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Montgomery County grabs Kevin Reigle from UPike to head girls’ soccer program

6/15/2012

By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
For the second time in recent months the Montgomery County High School Athletic Department has gone to the collegiate ranks to select a coach for one of its programs.
Athletic Director Gene Heffington officially announced late last week that Kevin Reigle, head men’s soccer coach at Pikeville University, will be the new girls’ coach at MCHS, succeeding Neil Payne whose teams posted a 19-14-8 record during his two years as head coach, twice losing to Bourbon County in the semifinals of the 24th District Tournament, once in a shootout and once on penalty kicks.
Earlier this year Montgomery County named Happy Osborne, former head coach at Georgetown College and the associate head coach at Tennessee Tech University, to head up the boys’ basketball program.
Reigle will inherit a Montgomery County squad that graduated just one senior player and, if everyone returns as expected, he’ll have a team that should boast as much team speed as any in the region.
“We’re very excited to have Coach Reigle taking over this program,” Heffington said. “Obviously the college experience is one of the things that attracted us to him because of his depth of knowledge of the game and his ability to help our players develop. And if any of them have aspirations to continue their careers at the next level then he’ll be someone with the ability and contacts to help them in that direction too. It just seems like a good fit for our program.
Reigle is a Pennsylvania native who graduated from Pikeville College, where he played soccer and was a member of the school’s first bowling team to make the national tournament, earning All-Conference honors in bowling, as well as soccer.
“Obviously the facilities at Montgomery County would attract any coach to this program,” Reigle said late last week after accepting the job. “And the overall support for this program and all of the programs is evident. Any coach wants a fan base that’s going to be supportive and I sense that’s one of the strengths at Montgomery County.”
Kevin Reigle spent two seasons as the head men’s soccer coach at the University of Pikeville. Prior to that, in 2009, he was the assistant men’s soccer coach at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kan. The Panthers capped off a successful season with a trip to the NJCAA Region 6 Quarterfinals. Also during 2009, he was the state goalkeeper coach for the Kansas Olympic Development Program.
In 2008, Reigle was the goalkeeper coach at Trent University in Ontario, Canada, where the men’s program qualified for the OUA playoffs after recording the best regular season record in the history of the program.
For two seasons, Kevin was a player development and pre-academy goalkeeper coach for the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. He was also responsible for goalkeeper training at the RDS Residential Camp System and the Fantasy Camp at Giants Stadium.
Reigle was an All-Conference goalkeeper at the University of Pikeville and an all-league goalkeeper at Middleburg High School. He also played for the New York Athletic Club of the NPSL.
Although he was the men’s coach at Pikeville University, Reigle coached both the mens’ and womens’ goalkeepers at Trent University and traveled with both programs.
“There are some differences in the approach you take,” he said in talking about coaching women instead of men. “But either way, it’s a constant tweaking of what you’re doing to try and get it right with the team you have.”
Reigle said that his philosophy is one of ball possession. He said you either have to be very good without the ball and defending or you have to hold the ball for long periods of time.
“You have 80 minutes and many times that’s to score that one goal,” he said. “The game’s all about patience, knowing when something’s going to work. We’ll coach possession of the ball and good solid fundamentals.”
Coach Reigle holds the NSCAA Advanced National Diploma, NSCAA Advanced National Goalkeeper Diploma and the NSCAA National Youth Diploma. He has a bachelor of science in communication and a master of education in curriculum and instruction.
Reigle said he would be moving to the area as soon as possible. Although still waiting for paperwork from the standards board, he said he is certified in speech communication and hopes to be teaching in that area.