Female soccer coaches finding success with A-K Valley programs

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, September 11, 2018 | 11:09 PM

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Brittni Grenninger went through her entire childhood and high school soccer career playing for male coaches, but that changed when she arrived at St. Francis (Pa.) for college.

The former Karns City star was greeted there by Brenda van Stralen, a former member of the Dutch national team who was hired at the Division I school in Loretto in 2004.

“She was such a strong person,” Grenninger said. “She was also very relatable, and that’s something that was nice to have, to have someone a little older than us as a woman. You could call her if you were having problems outside of soccer. You knew she had been there, too. It added a personal factor that was nice to have for four years.”

Although Grenninger didn’t know it at the time, she eventually would follow in van Stralen’s footsteps, becoming a coach herself, helping build the Freeport girls soccer program into a consistent WPIAL contender and joining the growing ranks of women leading successful WPIAL teams.

Soccer is becoming a sport for women to break into the coaching ranks. The Alle-Kiski Valley has five female girls soccer coaches — Burrell (Shelby Noll), Freeport (Grenninger), Highlands (Jenna Plummer), Kiski Area (Melisa O’Toole) and Plum (Caitlin Schuchert) — tying softball for the highest number among local schools.

“I think it’s awesome that more females are getting into coaching other females,” Schuchert said. “I think it’s good for the girls.

“I’m just glad that these girls are realizing that they can give back and they can continue this positivity through the sport.”

Schuchert’s first coaching job was at Penn Hills from 2007-11, where one of her players included Plummer. After breaking her ankle in her senior season of 2009, Plummer became something of an unofficial assistant coach, an experience that ultimately led her to becoming coach at Highlands this fall.

“I won’t lie, (Schuchert) was a little scary at first because she was intimidating because she knew her stuff,” Plummer said. “She knew what she was talking about. But it’s because of that we grew that trust and grew that bond with her. She is a female, she had success when she played, and she had success as a coach.

“We all just kind of had to sip her Kool-Aid a little bit, and we were on board as soon as we started seeing some success and some victories … she’s been an excellent mentor to me to this day.”

Not only are more women joining the coaching ranks in girls soccer, but the programs they’re leading are thriving.

Norwin’s Lauren Karcher led the Knights to WPIAL Class 4A championships in 2015 and 2016 and a PIAA title last year. Penn-Trafford’s Jackie Bartko won a WPIAL title last season, beating Karcher and Norwin in the final. Ashley Davis led Greensburg Central Catholic to the WPIAL Class A championship in 2017, her first season at the helm, while Leah Powers took Shady Side Academy to the PIAA Class A final in 2016 and 2017, winning it last year.

Locally, Freeport won back-to-back section titles under Grenninger the last two seasons and made it to the WPIAL championship game in 2016; Burrell and Kiski Area reached the WPIAL quarterfinals last season under Noll and O’Toole; and Schuchert has guided Plum to four straight WPIAL playoff berths.

“It’s really cool to see that, and it’s really cool to see a lot of these WPIAL coaches leave that legacy behind for younger coaches like myself, too,” Plummer said. “Those are definitely role models of mine that I look up to; they’re not even my coach. Some of the legacies and traditions that they’re leaving at their school and they’ve started that are going to continue far when they’re gone at some point, that’s commendable.”

Many of the female coaches are former players themselves, which help them coach in a hands-on way in practice and relate to players off the field.

“I think that just typically, there’s been a lot of male coaches in the sport,” Schuchert said after Highlands hired Plummer. “These girls are at a time where a lot of these females get to the point where maybe they don’t like it a lot or it’s on the back burner to friends or boyfriends, things like that.

“Someone like Jenna’s going to tell them you can balance it and do it all. Being able to show them you can get good grades and have a lot of friends and be involved, volunteer and play soccer.”

Grenninger credited the success of the U.S. Women’s National Team — also coached by a woman, Jill Ellis — for the rise of soccer popularity in the country and said she hopes the growth in players and coaches continues.

“With girls being able to fall in love with their sport and watch their country be dominant on the world stage, I think everyone wants to grow up and be able to do that,” Grenninger said. “I want them to see there’s a future for them, even if they don’t play in college or have aspirations thereafter. They can always come back and coach and have an impact on a younger generation.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Freeport, Highlands, Kiski School, Plum