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ALUMNI COACHES
Derrick Marinatos
Co Founder
Coach Marinatos is in his eigth year of coaching at UNF. After eight seasons at the helm of the North Florida Men’s Soccer program, Derek Marinatos has quickly transformed the Ospreys into a perennial power in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Ospreys burst onto the national scene in 2015 after capturing the school’s first ever conference championship and a berth into the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament. Coach Marinatos was named the 2015 Atlantic Sun co-Coach of the Year after a 4-0-1 mark in A-Sun play and the school’s first 10-win season in 15 years. Kyle Nasta also won Goalkeeper of the year (Professional with Jacksonville Armada). In 2016, the program reached new heights Nationally, achieving a ranking as high as 22 in the Nation, finishing with a 9-4-2 record and RPI of 38, narrowly missing out on an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. The staff was named 2016 Coaching Staff of the Year again and won the ASUN regular season championship with a record of 5-0-1, going undefeated for the second year in a row. In 2016 eight players again were awarded all-conference honors, highlighted with Jay Bolt (professional with Charleston Battery) as ASUN Defender of the Year. Three players garnered NSCAA All-Region Team awards and Milan Kovacs became the second Academic All-American (COSIDA) in back to back years. In 2015 a total of eight players garnered All-Conference honors, four went on to be named to the NSCAA All-Region team and Helge Pietschmann became the program’s first ever Academic All-American. Alex Morrell also became North Florida’s first ever player invited to the MLS combine and was drafted with the 22nd pick (2nd overall pick in the second round) of the 2016 MLS super draft by the Chicago Fire, becoming North Florida’s first Major League Soccer player.
Hope Clark
Daytona State College has named Hope Clark as its new head women’s soccer coach.
Clark brings 20 years of coaching experience to Daytona State, including 12 as a head coach at the college level. She officially joins the Falcons on June 1.
Clark, who has 113 career college coaching victories, comes from Young Harris College in Georgia, where she spent two years as Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance/Senior Woman Administrator.
She was also head coach at Georgia College and Auburn University-Montgomery.
Dan Pietro
Dan is currently the Program Director for the Paulding County Boys and Girls Club- BGCMA where he provides overall programmatic direction for the Paulding County Boys & Girls Club. Dan was an Assistant Director of LDGA for 9 years and was very instrumental in helping create the Elite program at the LDGA camps. In addition to his position at LDGA, Dan worked at the NASA Tophat Soccer Club where he was the Director of Goalkeepers and coached in the Boys ECNL and RPL programs. Dan was also on the Georgia Olympic Development GK coaching staff.
Diego Casillas
Diego played collegiate soccer at the University of North Georgia and got into coaching shortly after graduation from UNG. In addition to coaching at the LDGA camps and clinics, Diego is also on the Atlanta United staff as an Academy GK Coach. He recently has been added to the US Men’s Paralympic National Team as a GK coach. Diego has also been the GK coach at his Alma Mater, UNG as well as at for the GA Gwinnett College men’s program.
C. Brewster Cunning
Brewster grew up in Maine and attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he played and stared on the Men’s soccer team. He also played in Spain for CD Castro and was the Athletic Director at Shanghai Guanghua College in China. With LDGA, Brewster assisted in coaching the high level GKs in the NASA Tophat program and was a GK coach for the GA Olympic Development Program (ODP) and for the Life College Men’s soccer team.
Mallory Sayre
Mallory Sayre is in her second season as an assistant coach with the UAH women’s soccer program after coming to Huntsville for the 2020-21 academic year.
In her first year with the Chargers when the season was moved to a special Spring Championship Series, she helped guide the team to a 4-4-1 record which included an opening-round win over West Georgia which propelled UAH to the quarterfinals of the SCS tournament.
Sayre comes to UAH from Oglethorpe University in Georgia where she has served as an assistant coach since Aug. 2016.
During her time at Oglethorpe, Sayre was responsible for the team’s goalkeepers and defenders while also assisting with recruiting, team travel plans, and game management.
Additionally, Sayre worked at the Southern Soccer Academy during the same time period where she was the director of goalkeeping since 2019.
Sayre spent her playing days at North Georgia where she amassed a 56-17-4 record as a four-year starter in goal, and she left UNG as both the program and Peach Belt Conference all-time leader in shutouts with 27 and in goals against average with an impressive 0.97 mark.
Patrick Mitrovich
Jimmy Maurer
Maurer entered the 2014 NASL season as the starting goalkeeper for the Cosmos. He allowed just three goals during the 2014 Spring season, posting 29 saves and an NASL-leading 0.33 GAA (goals against average) in nine games. Maurer also posted a modern-day NASL record 372 minute shutout streak during the Spring season and achieved a record of 6–1–2 (W-D-L). He recorded a league-high 11 shutouts in 24 appearances for the Cosmos in the 2014 regular season. His 0.91 GAA was second best in the league, and he finished tied for second in the league in saves. Maurer posted a 10–7–6 record on the year and was named to the NASL Team of the Week twice during 2014. These accolades resulted in Maurer being named to the NASL Best XI at the conclusion of the 2014 season.
In 2015, Maurer started 28 out of 30 NASL fixtures for the Cosmos, as well as both of the Championship matches. He logged 12 shutouts and a 0.93 GAA in a title-winning season for the Cosmos.
Chris Davidovicz
Father – Soccer Coach – Author – Day Trader – Aspiring Script Writer & Actor.
Ashley Baker Veljovic
At Tophat, Veljovic coached the academy age groups (under 8 –under 12) and the ECNL Goalkeepers. Veljovic also shared her time coaching the 2002 ODP Girls Goalkeepers (2013-2016) and was a member of the Region III ODP Staff (2014-2015).
Coach Veljovic was a three-year starter and captain at the University of Georgia. Veljovic was named three years to the SEC Community Team, two years to the NSCAA All Region Team, and two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Week. Veljovic was on the academic honor role (2008-2012) and COSIDA Academic All District Second Team 2011. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, Recreation and Leisure Studies, in December 2012.
Hermant Sharma
A former collegiate and professional goalkeeper and women’s assistant soccer coach at Cornell University, Hemant Sharma has long added his talent and experience to Tennessee’s staff as a volunteer assistant, and begins his third season as Director of Soccer Operations and 10th season on the UT staff.
Sharma helps plan and coordinate the team’s travel, oversees the team managers and assists with various day-to-day responsibilities to help make Tennessee one of the nation’s top soccer programs.