Head Coach Rob Donnenwirth Rob Donnenwirth enters his 11th season at the helm of the women's soccer program at East Carolina University. He has guided the Pirates to six 10-plus win seasons in 10 years and his 98 victories make him the winningest coach in school history. The 2008 season was Donnenwirth's most successful as he led ECU to the best overall record in program history at 14-4-4 and a share of the Conference USA Regular Season Championship. Last year the Pirates finished the C-USA season with a 7-0-4 mark, good for the first unbeaten run through league play since Charlotte went 8-0-2 in 2002. East Carolina played in its first C-USA Tournament Championship game last November but fell to Memphis, 4-1, and narrowly missed out on making the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. For his efforts, Donnenwirth received his first C-USA Coach-of-the-Year award and was the Soccer Buzz Southeast Region Coach-of-the-Year runner-up. Last year also saw a Pirate agree to the first United States professional contract in program history as Madison Keller signed with the Washington Freedom of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league. The only other Pirate to sign professionally was Amanda Duffy, who played in Sweden. Keller earned First-Team All-C-USA, National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Second-Team All-South Region, Soccer Buzz Third-Team All-Southeast Region and NSCAA Second-Team Academic All-America accolades in her final campaign under Donnenwirth. 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, going 62-27-9, winning four Dixie Conference titles and making three trips to the NCAA Division III Tournament. In Donnenwirth's first year as the Bishops' head coach, the team advanced to the NCAA Final Four and finished with a 15-3-3 record. 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 Donnenwirth's tenure at N.C. Wesleyan, three Bishop players 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. Donnenwirth was also recognized several times while at N.C. Wesleyan, earning NCAA South Regional Coach-of-the-Year twice and the Dixie Conference Coach-of-the-Year three times. Before heading to N.C. Wesleyan, Donnenwirth served as an assistant with the James Madison men's and women's teams and the University of Massachusetts men's squad. Outside the college ranks, Donnenwirth has a wealth of experience in Olympic Development Programs (ODP). He has been part of the United States Region III ODP coaching staff and has served eight years as a North Carolina ODP coach with the under-13 and under-15 girls' teams. He was formerly the director of the Pitt Greenville Soccer Association's traveling and recreational programs and is currently president of Soccer Express, a community soccer camp business that has attracted over 3,000 youth and adult campers in the U.S. and Canada. 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 (15), Madison (11) and Carly (9). |
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