As players and coaches streamed onto the field, cheering and embracing after the final whistle blew in the 2021 Patriot League championship, the head coach and his star freshman shared a quiet moment amid the tumult.
Jordy Luchies, a defender from the Netherlands, had played nearly every minute in his first season for Loyola men’s soccer en route to the program’s first Patriot League tournament title. Just a few months prior, head coach Steve Nichols had pleaded with Luchies to play for him rather than sign a professional contract with his hometown club. Then, they became champions.
“Steve and I had a little moment together. He said, ‘Man, imagine if you hadn’t come [to Loyola], we wouldn’t have done this,'” Luchies recalled. “Now, those moments, they stick with you.”
Four years, three first-team All-Patriot League awards and three undergraduate degrees later, Luchies is set to begin his fifth and final collegiate season as a graduate student when the Greyhounds host NJIT on Aug. 21.
Despite some injury woes as a sophomore, Luchies has been one of the most consistent players for Nichols on and off the field, helping steady a program that had won four straight regular-season championships from 2017-2021 but has wobbled in the last three years with injuries, early playoff exits and roster churn.
The 2025 Greyhounds will look much different with the departure of last year’s top three points leaders: Caden Stafford, Jake Sweeney and Sean McEvoy. To backfill the roster, the program announced 12 new additions in July. Among the new faces are four Maryland high school graduates and four international players.
Nichols’ son Richie, a graduate midfielder and McDonogh product, is returning after finishing second on the team in shots (22) a year ago. Senior forward Charlie Herley is back as well. Luchies will anchor the defense along with junior defender Chris Ogor, a Manchester, England, native who won Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2023.
The Greyhounds’ defense will be critically important in the competitive Patriot League. The 2024 squad (4-7-6, 3-3-3 Patriot League) conceded 33 goals, the second-most allowed by the program since Nichols took over in 2014. Luchies sees his curtain-call season as an opportunity to right those wrongs and leave college on a high note.
“My freshman year, we won it all. Sophomore year, I got hurt. Junior year, we came up short,” Luchies said. “Last year, we ended up sixth [in the conference] even though we could have won the league. I just want to win the Patriot League regular season and the tournament and see where we can take it into the NCAA Tournament.”
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Raised in Klazienaveen, a small town in northeast Netherlands a few miles from the border with Germany, Luchies’ family was sports-obsessed. Luchies’ sister is a professional handball player in Hungary. He spent his youth career with his hometown club, FC Emmen, where he eventually served as the U23 team captain.
In the summer of 2021, Luchies was called up to FC Emmen’s first team and played his first professional game, an opportunity of a lifetime for the young Dutchman.
“The first game, I played 90 minutes, and I thought … this is going to be my chance,” Luchies said. “I’m going to get a serious chance and make my boyhood dream and go pro.”
The only problem was that Luchies was set to leave for the U.S. in a few weeks to begin preseason training at Loyola. Luchies called Jamie Darvill, Loyola’s head of international recruitment, and told him he was staying home to take the pro offer. The call sent Darvill into a spiral and led to Nichols frantically calling Luchies to change his mind.
“I was really selling him but after about 20 minutes, I realized I wasn’t getting this kid,” Nichols said. “I was like, ‘Oh man, we’re in trouble.'”
The call ended with Nichols thinking he needed to start looking for a new center back. But a few minutes later, Luchies’ father emailed Nichols. “We don’t walk out on commitments,” he wrote, and included a proposal: Host Jordy for two weeks, and if he doesn’t like it, he returns to the Netherlands to play professionally. If he likes it, he stays in Baltimore.
“I was here for a week and I called home,” Luchies said. “I’m like, ‘Mom, Dad, I’m not coming back. I’ll see you guys in December.'”
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Luchies’ freshman season could not have gone better in justifying the decision to come to Loyola.
Logging a team-high 1,812 minutes, he helped the Greyhounds post 11 shutouts, earning him his first All-Patriot League honor. Aided by a youth career playing against high-level competition in the Netherlands, the 6-foot, 180-pound center back needed little time to transition to college soccer, quickly taking on a leadership role.
“I’ve always been an older player coming from the Netherlands, where the school system is different,” the 24-year-old said. “I was 20 when I came my freshman year and I’ve been a captain since I was a sophomore, so I’ve always been in that leadership role.”
The next three seasons were supposed to bring more of the same success. Instead, all began with promise and ended in disappointment. Retooled rosters and high expectations were followed by injuries, missed opportunities and no championships.
Entering 2022, Luchies was named the Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. But six games in, he went in for a slide tackle and an Army player fell on his knee. He avoided major injury but was forced to miss the rest of the season. Loyola limped to a 4-5-8 record (2-2-5 Patriot League) and missed the conference tournament.
In 2023 and 2024, Luchies’ junior and senior seasons, the Greyhounds were once again expected to contend. In the face of multiple season-ending injuries among his teammates, Luchies helped fill the offensive gaps, finishing with a team-leading four goals and three assists as a junior.
“All of them were [penalty kicks],” Luchies admitted about his goals in 2023. “But you still have to make it. I’m not afraid to step up in the moment. I don’t care what minute it is, I’ll put it in the back of the net.”
His tenacity and aggressiveness were partially what made him such an attractive recruit to Nichols and Darvill. So too were his line-breaking long balls and dangerous crosses into the box.
The latter was on display in the 2023 regular-season finale against American University. In the early minutes, Luchies received a pass on the right side of the field, about 40 yards from goal. He served up a point-perfect ball, finding striker Jake Sweeney, who headed it home.
“He is a pro. His feet are unbelievable. The way he pings the ball, the way he breaks lines. His mind for the game is incredible,” Nichols said.
Luchies has also set the standard as a student-athlete, graduating with degrees in finance, economics and information systems in the spring and has since begun Loyola’s MBA program. After being named to the 2023 Patriot League All-Academic Team, he was awarded the Patriot League Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year in November.
Loyola finished the 2023 season at 7-3-8 but locked up the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League playoffs thanks to a 6-1-2 conference record and incredibly stingy defense with just six goals allowed in nine league games. Still, the Greyhounds lost in the Patriot League semifinals to a lower-ranked Lafayette squad.
The following year, Luchies again showed his versatility, notching two assists and scoring an impressive long-range goal against Lehigh on Senior Day. Luchies’ parents were in the stands as Loyola came away with the 4-1 win. For a moment, it felt like the perfect send-off for Luchies’ college career.
“On Senior Day, to walk on the field with your parents, it’s an emotional event,” he said.
But the natural ending is not always the preferred one. Loyola was bounced from the Patriot League tournament in the quarterfinals, leaving Luchies unsatisfied.
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In mulling his next steps this offseason, Luchies met with Nichols and Darvill to discuss his options. The conversations mirrored the calls the trio had in 2021 when Luchies was deciding his soccer future.
They discussed the successes and failures of the last three years, the roster makeup and tactics, among other issues. Unlike 2021, when the player and coaches were virtually strangers, these conversations now carried the weight of familiarity, history and mutual respect.
“I sat on [Nichols’] couch, I emptied my entire heart and he did, and we found a solution,” Luchies said. “Sitting there and talking about what needs to change and what needs to happen, what makes a program better. Those are the best conversations to have.”
The solution they landed on was for Luchies to return for another season. After school, he could go get a finance job or try playing soccer abroad. Nichols acknowledged that Luchies may have saved the Loyola program by staying, but “we ruined his professional career,” he said, half in jest.
Still, Luchies has dreams of continuing his soccer career somewhere. But first, the 2025 season awaits.
“I came in with a big win, and I want to end it with a big win,” he said. “I don’t care how we’re going to do it, we just have to do it. And that’s as simple as that.”
Photo Credit: Dawson Powers
Issue 294: August / September 2025
Originally published Aug. 13, 2025