This week Coach Bryce Colby earned his 400th career win with the Niskayuna Varsity Girls Soccer team. Most would agree that’s an undeniable milestone, but to Colby, it’s not about the numbers.
“It’s the people and it’s the kids and it’s the moments,” he said.
Colby has been coaching the team since the mid-90s. Though he retired from his teaching position at Iroquois Middle School in the 2023-2024 school year, he had no plans of hanging up his (bucket) hat as a coach.
“I just couldn’t see it,” Colby said. “This is the this is the best part of my year. I love the fall. I love interacting with the families and the kids and the excitement of fall sports, returning to school.”
When Colby inherited the role, the program had already become a force, with the team winning a state championship the year prior.
But, that wasn’t always the case. In the inaugural year of the girls soccer
program, the team had just four brown rubber balls to practice with. They wore old basketball uniforms on the field and their record was four and nine.
“The girls got together after the season and said, ‘What are we going to do to make sure that we’re better next year?’ And one of the first things they decided was we’re going to be careful and proud of our gear because we can control that.”
Colby still delivers what he calls “the brown ball speech” at the start of every season. He feels it sets expectations of analysis, accountability and collaboration that have become longstanding traditions of the girls soccer program at Nisky.
Colby also credits his wife Eleanor “Ellie” Colby, also a retired Nisky teacher and girls soccer program alumna, with helping him set that tone.
“She has been very helpful in building and helping me be consistent with what I’ll call culture, which is yeah, it’s the soccer, but it’s all the stuff that surrounds the soccer and that bleeds through into everything else in little pieces.”
Players past and present agree, the lessons they’ve learned under Coach Colby’s guidance extend far beyond throw-ins and corner kicks.
“I think the one thing that Coach Colby has always taught me is that it’s more than just a game,” senior Kyra Buhrmaster said. “I know so many things about how to talk to other people because I’m a captain, but also because Colby helps me with that.”
“He always puts your feelings and how you feel towards the game and how you’re feeling as a player first and then puts the game second,” said senior Elyse Gernstenbluth.
Alumna Ashley Mastrianni (née Cannabush) ’01, who now teaches at Birchwood Elementary School, feels she and her teammates performed exceptionally well because they cared about each other on and off the field.
“I feel like that was one of the things that he always really did a nice job with, was making us shine in whatever our strengths were,” Mastrianni said. “We won state championships when we were I was there. But I think he really taught us, beyond the soccer field, how to be good people and to take care of each other.”
Congratulations to Coach Colby and the Varsity Girls Soccer team on this accomplishment!
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