NORMAL, Ill. - Completing his coaching staff for the upcoming Illinois State women's soccer season, head coach Drew Roff has appointed Shawn Mecchi as the assistant Redbird women's soccer coach. Mecchi's appointment is effective immediately.
Mecchi, who joins current ISU assistant Shaunna Daugherty, takes over for former assistant Jason Burr, who left Illinois State to fill an assistant coaching vacancy at Arkansas State.
Roff believes that Mecchi is a great addition to the staff and will help in various assistant coaching capacities.
"Shawn is a very good young coach that has been around two very successful programs so far in his coaching career," said Roff. "He has coached with programs that have made trips to both the Division II and Division III national championships so our goal is to get him to the Division I NCAA tournament. Shawn understands what it takes to get to that level and comes to Illinois State with a lot of enthusiasm. We're looking for him to help with various coaching aspects, especially recruiting, where I think he will be very successful."
Roff and Mecchi spent last season together at the University of Indianapolis, where Mecchi served as an assistant to Roff with the women's soccer squad, while also performing assistant coaching duties with the Greyhounds' men's soccer team. The tandem led Indianapolis' women's team to the NCAA Division II Tournament, after collecting the 2006 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship. At Indianapolis, Mecchi conducted all goalkeeper training and game preparation for the men's and women's teams, while assisting the head coaches with recruiting, match preparation and analysis.
Prior to Indianapolis, Mecchi worked at his alma mater, the College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., filling the assistant women's soccer coach post from August, 2005 to December, 2006. Helping coach the team to a 22-1 record in 2005, the Lions won the NJAC regular season title and were named tournament champions, advancing to the 2005 NCAA national finals.
Mecchi was a four-year starter at the College of New Jersey, where he served as a team captain and collected all-conference honors. The Pittsgrove, N.J., native earned his bachelors of arts degree from the College of New Jersey in May, 2006.
With a long history around the game of soccer, Mecchi has served as the head coach for the Dynamo FC '91 girls team and the goalkeeping director for the Dynamo club since August 2006. Joining the organization in 2002, Mecchi continues to work as a camp director and staff coach with SoccerPlus Camps out of Farmington, Conn., instructing college-bound and top-level high school goalkeepers in technical and tactical aspects of the position.¬
Mecchi is excited about this new opportunity at Illinois State and has goals of helping the program restore its tradition.
"Drew and I worked very well together at Indianapolis and complemented one another as coaches," said Mecchi. "I'm looking to bring my energy to this program and help focus on the motivational side of the game. I'm looking forward to getting to know the players and help them with their individual goals so Drew can focus more on the overall goals and team process.
"I was impressed with the direction and leadership at Illinois State and where this program is headed," Mecchi continued. "This women's soccer program has a great tradition and is very determined to re-establish itself within the Missouri Valley Conference and then nationally. The program is very well supported within the athletic administration, and I was very impressed with the way the institution is supporting the goals of its athletic department at-large and that is the kind of program I wanted to be involved in."
