Ben Popoola
Alma Mater: Clemson, 1979
Years at ASU: 11th Year
Ben Popoola is entering his tenth season as head coach of the Mountaineers with a record of 95-97-18. As a testament to the solid program Popoola has built at Appalachian in that time, Appalachian's 10-9-1 record in 2004 marked the first back-to-back winning seasons in program history. Popoola's 2003 squad was far and away the best in school history, compiling a 12-5-3 mark, a winning percentage of .675. That tally was a six-game improvement over the previous year's win total. In addition, Popoola guided the 2003 Mountaineers to a 3-1 victory over the College of Charleston in the opening round of the SoCon Tournament, marking just the second win ever, and first under the eight-team format, for ASU in SoCon Tournament play.
Popoola's hard efforts on the recruiting trail and on the field paid off in 2001, as Appalachian was able to build the first winning record in the program's history, going 9-8-3. ASU was undefeated at home that year- in fact; only one goal was scored by an opponent in Kidd Brewer Stadium for the entire campaign. Under the tutelage of Coach Popoola, a young Mountaineer squad battled to six overtime games and managed to knock off the visiting Furman Paladins on Oct. 12 of that year.
Popoola came to Appalachian from Lambuth University, where his 1996 squad compiled a 12-4-1 record. Prior to his one-year stint at Lambuth, Popoola was both head men's and women's soccer coach at Park College in Missouri. His men's squad tallied a 201-63-5 record in 13 years, while his women's team went 173-30-4 in seven years. Popoola owns an all-time women's head coaching record of 211-79-12.
A 1979 graduate of Clemson, Popoola played on the Nigerian national team from 1971 to 1975 before joining Clemson in the fall of 1975. A former member of the Kansas City Comets, Popoola also has MISL experience playing in Chicago and Cleveland. He was a NASL starter for the Memphis Rogues, and has also competed for his native Nigeria in the World Cup. He and his wife Christine have two children.
Hallie Briggs
Alma Mater: Appalachian
Years at ASU: Second
Hallie Briggs joins the Mountaineer coaching staff for her first season after a four-year playing career at Appalachian from 2001-05. Briggs played in 43 matches at midfield for the Apps before having her senior season cut short by a knee injury.
A native of Boca Raton, Fla, Briggs graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where she was a member of the 1999 State Champion, 2001 State Finalist and 2002 State runner-up teams. She was also a 2002 Miami-Herald All county team selection and played for Broward County Hall of fame coach Carlos Giron.
Briggs played club soccer with Team Boca from 1994-99, Weston Soccer Club in 2000 and Coral Springs Renegades in 2001.
Briggs has also played internationally, taking second place in the Dana Cup in Denmark, second in Italy's Renaissance Cup and first in Ireland's Emerald Cup.
Lindsay Cobb
Alma Mater: NC State 1990
Years at ASU: Third
Lindsay Cobb begins her third season assisting with the Appalachian women's soccer program and will continue to train the team's goalkeepers.
Cobb was a three-time first-team All-ACC goalkeeper for NC State from 1988-90.
During her four-year career with the Wolfpack, Cobb was in goal for the ACC championship team and helped lead the Wolfpack to a 65-21-7 record (.737) and a pair of NCAA Final Fours. She recorded 396 career saves and had a GAA of 1.09 and a save percentage of .852. Cobb was named Tournament MVP when NC State won the 1988 ACC championship after allowing one goal and recording 14 saves in 270 minutes. A year later, she was named to the NCAA Final Four's All-Tournament team after recording 15 saves in the semifinals against North Carolina. Currently, Cobb is ranked second all-time in ACC history with 396 career saves.
Tracey Leipold
Assistant Coach, Coastal Carolina Women's Soccer
Tracey Leipold will start her second season as an assistant coach for the Coastal Carolina women's soccer program. Leipold will be Coastal's goalkeepers coach as well as assist in all aspects of the women's soccer team.
Leipold helped the Coastal goalkeepers to a 1.43 goals-against-average in 2006, including five shutouts by Jaclyn Stoll. She also helped garner the 2007 recruiting class that was ranked the best in the Big South by Soccerbuzz.com.
Leipold has head coaching experience, as she led the Lees-McRae women's soccer team from 2001-05. She also was an athletic counselor at the college during that time. Leipold was an assistant at Lees-McRae from 1997-2001 which included coaching the goalkeepers for the Lady Bobcats.
Leipold spent the 2005-06 year at The Sport Source, Inc., in Plano, Texas, where she was a combine coordinator and college planner.
Leipold did her undergraduate work at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., where she was a four-year starting goalkeeper for the Dolphins from 1991-94. She also earned her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. Leipold earned a Master's of Arts degree in school counseling from Appalachian State University in 2001.
Joey Barrett
Coach at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, FL
Trainer and Coach for the Jacksonville Youth Soccer Club
Diego Caballero
Assistant Coach of the Year- NSCAA East Chapel Hill High School
Coaching Experience:
- 2000-2007 East Chapel Hill High School, Assistant coach for Girls soccer, 2001 -2006 Assistant for Boys soccer;
- 2007 North Carolina Soccer Coaches Association Region 6 Assistant Coach of the year.
- 2006 NSCAA/Addias High School Assistant Coach of the year Eastern Region.
- Helped East High School to win: 2000 Girls soccer won the State Champs; 2001 Boys State runner up; 2004 Girls won the State Champs.
- 2000 - 2003, Triangle Futbol Club, Head coach for U16 girls, Head coach for U15 girls State runner up, Head coach for U13 won the NCYSA Kepner Cup.
- 1995 - 1998 Cerro Cora Soccer Club, - Asuncion Paraguay, Head coach for U17 and U20.
- 1993 - 1995 Cape Verde Island West Africa, created the first Country's Soccer Academy for boys 12-17 years, Assistant coach for Sporting Club and Academica Da Praia soccer club.
- 1990 - 1993 Roosevelt American School Lima Peru, Initiated the first girls elementary and High School soccer program, Head coach for Varsity girls, boys and girls elementary Teams.
Camp Experience Includes:
- 2006 - present Appalachian State University Soccer Camp
- 2000 - present Duke University soccer camp for girls
- 2000 - 2006 Duke University soccer camp for boys.
- 2001 - 2006 Futbol Total soccer camp East Chapel Hill High
- 1999 - 2000 NC State University soccer camp
Coaching Licences:
- Paraguayan National Diploma, NSCAA National Diploma ,State Diploma, Advance Regional Diploma.
- Education: National School of Physical Education Asuncion Paraguay, Degree in Physical Education.
- Autonoma University Asuncion Paraguay, Degree in Sports Science(pending completion of last quarter).
- Nationality and Languages: Naturalized American Citizen (born in Paraguay), fluent in Spanish, good Portuguese and English.
Greg Gojanovich
High Country Avalanche Coach
Ken Hefner
Park University Coach
Ken Hefner enters his third season at the helm of the Park University women's soccer program. Hefner led the Pirates to a regular season MCAC championship, going 5-0 in conference play last season. Park dropped the tournament final to Bellevue, 1-0 but beat Kansas Wesleyan in the Region IV Tournament, advancing to their fifth consecutive appearance at the NAIA National Tournament. Hefner led the women past College of the Southwest in Round One but then fell to #4 Houghton College out of New York in Round Two. Hefner was honored as the Region IV Coach of the Year and MCAC Co-Coach of the Year.
Hefner posts a 24-14-3 career record in two years at Park.
Hefner ranks as the eighth winningest coaches in NAIA history, owning 159 career wins in two seasons at Park, seven seasons at Lindsey Wilson College (1993-1999) and three seasons at Tennessee Wesleyan College (1990-93). His .637 NAIA women's winning percentage ranked 16th in NAIA history before 2004.
Hefner served as the head women's soccer coach at Arkansas State University for four seasons from 1999-2003. Under his leadership, the Indians posted a four-year record of 19-54-1, including a 7-12 mark in his final season in 2003. Hefner owns an overall women's career coaching record of 148-129-10 (.533) in 15 seasons. Combined with a 29-18-2 record while coaching the men's program at Tennessee Wesleyan from 1990-93, he owns an overall coaching record of 177-147-12 (.545).
While at Lindsey Wilson, Hefner's teams advanced to the national tournament twice (1998, 1999) and achieved a final national ranking of fifth following the 1999 season. In seven seasons at Lindsey Wilson, he posted a 93-46-5 record and had 11 players earn NAIA All-America honors.
In 1999, Hefner was tabbed to lead a start-up soccer program at Arkansas State, which began play in 2000. His teams qualified for the Sun Belt Conference tournament four years in a row under his guidance and had three players named to the all-conference team from 2000-2003.
In addition to Hefner's success on the field, his players have enjoyed success in the classroom. At Lindsey Wilson, he had 18 academic all-conference selections and eight NAIA All-America Scholar-Athletes. During his time at Arkansas State, his team owned an overall GPA of 3.0 or better in six of seven semesters while he was at ASU.
Hefner, who owns a United States Soccer Federation National “B” License,a Advanced National License and an NSCAA National Diploma, earned a bachelor of arts in psychology from West Georgia College in 1987. He and his wife, Dawn, have three children, Matthew (21), Megan (20) and Mackenzie (16).
