Coaching the Wright Way

            Coach Rob Wright remembers the moment perfectly, as if the game had just finished minutes before. A retrospective smile takes over his face as his eyes stare off into the distance. Plymouth State Soccer's Homecoming 2006, and the Panthers game against Keene on the 50^thanniversary of both soccer teams' programs. "We were down 2-0, and I'm sitting there thinking that I've got to give a speech in front of two hundred people after this?" He shakes his head and laughs. Luckily, his team rebounded, coming back to defeat their rivals 3-2 in the last seconds of double overtime.  "The goal goes in, and everyone (the fans) goes over the fence to celebrate." His grin grows wider.  "That was a good memory."

The victory over Keene State was only one accomplishment in Coach Rob Wright's extensive PSU coaching career, which includes three conference final appearances. His team has also consistently broken into the national rankings list. Last season, the Panther's took home their conference's Sportsmanship Award.

About twenty minutes outside of north London is where Rob Wright first encountered the sport that would end up being his life's passion: soccer. He couldn't remember a time before he began to play the sport, just as anyone who is still playing baseball today would find it difficult to recall a time before tee ball. "I was probably the last generation to really grow up with the kind of strict soccer idea," Wright said.  That is how he learned to develop an unstructured play aspect to his game, which is difficult for kids to do so today.  According to Wright, that has to do with how the feeling of safety in neighborhoods has changed in England since he was a child, just as it has in the United States. "We played anywhere, everywhere, and it was safe to do so. That is gone in most communities."

Coaching didn't come into Wright's life until he began to see his friends turn pro and realized that he couldn't play at the same level they could. That could be a hard thing for an athlete as competitive as Wright to accept, yet he continued to focus on his coaching along with his playing. In 1997, Wright not only coached at North Herts College in England, but also started as a goalkeeper as the team competed in the national championship game. It was at NHC that Wright received the Hanson's Coaching Award.

It was his work in summer soccer camps that first brought Wright to America to lend his coaching abilities in camps all across the country. When he moved closer to Plymouth so that his wife could attend graduate school at the university, he happened to be in the right place at the right time for his coaching aspirations. Plymouth State's former head soccer coach Keith Byrnes contacted Wright soon after meeting him and gave him an assistant position on the Panther's coaching staff. "I was just so pleased. I had no idea when I came here that I would find anything soccer-wise." The next season, Byrnes moved on, and PSU named Wright head Men's Soccer Coach. "Coach Wright is a great person, not only as a coach, but as friend. He cares a lot about the team and his players and has always been there for everyone", said senior Aly El Tambouly, who has played under Wright the past four seasons.

As his eleventh season wraps up and Coach Wright reflects back on his career thus far, his overall goal remains the same at Plymouth State University. "To win," Wright said and laughed. "That's always the ultimate goal."