Current time in Baltimore 1:29 p.m. Friday, July 4, 2008
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Mark Mettrick is in his eighth year as Loyola College's men's soccer coach, having won 69 matches in his first seven seasons with the program. Since his arrival at Evegreen, the Greyhounds have captured five regular season MAAC titles and have advanced to two NCAA Tournaments, playing in the NCAA Round of 16 in 2001. Mettrick has also mentored a pair of MAAC Player of the Year recipients and has earned MAAC Coach of the Year, NSCAA South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year and NEC Coach of the Year honors along the way.
Named Loyola's eighth head soccer coach in January of 2000, Mettrick has built upon the rich tradition of Greyhound soccer and continues to challenge the program with a top-notch non-conference schedule and lofty expectations for the MAAC season.
The Greyhounds advanced to their 17th consecutive MAAC Championship Tournament in 2006 and landed three players on the conference's first-team. Despite falling short of the NCAA Tournament the past couple seasons, those campaigns were still marked with success with big program wins and individual accomplishments from players like Steve Coleman and Omar Alfonso. Coleman took home the John R. Mohler Award as Loyola's top senior male student-athlete in areas of athletics, scholarship and character, while Alfonso was named the MAAC Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and garnered two regional All-America honors over the past three seasons.
In 2001, the Greyhounds took home the regular season MAAC title and also earned a trip to the NCAA tournament after winning the conference championship match against Marist. Senior Reb Beatty was named the league's Goalkeeper of the Year for the fourth consecutive season while Niall Lepper earned MAAC Player of the Year honors under Mettrick's guidance. Both were also named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) South Atlantic regional first-team, and the `Hounds closed out the year with a loss to Furman in the NCAA postseason. A deserving winner of the 2001 NSCAA South Atlantic Regional "Coach of the Year" award, Mettrick was at the helm for one of the finest seasons in program history. After losing their season opener to California on August 31, the Greyhounds went unbeaten in their next 19 games (17-0-2) before falling at second-ranked Saint Louis in the NCAA Round of 16. Mettrick also led Loyola to its first MAAC tournament championship since 1996, and the NCAA appearance for the program was its first since 1993.
In 2000, his first season as head coach, Mettrick led the Greyhounds to a MAAC regular-season championship and a 12-4-1 overall record. Just as in 2001, his Greyhounds ranked highly in several statistical categories nationally, finishing in the Top-10 in the country in fewest goals allowed.
Mettrick, now 42, came to the Evergreen Campus after six very impressive seasons as the head coach at Mount Saint Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md.
Named head coach at The Mount prior to the 1994 season, Mettrick shaped the Mountaineers' program into one of the finest in the Northeast Conference (NEC). He guided the school to five winning seasons and two NEC championship games, including the 1999 championship game, where the Mountaineers dropped a tough 2-1 decision to UMBC.
Known for developing a rich pool of talent at each of his coaching stops, Mettrick has coached 39 Loyola players to All-MAAC status, including two Player of the Year, a Rookie of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year honorees. He had five players named All-NEC following the 1999 campaign at Mount Saint Mary's, including the conference's Rookie of the Year, and an All-South Atlantic Region team member.
Also a two-time "Coach of the Year" honoree in the Northeast Conference, Mettrick first won the award in 1994, his first season as a collegiate head coach. He led the Mountaineers to an 11-6-2 campaign, including a 2-1 upset of then 14th-ranked Maryland. He then won the award a second time in 1996 after leading the squad to the conference semifinals.
Mettrick, a native of Manchester, England, played for Manchester United (English Premier Soccer League) as a youth. He is a 1988 graduate of Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. An outstanding soccer player in his own right, Mettrick was a two-time NCAA Division I first-team All-America selection for the powerful Harwick College men's soccer program in addition to being a Dean's List student.
He currently ranks among the leaders on Hartwick's all-time scoring list with 109 career points, and his 41 points as a freshman in 1984 rank him fourth on the single-season scoring list. Mettrick scored 46 career goals, tying for fourth on the all-time list, including 17 his freshman season.
Following graduation, Mettrick was a first-round selection of the Baltimore Blast of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), going on to star for that organization from 1988-92. During that span, he helped lead the Blast to two consecutive MISL championship game appearances and earned a nomination to the league's All-Star team in 1992. He then moved on to serve as an assistant coach at Mount Saint Mary's in 1993 before taking over the head coaching position the following season.
In addition to his coaching duties at Loyola, Mettrick runs the highly-successful Mark Mettrick Professional Soccer Schools in the summer months throughout the State of Maryland.
Mettrick currently resides in the Wiltondale section of Baltimore County with his wife, Jennifer, their son, Matthew and daughter Haley.
