Leigh Howard, the former women’s head soccer coach at Marist, has left the program and joined the coaching staff at the University of Albany.
”I would like to thank Leigh for the great work she did at Marist,” Director of Athletics Tim Murray said in a statement earlier today. “She is an extremely talented young coach with a bright future. We wish her all the best moving forward.”
In the Great Dane’s official announcement, Howard said she “enjoyed the past two seasons at Marist and am forever grateful for the people I’ve met there and players I’ve coached. I’m looking forward to continuing to foster a culture of success both on the field and in the classroom here at UAlbany.”
Howard helmed the Marist program from 2017 to 2019, collecting the MAAC Coach of the Year honor in 2018 and leading the team to the second seed in the MAAC tournament. In 2018, Howard additionally guided the team to a record of 7-2-1 in the MAAC conference.
In 2019, the team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the MAAC quarterfinals to Quinnipiac, a game in which the Red Foxes were ahead for the majority of the game. Marist was the fourth seed in the tournament and had an overall record of 8-10-1.
Howard now joins an Albany squad that had a solid 2019 season, going 9-6-3 overall and 6-1-1 in the America East conference.
As for the Red Foxes, they have started their country-wide search for a new head coach, the program’s third in four years.
Edited by Will Bjarnar