Oct. 22, 2008

Story Courtesy of Martin Methodist Sports Information

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Ga. – Martin Methodist (Tenn.) women’s head soccer coach Gerry Cleary reached his 100th career win as a collegiate head coach. He joins an elite club in record time, just five seasons as a head coach. The RedHawks beat the Covenant (Ga.) College Lady Scots yesterday (Oct. 21) afternoon 3-0.

Nikki O’Donnell scored twice and Shannon Walter scored once in the RedHawks 12th victory of the 2008 season. Martin Methodist is ranked 4th in the NAIA, have a 12-1 overall record so far this season and are undefeated in the TranSouth Athletic Conference at 4-0.

Gerry Cleary, a native of Dublin, Ireland. During his six seasons, Cleary has led MMC to a 100-19-5 record, Two NAIA National Championships, Two Region XI Championships and back-to-back-to-back-to-back TranSouth Athletic Conference Regular Season and Tournament Championships. He took a program that had five wins a season to winning 13 games in his first season and his teams now averages 17 wins a season. He recorded his first collegiate win as a head coach on August 30, 2005 against Reinhardt College and his 50th career win was the National Championship game in 2005 against rival Lee University, which was also Martin Methodist’s first National Title in any sport.

His team has made five consecutive appearances to the TranSouth Conference Tournament Championship game and winning it four times, five consecutive appearances to the NAIA Region XI Tournament winning twice and four consecutive trips to the NAIA National Tournament, winning it twice in three years.

He has received numerous coaching honors including being named the NAIA/Brine National Coach of the Year twice (2005 and 2007), NSCAA/Adidas NAIA National Coach of the Year twice (2005 and 2007), NSCAA/Adidas Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year twice (2005 and 2007), NAIA Region XI Coach of the Year twice (2005 and 2007) and TranSouth Athletic Conference Coach of the Year four times (2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007).

In his time at Martin Methodist he has coached 40 All conference players, seven Conference players of the years (twice co-players of the year), four Conference freshman of the years, 36 All region XI players, four NAIA Region XI players of the year, 25 NAIA All-Americans, and two National Players of the year.  His team has lead the NAIA Nationally in goals scored, goals average per game, goals against, and fewest goals allowed for three different seasons. The RedHawks have been inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame twice. They were also chosen the Martin Methodist Athletics Champions of Character Team for the 2004-2005 school year.

His coaching tips have also been published twice in the World Soccer Magazine. His coaching session where published in the July/August 2006 and 2008 editions of the bi-monthly magazine World Class Coaching - the world’s leading resource magazine for soccer coaches. The coaching sessions, entitled "Combination and Penetration "and “Passing to keep possession”, appeared among sessions written by U.S. National Team assistant coach Glen "Mooch" Myernick, the Wales U21 National Team coaching staff and legendary NCAA D-I coach Barry Gorman of Penn State University.

Cleary came to MMC after three seasons as a member of the 2002 NCAA Division II National Champion Christian Brothers University coaching staff. That team where 72-5-2 in Cleary’s 3 years with them. He was assistant coach to the women and ran the daily training sessions. At CBU he received a master’s degree in Education in 2002.

He is a 1999 graduate of Lambuth University, he earned a B.S. in Physical Education and Health. During his playing career with the Eagles, he was a three time NAIA All-American, four time First Team All-Mid South Conference selection, and was voted twice as the Mid-South Conference Player of the Year. During Cleary’s tenure, Lambuth captured three Mid-South Conference Championships and he was captain for 3 years. He will be inducted into the Lambuth University Hall of Fame on October 25th. He will be the first International student and the first Men’s Soccer player to receive this high honor.