This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Since the inaugural UHSAA-sanctioned high school girls' soccer season in 1989, Utah has produced eight programs with at least four state titles. In Class 3A alone, Park City, Dixie and Juan Diego have established themselves as perennial powers always in the conversation for a state title.

Yet with all of these dominant programs with winning traditions, the team with the best record in 3A this season happens to be … the Tooele Buffaloes.

Since the 2002 season, Tooele has failed to win more than seven games in a season and has never finished with a winning record. The program seemed to be showing some signs of life in 2013 with its first playoff berth in several years, but an 8-0 trouncing by Dixie sent the Buffaloes back home with little to think about in terms of hope for the future.

Fast forward to 2016, and Tooele has seemingly made a complete turnaround in just a few short years. The 8-1-2 Buffaloes have already set a new school record for wins in a season, got off to the longest unbeaten start in school history (nine games), have scored more goals in 11 games (31) than they had in each of the past two seasons, are on track to allow the least amount of goals in school history (13), and seem poised to earn their first double-digit win total ever.

What could possibly cause such a drastic change for a program with so little historical success? The Tooele players all agreed that the first step was bringing in head coach Stephen Duggan.

"It helped having a coach that cared," junior Kaitlin Asay said about Duggan taking over in 2015. "In previous years, our coaches were more laid back and didn't help a whole lot with development. Stephen was really helpful, he pushed us to be our best, and he really knows the game. He's very experienced."

In his native Ireland, Duggan lived out his boyhood dreams of playing at some of the highest levels in "schoolboy" soccer. He suited up for premier Irish boys' clubs such as Peamount United, Home Farm F.C., Rathcoole Boys and St. Francis F.C., before beginning his coaching career. Duggan then went on to coach at Brookefield United, St. Francis F.C., and eventually the Irish National Team's emerging talent program. It's this level of competition and commitment to the game that made Duggan think he could turn around the Tooele girls' program.

"I'm lucky, I grew up with the game. My whole family played, I played at a good level myself, I coached at a really high level back home, so I've been immersed in the game my entire life," Duggan said. "Soccer is still relatively new in terms of popular sports here in the States, so I naturally bring more knowledge than the girls might have come across on their own. That's no slight on the coaches they previously had, it's just that I've been immersed in it, playing the game 24-7 as a boy."

Duggan wanted his girls to be just as excited as he was about playing the game he loved. So, he encouraged them to watch and play as often as they could. Then, when he officially took over as head coach, he began by re-teaching the fundamentals that he learned in Ireland.

"Sometimes you have to get back to basics. You have to get back to the technical aspect of the game before you start introducing them to the tactical aspect," he said. "It's like a baby, you've got to learn to crawl, then walk and then run. We've been steadily growing; technically, they're getting much better, and tactically, they're more aware. When you get the technical and the tactical aspects working together, that's when you start seeing results."

While the technical and tactical skills of the team were still being developed, the players also had to change the team dynamic that had been dissolving over several years of losing.

"My freshman year, we lost to Dixie in the playoffs 8-0 … then the next year we thought we could win a playoff game, but it was still a road game and our team wasn't connecting like we should have," senior Tiffanee Bird said. "There was a lot of drama on the team and lots of things were going on. Last year, Stephen came in and it was a big difference. All of us started to notice a lot of things changing, a lot of people started connecting more. We knew that this year could be the year where we could really step it up."

Leading goal-scorer and junior McKenna Banks concurred that the change in organization has improved the attitude of everyone on the team, maybe even a little too much.

"We're a really close team now. It's good that we're close because we connect more and we can do really well, but at the same time we can mess up and goof around too much," Banks said. "When we come to practice, we are like, 'OK, we've got a game tomorrow, we need to be focused today so that we can go into the game tomorrow prepared.' That's something that, as captains, we try to emphasize. Make sure everyone is positive but focused when it comes game time, but let everyone have fun with each other."

With just one season with the girls under his belt, Duggan had a team that understood his style of play and was full of girls that wanted to play for each other. After earning results against higher-classification teams like West Jordan, Orem, Kearns and Hunter, he knew his girls were in for a life-changing season.

"I knew what we had, I knew the potential that was here. None of this has caught me by surprise," Duggan said about his team's rapid rise to success. "For the first time ever, the girls' soccer program has caught the imagination of the community. Now the crowds are coming out to watch them, the newspapers are reporting on them, they're getting ranked for the first time ever. They've gotten to where they are through a lot of hard work and they deserve the recognition and admiration they're getting."

With just five region games remaining before the playoffs begin, Duggan said that he has "no doubt" that his team can achieve its first ever double-digit win total. But his ultimate goal for the girls this year is to host a playoff game, something that Tooele has never been able to do in its short history.

"If we were to get a home playoff game, that would be fantastic," Duggan said emphatically. "It would be a huge occasion for the girls, for the program, for the area, for the school. I would love to see that for them." —

About Tooele girls' soccer

• Buffaloes started off the season unbeaten in their first nine games, and have already set a program record for wins in a season, with eight.

• The team's 31 goals through 11 games are more than they had in each of the past two complete seasons.

• Second-year coach Stephen Duggan is an Ireland native who played for and coached for some of that country's premier youth programs.