Rob Donnenwirth enters his 10th season at the helm of the women's soccer program at East Carolina University. He has guided the Lady Pirates to five 10-plus win seasons in nine years and has become the winningest coach in school history with 84 victories. Coming off of a 9-5-5 season in 2007, Donnenwirth will look to a young, yet experienced group to help ECU make its fifth consecutive Conference USA Tournament appearance and its first-ever NCAA appearance. Last year, Donnenwirth guided his squad to its sixth C-USA Tournament qualification in the past seven seasons after recording an eighth-place finish in the standings. Prior to arriving at ECU, Donnenwirth spent five years as the head coach at North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, N.C. Under his guidance, the Battling Bishops enjoyed tremendous success, including four trips to the NCAA Division III Tournament. At North Carolina Wesleyan, he amassed a record of 62-26-9. In Donnenwirth's first year as head coach, the Bishops advanced to the NCAA Final Four and finished the season 15-3-3. Chris Webb and Trish Parker, former ECU assistant coaches, were a part of that squad and Parker was named the Division III National Player-of-the-Year. In his tenure at N.C. Wesleyan, Donnenwirth's teams won four Dixie Conference titles and made the NCAA Tournament field three times. The Bishop players were highly decorated as three were named All-Americans, two were chosen Dixie Conference Players-of-the-Year and three were picked as the conference's Rookie-of-the-Year. Individually, Donnenwirth was recognized several times while at N.C. Wesleyan. He was named the NCAA South Regional Coach-of-the-Year two times and the Dixie Conference Coach-of-the-Year three times. Donnenwirth has a wealth of experience in the Olympic Development Programs, in which he currently serves on the United States Region III ODP coaching staff. He has also served eight years as a North Carolina ODP coach, spending time with the under-13 and under-15 girl's teams. Currently, he is the director of the Pitt Greenville Soccer Association's traveling and recreational programs of Pitt County as is president of the Soccer Express, a community soccer camp business that has attracted over 3,000 youth and adult campers in the U.S. and Canada. Donnenwirth also served as an assistant with the James Madison men's and women's teams and the University of Massachusetts men's squad. As a player, Donnenwirth guided West Virginia Wesleyan College to back-to-back NAIA National Championships in 1984 and 1985 and was named a NAIA Honorable Mention All-American in 1987 as a goalkeeper. He earned a B.S. in marketing from West Virginia Wesleyan in 1988 and his M.B.A. from James Madison in 1990. Donnenwirth and his wife, Rosy, have three children; Allison (14), Madison (10) and Carly (8). |
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