More Than Wins: How Nick Malvai Is Rebuilding Purchase Women’s Soccer

By Kat Cordoba

On a practice field at Purchase College, Head Coach Hardeepak “Nick” Malvai of women’s soccer talks about a defense, less as a strategy and more as a mindset.

​“When you’re chasing the ball alone, you’re isolated,” he said. “If one person is chasing, nothing happens. But if you chase collectively, something happens.”

​He is talking about soccer, of course, but the idea also captures something larger about who he is now. At this point in his life, Malvai is more than just the coach of the Purchase women’s soccer team. He is someone rebuilding a program, mentoring young athletes and coaching with a completely different perspective after nearly losing his life.

Malvai's official headshot (Photo courtesy of Purchase College Athletics)

​When he got to Purchase in August 2021, just before preseason, Malvai inherited a roster that looked less like a serious college program and more like an intramural group of friends.

​The rebuild started with standards. Fitness had not been emphasized the way he believed it needed to be. Recruiting was limited. His position itself was initially part-time, meaning much of the unseen work such as calls, texts, emails and relationship-building happened on his own time.

Stephanie Santora, a former player of Malvai’s who now works alongside him, said one of the biggest differences he has brought is steadiness.

“Consistency and recruiting have been huge,” she said. “Nick broke the ‘two-year’ curse.”

Before he arrived, the women’s soccer program went through 11 head coaches from fall 2007 to fall 2021, with none lasting more than two seasons. Now, the stability of having a steady coach has started to change the culture.

“The recruiting classes keep getting stronger, and so does the talent on the team,” said Santora.

For Malvai, rebuilding the team has never just been about finding talented players. It has been about building the right kind of group.

“I’m not worried about a single star player,” Malvai explained. “What matters is how the group functions as a whole.”

A lot of that mindset comes from Malvai’s own background. He grew up in India in a family that often moved because of his father’s position in the Indian Army. His mother was a surgical nurse. He played many different sports growing up, including cricket, tennis, badminton, table tennis, and hockey on roller skates. Sports were a part of his life, but so was academic pressure.

Later, at St. Johns College in India, he played soccer and studied political science, earning his master's in English literature, an academic background that still shapes the way he thinks.

“Literature teaches you to understand people,” Malvai stated.

Malvai does care about winning, but he also seems deeply interested in understanding how people think, how they respond to pressure and what helps them grow.

At 21, he came to the United States after visiting relatives in Miami and ended up staying. It was a major change. He left behind a more comfortable life and had to figure out how to live on his own in a completely different environment.

That experience of adjustment and self-discipline seems to have shaped the way he sees young athletes now. He understands pressure, transition and uncertainty, and he brings that awareness into the way he coaches college players still figuring out who they are.

Malvai did not originally plan on being a soccer coach.

His coaching journey started when his two daughters were 6 and 8 and playing on a recreational soccer team. After a game that resulted in a tough loss, and instead of helping the children learn from it, the coach began to berate them. Malvai was stunned. When he confronted him, the coach challenged him to do better.

“The coach said to me, ‘If you would like to step in and coach, be my guest.’ So I did,” Malvai said.

That story still echoes in the way he coaches now. Malvai does not want players stepping onto the field afraid of mistakes.

“We don’t want players thinking, ‘If I mess up, I’m going to get yelled at,’” he said. “That’s not our philosophy.”

Instead, he treats mistakes as part of the learning process. Practice is where errors should happen, because that is where players improve. He is demanding, while emphasizing to his players that correction is not the same thing as humiliation.

Over the years, Malvai has learned that coaching women requires awareness in how feedback is delivered. Players can internalize things differently, and what a coach means is not always what a player hears. That has made him more thoughtful about communication and how to push players without overwhelming them.

Santora said that blend of honesty and support is exactly what has always defined him.

“I was the kind of player that wanted honest feedback from my coaches, even if it was hard to hear at times,” she said. “Nick had a way of holding me accountable while still making me feel supported. He wanted me to succeed not just as a player, but as a person.”

For him, toughness is not about being harsh. It is about helping players find another level when things get difficult.

“Toughness isn’t about pushing until you’re exhausted and quitting,” Malvai said, “it’s about finding something extra when you’re tired.”

That message stayed with Santora long after her playing days ended.

“He really instilled the importance of seeing things all the way through and not quitting when things got tough,” said Santora. “It wasn’t just about talent; it was about being dependable and doing your part for the group.”

Sophia Franklin, a junior and current member of the team, said one of the moments that stood out to her most happened off the field. Before Easter weekend, after Franklin shared that she did not have family nearby, Malvai opened up his home to her.

“Even though I had a lot of homework and couldn’t fully take him up on it, the gesture itself meant so much,” Franklin said. “It showed how much he truly cares about us beyond the field.”

Franklin said that care shows up during games too. In tough moments, Malvai has pulled her aside and given her confidence when she needed it most.

“Sometimes, as a player, that’s exactly what you need to push through and find your rhythm again,” Franklin said.

For Franklin, the team culture Malvai has created feels like more than just a sports environment.

“This team has given me lifelong relationships,” she explained. “It’s not just about playing, it’s about building something meaningful together.”

The sentiment reflects what Malvai wants most from his players: “Commitment to each other,” he said. “Not just to me. I’m not the most important person here; the team is.”

Malvai’s influence stretches beyond Purchase. In upstate New York, he helped build the Kingston Area Soccer League, a local nonprofit effort focused on coach education and making the game enjoyable for children.

“It’s not about building an environment of pressure, but building a lasting love for the game,” said Malvai.

Even outside of soccer, Malvai seems to collect communities. He helped start a faculty pickleball group on campus and enjoys tennis, badminton and chess.

In 2023, Malvai’s perspective shifted in a major way. Malvai was on campus and playing pickleball when he suffered a massive heart attack. He collapsed. The people around him, including campus police, performed CPR for about 45 minutes. The whole incident is still a blur for Malvai.  

“The last thing I remember is hitting a ball, dropping to my knees, and feeling like I was going to throw up,” he recalled.

He later learned how close he had come to dying. Malvai had been experiencing symptoms of chest pain and shortness of breath before but ignored them.

“Now I tell everyone: don’t ignore those signs,” Malvai said passionately. “It’s better to get checked than to go through something like this.”

The experience gave him a different perspective. It did not make soccer less important, but it changed the scale of what mattered.

“Don’t stress over things that don’t truly matter,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re playing soccer. It’s important, but it’s not life or death.”

Even after a heart attack, Malvai returned to coaching quickly, back in time for the Fall season. He returned with a clearer understanding of what he wants, not just from himself, but from the program.

For Malvai, success is not simply about wins. A season around 500 would put Purchase in a strong position to compete for the playoffs, especially if the roster continues to grow. Depth matters. Competition within the team matters. Accountability matters.

Still, he does not judge success only by record. Winning a handful of games would not satisfy him. Instead, he is looking for something deeper: signs that the team is becoming what he envisioned when he first arrived.

Franklin said that vision has already changed her.

“Since coming in as a freshman, I’ve grown so much under him both as a player and as a person,” she said. “Instead of just thinking about improving myself, I now think about how I can make the team better as a whole.”

That shift, from self to team, is exactly the lesson Malvai wants his players to carry with them.

Malvai is a coach in the middle of building. He is competitive enough to keep pushing a program forward, reflective enough to admit that fear almost cost him his life and caring enough that players and colleagues describe him as someone who shows up for people.

For Malvai, success looks like more than wins. It looks like trust, growth and a team learning how to become something bigger than itself.