Ross Moynihan is a throw-back.

When adult competitive soccer in Sudbury was at its apex, the city was flush with immigrants looking to Canada for career opportunities, carrying the love of the game they had always known with them and pushing the level of play locally to higher and higher heights.

One could certainly make the argument that this is the end goal for Moynihan, a 30 year-old native of Ireland (Cork County, to be specific) who is now at the helm of the Sudbury Cyclones women’s team, midway through their inaugural season of Ontario League2 play in the north.

And it was both work and sport that initially carried the fresh out of high-school teen to the opportunities offered via the Challenger Sports Camp summer sessions.

The states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Texas (albeit for a short stint) all had their shot at building roots with Moynihan, but it was the northern Ontario mining town that eventually succeeded. Sure, a great deal of the credit goes to Jenna Bond, a former synchronized swimmer and world traveller and now wife to the friendly Irishman.

But some of the credit should be doled out to a soccer community that has a long and storied history of welcoming those who arrive from countries where soccer is a religion – even if in Bandon (Ireland), homestead of the future aspiring coach, the sport took a backseat to hurling – and perhaps even Gaelic football.

“I wasn’t the best player but I was definitely a top leader,” said Moynihan, looking back on a youthful soccer run that would find the talkative gent who pursued his university degree back home in his mid-twenties named as team captain more often than not.

“I was a student of the game, as they say.”

That apple had not wandered off far at all from the tree, his own father having coached him in his youth. “But he was born in the fifties and was player the soccer of the fifties in the 2000s. That doesn’t work now.”

Besides, Ross had his own personality to which he must be true, multiple factors influencing the approach upon which he would settle, a style that tends to remain constant regardless of whether he is tackling a Sudburnia recreational coed team (as he did in the summer of 2023, not long after he and Jenna settled in this area for good), or guiding a very mixed bag of talent that forms this first ever version of Cyclones’ women’s soccer.

“My coaching style is definitely player centered – and focuses on guiding and discovery,” said Moynihan. “I don’t tell you when to pass, how to pass, where to pass. You make that decision and then we can discuss it so you figure out the pieces of the puzzle.”

“On the field, you can’t hear the coach so it’s what’s in your head that you will go to first. When they get it wrong, it just means they haven’t got it right, just yet. My coaching style reflects that.”

To be clear, the adjustment to soccer, as it exists in Sudbury, has not been completely seamless.

There were obstacles to be overcome, even as Moynihan was just barely dipping his toes into the very starting point of youth soccer in this country. Sudburnia Soccer was not the final destination, but it was an important first step.

“There was a language barrier for me, a coaching barrier for me, a level of soccer barrier for me – but we had such good fun,” he recalled of that one short summer. “I had a nice little group and we had an amazing season.”

Through the guidance of co-worker and former Cambrian College standout and GSSC coach Nick Walker, Moynihan would be steered towards Connor Vande Weghe and the Impact U21 women’s team last summer – just weeks before the start of regular season play.

Bringing Laurentian Voyageurs product and sports psychologist Cole Giffin on board – the pair quickly formed a strong bond – Moynihan knew he had latched on to something.

“This is a calling, something I’ve been waiting for,” he reflected.

Mix that with a typical Irish stubborn streak and one has the makings of the birth of a new team under the SWSE umbrella. “We could let these players who needed a place to play maybe go down south and potentially lose them forever – or we could start building a women’s program.”

The Sudbury Cyclones needed to add a women’s team to their menu and Ross Moynihan was not about to take no for an answer.

Starting the season with a bang (a 1-0 home field win over Pickering), the Cyclones followed that up with five straight losses. That said, the fifth setback was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Whitby SC in a contest the locals felt they held the upper hand pretty much the entire game.

The boost from that effort gave way to back to back wins and these days, Moynihan is wearing his heart on his sleeves, excited for the final six game stretch.

(*this story was prepared for South End Living magazine in mid-June - since writing the story, the Cyclones have battled back to an even .500 record of 6-6-0, with two winnable games remaining on the schedule)

“The trajectory is looking good and the vibes are high,” he said.

Just as it was in the heyday of soccer in Sudbury some fifty years ago.