Division I
University of Connecticut - Big East
Providence College - Big East
University of Wisconsin – Big Ten
UMass-Amherst - Atlantic-10
Bryant University - NEC
Temple University - Atlantic-10
Division III
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Liberty
Amherst College - NESCAC
Bates College - NESCAC
Lesley University - NECC
*Additional coaches will be added in the upcoming weeks. Check back with us on our website for weekly updates. Coaching staff subject to change.
ZAC SHAW – University of Connecticut
Co-director of Girls Collegiate Soccer Academy
Shaw had previously served as the head coach at Rhode Island from 2005-10, earning Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year honors in 2005. During his tenure at URI, Shaw led the Rams to a 48-46-6 record while recruiting Women's National Team members from Iceland, Canada, Finland and Guyana along with 2007 Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Year Jessica Babice. Shaw was a finalist for the 2007 NSCAA Northeast Regional Coach of the Year award.
Prior to his time at Rhode Island, Shaw spent one season at Florida and one season at Wisconsin as an assistant coach. While at Florida in 2004-05, Shaw helped led the Gators to the SEC Regular Season and Tournament Championship. Florida ended the 2004-05 season with a No. 9 national ranking.
At Wisconsin from 2003-04, Shaw recruited a class that finished the 2004 season at 16-5-1 after going 10-9-2 in 2003.
Shaw began his Division I coaching career at Penn State from 1998-2000…(read more)
CORD FARMER – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Co-director of Girls Collegiate Soccer Academy
Farmer was named the head coach of the Rensselaer women's soccer team in May of 2008.
In two seasons at the helm, Farmer has produced a record of 12-20-1. Four of his players have garnered year-end All-Liberty League recognition, while 26 student-athletes have been named to the conference's All-Academic squad.
Farmer, a native of Old Forge, N.Y., was an assistant coach with the University of Wisconsin’s women’s soccer team prior to arriving at Rensselaer. He was the head coach of the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford men’s team in the fall of 2006 before departing to join the Badgers’ staff…(read more)
David Merson – PT, DPT, ATC Director of Sports Medicine
David Merson, a certified athletic trainer (ATC) and licensed physical therapist (PT), earned both a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree in 2009 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Athletic Training in 2006 from Boston University. David is employed full time as a senior staff physical therapist at Boston Sports Medicine, a part-time as an athletic trainer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a game day operations staff member for the New England Revolution.
During his time at Boston University, David became a published author in Athletic Therapy Today, an athletic training peer reviewed journal, for his original case study. Throughout graduate school he served as a Resident Assistant, the Director of Operations for the Men's soccer team, and as an Administrative Assistant for the undergraduate Athletic Training Program.
David's interest and experience with soccer stems from 15 years of involvement with the New England Revolution in varying capacities: equipment manager intern, volunteer, and game day operations staff member. The experience with professional soccer lead him to choose his career in sports medicine.
The 2012 academy sessions will represent David's 3rd year as Director of Sports Medicine at the Collegiate Soccer Academy.
BRENDAN FAHERTY – University of Massachusetts – Amherst
Brendan Faherty begins his second season as an assistant coach for the Minutewomen under Ed Matz.
Faherty came to UMass after serving as head coach at New Haven for eight seasons where he became the winningest coach in program history with 82 career victories. He led the Chargers to six straight postseason berths and the school's first two appearances in the Division II NCAA Tournament, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2005. Faherty was recognized as the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year that season, as well, after the team captured the league's regular season crown.
Under his watch, New Haven women's soccer saw its first four All-America honors, three straight conference Player of the Year award winners and the first Academic All-American in the program's existence. ... (read more)
KYLE BAK – Providence College
Kyle Bak enters his first season of work with the Providence College women's soccer team. Kyle was the goalkeeper for Western New England College from 2006-2010, where he started 39 games and recorded 18 shutouts. Kyle coached at Salve Regina University as an assistant coach and goalkeeper coach for the men's team for the 2010 season. Kyle also coached at LaSalle Academy as an assistant varsity coach for both the boy's and girl's programs during the 2010 season. Kyle has also worked as a New England Revolution Youth Academy Trainer since January 2011. He holds his bachelor's degree in Business Administration.
PATRICK FARMER – University of Wisconsin
Patrick Farmer enters his third year as an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin. Prior to his start at UW, Farmer spent 19 seasons as a collegiate head coach, where he accumulated a 261-97-40 (.706) record. In 2007 Farmer was ranked as the 13th-winningest coach (by victories) among active NCAA Division 1 women's soccer coaches. He has achieved tremendous success at all levels of the collegiate game, as well as in the professional and high school ranks. For more than 30 years, Farmer has made his impact as a coach and teacher. Farmer arrives to Wisconsin from Syracuse where he led the Orange to a 23-41-9 record, including a 7-8-4 mark in 2007. He led Syracuse to the 2005 Big East tournament for the first time since 2001. Farmer joins Wilkins and associate coach Tim Rosenfeld after coaching together at Penn State where Farmer was the head coach from 1994-2000. Farmer hired Wilkins on as an assistant where she stayed until getting the head coaching job upon Farmers departure. Rosenfeld was also an assistant to Farmer from 1996-1998... (read more)
Walker Boyd - Amherst College
Walker Boyd, enters his first year with the Lord Jeffs after serving as an assistant men's soccer coach at the University of Massachusetts for the last three seasons. During his time with the Minutemen, Boyd was responsible for developing and coaching the goalkeeper training sessions and played an integral role in helping to guide the squad to an Atlantic 10 regular season title and NCAA Tournament berth in 2008.
Prior to joining the UMass staff, Boyd held coaching positions at his alma mater Frostburg State, Elmira, Lynchburg and Dartmouth, working with both men's and women's programs along the way. He has also worked with several boys and girls clubs since 2004 and has spent the last four years with the Virginia Olympic Development Program.
Kelsey Ross - Bates College
In April of 2011, Bates Director of Athletics Kevin McHugh announced the appointment of Maine native and former Bates assistant coach Kelsy Ross as the seventh head coach of the Bates College women’s soccer team.
“We are thrilled to welcome Kelsy Ross as Bates College’s new women’s soccer coach,” said McHugh. “The search committee did a superb job with the process and narrowed down a very competitive field of more than 100 applicants to three outstanding finalists. Through the interview session, Kelsy established herself as the clear choice to be the new head coach. She has a unique combination of coaching experience and considerable soccer knowledge, competitive zeal and infectious energy that promises to lead the program to new heights.”
With her coaching savvy, drive and enthusiasm, Ross made an immediately strong and positive impact on the team in the 2010 season, assisting former head coach Jim Murphy in his final season of leading the team before the College last month split the head women’s soccer/women’s basketball coach held by Murphy for 17 years... (read more)
STEPHANIE ZALEWSKI - Bryant University
Stephanie Zalewski enters her second season in 2011 as a member of Bryant’s coaching staff. In 2010, she guided the squad to a record of 5-13-2. The Bulldogs, predicted to finish eighth in the NEC in the preseason coaches' poll beat that forecast finishing seventh, and gave some of the top teams in the conference scares in the process.
Before returning to her alma mater, Zalewski spent two years as the Assistant Women’s Soccer Coach at Division III Drew University in Madison, NJ. Over the past two years, Zalewski has also coached and trained teams in the Parsippany Soccer Club, leading the current U15G to the Super Y-League National Semi-Finals in 2009.As a member of Bryant’s class of 2008, Zalewski was a critical piece of the Bulldog attack during their final four years at the Division II level, playing in 88 games, the most in school history.
Zalewski helped the Bulldogs set a program record of 17 wins in 2007 while reaching No. 2 in the nation and finishing the season at No. 13 in Division II. Zalewski had career totals of 14 goals and seven assists while also garnering Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic honors in 2007. In her tenure as a Bulldog, her team was two-time Northeast-10 Conference Finalists and appeared twice in the NCAA Tournament...(read more)
Kelly Lynch – Temple University
Kelly Lynch is in her first seaosn on the Owls coaching staff serving as the team's graduate assistant under head coach Matt Gwilliam.
The Mullica Hill, N.J. native comes to Temple after completing undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech in 2011 she earned a degree in business marketing. As a defender for the Hokies, she played in all 86 games, which tied her with classmate Jennifer Harvey with the school's record for most games played in a career.
Lynch started a school-record 85 games during her career at Virginia Tech and was part of a defensive unit that helped Virginia Tech record back-to-back, school-record nine shutout seasons (2008 and 2009).
In 2008, Lynch participated as a member of the U.S. Under-20 Women's Soccer National Team player pool.
At the conclusion of her senior year, she was honored with the team's Coaches' Award along with a Top Six for Service Award for her work in the community. In addition to that, she was also recognized with the athletic department's Strength and Conditioning award.
As a freshman, she anchored a defense that allowed a program-record-low 20 goals in a single season, helping her be named to the All-Mid-Atlantic and All-ACC Freshman Teams.
Before her playing days at Virginia Tech, she led club team FC DELCO Lightning to the Jefferson Cup and to two Eastern Pennsylvania State Championships and was named Gatorade Rookie of the Year.
PAUL VASCONCELOS - Lesley University
Paul Vasconcelos is in his fifth year as head coach for the women's soccer team at Lesley University.
In his first year, the women's program made a remarkable turn around, improving to 14-4-1 in the 2007 season and getting into the record books as the NCAA All-Time Most Improved Division III program in the country. As a result Vasconcelos was selected as the 2007 North Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year.
Over the next two seasons, Vasconcelos led the Lynx to a combined 31-8-3 record. In both the 2008 and 2009 seasons Lesley reached the New England Collegiate Conference Championship match, winning in 2009 over Mitchell College.
The Lynx returned to the title game again in 2010, when Vasconcelos was named NECC Coach of the Year for an unprecedented third consecutive season. He has now coached a total of 15 All-Conference players, including a Player of the Year and two Rookies of the Year...(read more)
SCOTT BLACK - Boston University
Co-director of Girls Collegiate Soccer Academy
Scott Black returns to the 2011 Men's America East Coaching Staff of the Year for his fifth season, bringing a wealth of coaching and playing experience to the Terrier squad. During his tenure in Boston, Black spends most of his time as the recruiting coordinator, scouting and training the team, but also assists in all facets of the soccer program, including budgeting, academic advising, scheduling and fundraising.
The first two recruting classes that he brought to Nickerson Field were nationally ranked. During the 2009 campaign, the Terriers were one of seven teams to be ranked in the Soccer America Top-25 poll for the first seven weeks of the season and ranked 13th nationally.
Black debuted on the college coaching scene with Penn State in 2001. During his tenure, Penn State made the NCAA tournament four out of five years (including one Elite Eight and two Sweet Sixteen finishes) and won two Big Ten regular season championships and the Big Ten Tournament. Penn State ended the 2002 season ranked No. 8 and finished the 2005 season ranked No. 10 by the NSCAA.
In 2004, Black helped recruit the 2004 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. That season, two of Penn State recruits were named to the Soccer America Freshman All-America Team. During Black's time at Penn State, the recruiting classes were ranked No. 9 and No. 8 in the nation in 2001 and 2002, respectively, by CollegeSoccerNews. The 2002 class was ranked No. 6 nationally by Soccer America.
Following his tenure with the Nittany Lions, Black moved on to serve at Virginia Tech as the Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator for one season. During his time there, the team earned a NCAA appearance and an 11-8-1 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference, setting the stage for a final four appearance the following season.
Black, a native of Nottingham, England, moved to the United States to pursue a soccer scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) in 1996. During his four year playing career, he was all-conference selection for three seasons. Following his collegiate career, Black played two seasons with the USL D3 Pro-League Cape Cod Crusaders organization, serving as team captain and also as director of media & public relations for Mass Pro Soccer in Boston, Mass.
Black holds a bachelor's degree in communication and public relations from UWGB, a master's of education degree from Penn State University and Premiere, Advanced National and National Coaching Diplomas from the NSCAA.
* The coaches listed above verbally committed to serving on CSA’s staff as of February 21, 2012. Collegiate coach representation subject to change.