By Luke Mich, Sports Editor
Saint Vincent College announced the hiring of Bryan Butler on Jan. 14. Butler, who will be the new head coach for the women’s soccer program, explained his decision to come coach for the Bearcats.
“For me, this place was a no-brainer to work for,” Butler said. “Playing (soccer) at Geneva, I am very familiar with all the schools, so I know what this conference is all about. There is a strong support for athletics here from the college, so for me, that shows they care about athletics and are interested in the development of the programs.”
Before arriving at Latrobe to start coaching, Butler coached for seven years at three different colleges. He started out his coaching career at Geneva College as an assistant coach during the 2015-2016 season. After that, he acted as the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at DeSales University from 2016-2020, and he followed up with similar coaching roles at Montclair State University from 2020-2022.
Now, at Saint Vincent College, Butler listed his plans to facilitate team culture.
“We are going to focus on the little details of everything we do and make sure our preparation and execution is spot on. Our team quote is ‘True greatness consists in being great in the little things’ and that is what our team will embody and everything we do (will embody).”
Butler has his eyes set on the future, both long-term and short-term. For him, a successful inaugural season is to improve step by step, completing his short-term goals of increasing training and fitness habits, embodying the team culture, creating a consistent style of play and making the conference playoffs.
“A successful season would be to be able to accomplish our short-term goals with continuous growth and improvement from the girls each day. We want to take positive strides forward each and every day,” Butler replied. “And I feel if we can do that, then this program will experience a big change in this first year, and that is massive in our quest to be contenders.”
Butler added that he only had one long term goal: to have a consistent conference championship contending squad each and every season. Although they are not in season now, next fall, the women’s soccer team will have a new, fresh approach under Butler’s guidance.