been a stalwart in aim for the Wildcats. She has allowed simply 9 targets and has a 0.620 goals-against common. She has made 81 saves and has posted seven shutouts.
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“There’s positively a variety of stress as a result of in case you make one mistake, it is a aim,” Mia stated about being a keeper. “It is a variety of enjoyable. You get to see the entire discipline, the whole lot that is taking place. It is positively a variety of enjoyable, however there’s a variety of stress.”
Having success in web is a household trait. That is the place Tom performed whereas in highschool on Lengthy Island. He additionally performed goalkeeper for Division I Adelphi College.
Tom’s spouse, Allison, performed each softball and basketball at Seymour – therefore the nice athletic genes Mia has in all of her sports activities.
Tom beforehand coached at Fairfield Warde for 13 seasons, main the Mustangs to 2 CIAC championship finals – profitable the Class L title in 2007 – and two FCIAC finals. Warde shared the FCIAC title with Staples in 2014 and reached the ultimate in 2011.
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He grew to become Seymour’s coach in 2019. It was an opportunity to teach within the city he lives in. He additionally knew it was a risk he would coach Mia.
“I did not actually have expectations per se, however coming in eight years in the past, I needed to stabilize this system, make Seymour soccer related, and with gamers like Mia and her teammates and women from the earlier 4 seasons, we have been in a position to do this,” Tom stated.
Whereas Tom calls Mia “very coachable,” it is coach and participant on the sphere and father and daughter off it, for essentially the most half.
“I feel she does a superb job of protecting it that manner,” Tom stated about Mia. “I attempt to preserve it that manner. It may be Dad right here or there at a apply or a recreation. It is not something loopy, however we do preserve the soccer as coach and participant once we are within the second. … At residence, we speak about it. I attempt to take off my teaching hat and be Dad at that time.”
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Mia stated, “There’s instances when he is at residence and training.” There’s additionally the distinctiveness of getting “somebody to share the joy after wins and (disappointment after) losses, in addition to having somebody watching me develop up by the game this shut.”
Mia admits, “Throughout video games, it does not really feel like I am enjoying for my dad.” After video games, there have been discussions about what went effectively and what the workforce wants to repair.
“I give her a variety of credit score. It is not at all times straightforward for the participant, however she handles it nice,” Tom stated.
As a sophomore, Seymour had a necessity for a discipline participant. Mia stepped into the void and completed with 19 targets and 5 assists. On the time, it was the single-season faculty report for targets.
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“Simply having a typical curiosity with soccer, having issues to speak about with that, attending to know one another extra throughout the sport as a result of he additionally performed it, it is simply helped us loads,” Mia stated.
Mia stated she thought of enjoying each basketball and softball in school, which can have been an choice at Western Connecticut State College. She additionally checked out AIC, Bridgeport and Westfield State.
However the Seymour senior selected enjoying softball at Southern Connecticut State, the place she plans to main in sports activities administration. She has performed each shortstop and first base at Seymour.
“It is 20 minutes down the street from right here. It positively felt extra like residence than any of the others,” Mia stated.
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How a lot enter did her dad and mom have?
“My spouse and I let her information her resolution,” Tom stated. “Once more along with her, it is simple. She knew what she needed. There was a query of two sports activities at one time however in the long run, I feel she had it behind her thoughts what she needed to do when she expressed to us that Southern was her best choice.”
The soccer workforce is the No. 3 seed within the NVL match, which begins Thursday. The Wildcats reached the match ultimate final 12 months, dropping to Woodland. The CIAC Class M match follows, the place Seymour is probably going a double-digit seed.
So time is brief on the coach-player relationship for the Cunninghams.
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“I’ll miss having somebody watching me develop up by the game this shut,” Mia stated.
There are seven seniors, together with Mia.
“It is a terrific group total. For me to be in it with them made the season much more particular than could be anticipated,” Tom stated.
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This text initially printed at Seymour soccer senior Mia Cunningham is ending 4 years along with her dad as coach.
