JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It took Mike Pickett a moment before he realized he’d said it right.
The iconic girls soccer head coach who resigned from St. Johns Country Day last month is headed to Bolles to help get the Bulldogs back on track.
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“Still sounds weird saying it,” Pickett said.
Just over two weeks after his shock resignation at St. Johns, a powerhouse he led to a staggering 15 state championships, Bolles announced the hiring of Pickett on Friday afternoon as the program’s new head coach. Pickett went 571-72-41 in 28 seasons leading the Spartans and won a state-record 11 consecutive championships.
He takes over for another coaching legend, Matt Tracy, who stepped down after the season and six state championships.
Pickett said he called Tracy before accepting the job to get his blessing. As much as Pickett is identified with St. Johns, Bolles is equally as identifiable with Tracy.
“Big shoes to fill. Matt’s a great coach and one of my best friends. Out of respect for him, I called him and said, ‘are you OK if I do this?’ He said ‘absolutely.’ Whoever St. Johns hires is not going to be me, and I’m not going to be Matt,” Pickett said. “Matt’s laid back. As you know, I wear my emotions on my sleeve. His heart beats about four times a minute and mine beats about 200 times a minute.”
Bolles finished back-to-back nine-win seasons with a loss in the second round of the state playoffs. The Bulldogs have stumbled a bit in recent seasons, and Pickett said that he wanted to coach again at a program that wasn’t at the top.
“It’s what attracted me to it. It may sound weird at this point in my career, but after resigning, I had a couple offers that stirred up the emotions again,” Pickett said. “I told my wife I’m not done coaching. I don’t think I could do it [retire and walk away] right now.”
Pickett built the Spartans into a national powerhouse during 28 seasons at his alma mater. The Spartans’ 15 state championships are tied for the most in Florida history with St. Thomas Aquinas.
Pickett, 61, was careful to say that he was only resigning from St. Johns and not retiring after his surprise departure on March 31. He said his process at Bolles will be based on what he perfected at St. Johns, a coach and develop system that begins well before a varsity soccer game. The Spartans were constantly elite because Pickett developed talent from the grassroots and up.
His coaching investment began at the middle school level and it paid off. By the time players arrived in middle school, they were coached up in the Pickett system. That led to a seamless transition across more than two decades that allowed the Spartans to grow well beyond their Class 1A enrollment number. St. Johns was consistently one of the best girls soccer programs in the country.
The 2017 Spartans went 25-0 and claimed the school’s first national title. The 2018 team added a 26-0 record and second national title, part of a stretch where the Spartans won 78 consecutive games and went unbeaten through 87 straight.
“If you don’t have relationships, you don’t have anything. Rules are for people who can’t read. The standard runs in people’s veins. They want it. They breathe it. They live it,” Pickett said. “If I can get it to that point at Bolles … we’ll turn things around and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Pickett said he’s excited and has a bit of nerves about going to a new place. He attended St. Johns Country Day as a student and spent 28 years as the head coach. He replaces another coaching legend in Tracy, whose sixth and final championship came in 2020. Only Pickett (15) and Dave Silverberg (nine) have more titles than Tracy. Silverberg won four at Nease and led Ponte Vedra to five.
“Early on I absolutely based [success] on trying to win championships. As I got older, I understood something that was more important than the wins,” Pickett said. “When I quit chasing championships and starting chasing souls, that’s when there was a difference. It took a while but now it’s about the culture and the process. The rest will come.”