Michael Flynn’s feelings as he watched the team he helped coach to a national championship this past season might surprise you.

Flynn, a Bowling Green native, is the goalkeeper coach for Syracuse University’s men’s soccer team. On the night the Orange were gunning for the school’s first national championship in the sport, Flynn’s blood pressure was steadily rising.

He watched his team battle to a 2-2 tie in regulation against Indiana, then through two scoreless overtime periods to force the dreaded penalty-kick shootout to determine the winner Dec. 12 in Cary, N.C.

A PK shootout puts immense pressure on the goalkeeper – in this case, Syracuse redshirt junior Russell Shealy. As Shealy’s position coach, Flynn felt that weight every bit as much leading up to the shootout.

“Just an indescribably horrific experience,” Flynn said. “We do our homework, so we send the clips of the penalties that their players have taken to Russ, our goalkeeper, and then I’ll keep notes. Usually before a regular game, kind of toward the end of warmups, I’ll just go over and tell him, ‘Hey, this is what I saw,’ and we’ll discuss who we think will take it and where they’ll go. For a knockout game where it’s going to end in a shootout if we don’t win it, I keep a list and a chart of who shot, what foot they shot with, where they went.”

“… As overtime ended, I got over to Russ … I’ve got the paper, we go over it and then I just tape it onto his water bottle so he can look at it. And then it’s hands off from there, just go sit on the sideline and hope it goes well.”

The first round of PKs ended in a 4-4 deadlock, extending that excruciating feeling a bit longer. But with the shootout knotted at 6-all in the second round – sudden victory format – Shealy came up with the save on Maouloune Goumballe’s shot to give his team a chance to win the championship.

Senior captain Amferny Sinclair did the honors as he buried his PK, giving Syracuse the national title.

“It’s great when you win, it’s terrible when you lose,” Flynn said.

The national title wrapped up the best men’s soccer season in Syracuse history. The Orange set a program-record for wins with a sparkling 19-2-4 record, won the ACC regular season and tournament titles and then capped it off with the national title.

The honors have been rolling in ever since for the Syracuse players and coaches. Last week, the team was honored at halftime of a Syracuse men’s basketball game against Virginia inside the JMA Wireless Dome. Before that, Fynn was among the Orange staff honored at the United Soccer Coaches’ national convention as the National Staff of the Year.

For his efforts in the NCAA tournament, Shealy was named the 2022 Men’s College Cup Defensive Most Outstanding Player.

“One of the really cool things that they did do was when we played the national championship, basketball had a game that night and they actually moved the basketball back so that they could do a watch party in the Dome. For Syracuse University to tell Jim Boeheim that they’re going to bump his game, that’s like going out and telling Calipari the same thing.

“The game actually went into a shootout at halftime, so there’s video of everybody in the Dome watching the final penalties which was really cool.”

Flynn is classified as a volunteer assistant at Syracuse during the season, works with the program year-round with camps and other duties. He also serves as goalkeeper coach for RNY FC, formerly the Rochester Rhinos. The club plays as an independent in the MLS Next Pro division.

Flynn also devotes plenty of time on the youth development level through camps and clinics.

“It just never stops, but unfortunately for a lot of coaches that’s what it takes – it takes taking on multiple responsibilities to make it work financially,” Flynn said.

A 2004 Bowling Green High School graduate, Flynn played four varsity seasons under former Purples coach Steve Henson before played collegiately at Cincinnati. Flynn then embarked on a five-year professional career playing for various USL clubs before deciding to settle down and get married.

The next step was coaching, and Flynn spent time back at Bowling Green first as an assistant on the boys’ team and then for three years (2009-11) for the girls’ program under Lisa Correa.

Before arriving at Syracuse in 2019, Flynn coached goalkeepers at Wright State. Coaching is what he does for a living, but Flynn has no designs on a head coaching role in soccer.

“I have a very limited set of skills, so I try to stay in my lane and make the most of what I’ve got,” Flynn said. “I love goalkeeping, I love working with goalkeepers.”

That goes for coaching, as well.

“There’s just so many things going on at that stage in peoples’ lives,” Flynn said. “You get to play a role in how people develop, which I really enjoy.”