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Varsity Head Coach: Robert
A. Rooney, 7th Year
The Spring of 2012 will be Head Coach Rob
Rooney's seventh season at the helm of the Emmaus girls
soccer team. He also served as a varsity assistant with the
Emmaus boys team in the fall of 2006, 2007 and 2008.
In his first six years at Emmaus, Rooney has
guided the team to a 115-23-8 record and the team's two
highest scoring seasons ever (144 goals in 2006 and 121
goals in 2007). In 2006, his Hornets squad allowed just five
goals in 25 games, also a team record. In that year, the
team spent six weeks in the number one position of the NSCAA
High School Spring Rankings. This past season, the team
played for its ninth consecutive Lehigh Valley Conference
championship before being eliminated by Northwestern Lehigh
in the District XI Class AAA playoffs. It was just the first
time in nine years that the team had failed to win an LVC
championship.
Prior to taking the reigns at Emmaus, Coach
Rooney was the head coach at Immaculata University (1998),
started the women's program at Wilmington College
(1999-2001) and was an assistant with nationally ranked West
Chester University (2004). He currently is the head coach of
the Vincent United U18 Vendetta and U23 Archangels. He has
also served on the EPYSA Girls ODP staff.
He began his coaching career at Coatesville
High School in the fall of 1993 and has also coached at Owen
J. Roberts and Cheltenham High Schools. At the club level,
he has led five different teams to the EPYSA National
Championship Series Semifinals and placed more than 100
players into Division I, II and III college programs. He
holds a United States Soccer Federation "B" License, and
both the NSCAA Advanced National Diploma and Regional
Goalkeeping Diploma. He is also a member of the NSCAA Spring
and Fall National Rankings Committee and serves on both the
NSCAA Girl's All-America Committee and the Gatorade Athlete
of the Year Selection Committee.
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2012
marks Jim Meehl's second season on the Emmaus girls
soccer staff. He brings an excellent coaching background and
history of success to his role as the top varsity assistant.
From 2005-2008, he was the head girls coach at Franklin
Towne Charter High School, leading the team to the District
12 championship game and appearances in the PIAA Class AAA
playoffs in 2007 and 2008. In the spring of 2009, as an
assistant coach at George Mason High School in Falls Church,
VA, he helped guide the team to the Virginia High School
League Class A state championship. In the fall of 2011, Jim
also coached the Emmaus boys junior varsity team.
The
spring of 2012 will be coach Aaron Gavin's fifth
season with the girls soccer team at Emmaus. He is the head
coach of the junior varsity team and a varsity assistant. In
2008 he helped to mentor former Emmaus standout Jocelyn
Helwig as she entered the high school coaching ranks and he
did the same in 2009 with former Philadelphia Biblical
University All-American Emily Zilich. He also served on the
boys soccer staff from 2007-2010.
Hired
in the fall of 2010, Brittany Ruggieri brings a
wealth of playing and coaching experience to the Hornets.
She is a currently entering her fifth year as an assistant
coach with the nationally-ranked Kutztown University women's
soccer team. Ruggieri is a 2007 graduate of Liberty
University (NCAA Division 1) in Lynchburg, Virginia, where
she was a four-year player. Prior to that, she won a PIAA
Class AAA state championship while a senior at Owen J.
Roberts High School in Pottstown. During her youth career,
Britt was a five-year Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer
Association Olympic Development Program player and spent one
year Region 1 ODP team. She played her club soccer for F.C.
Delco, Spirit United and Vincent United, winning two club
state championships. She lives in Macungie with her husband,
Bryce, and their dog, Marley Bean.