From Houston to South Bend: Coach Chad Riley has Notre Dame fighting for NCAA College Cup title

Chad Riley still carries fond memories of his time growing up playing soccer in the Houston fields at Cypress Springs High School and the Hurricanes Soccer Club. 

He earned a scholarship to play at the University of Notre Dame, where he went on to post 10 goals and 32 assists as a midfielder, leading the Irish in assists for three seasons and finishing second on the program's all-time assists list. Now, in his fourth year as the program's head coach, Riley has led the No. 4 ranked Fighting Irish to their second-ever NCAA College Cup with Friday night's semifinal game versus No. 8 Clemson. Notre Dame won the College Cup in 2013.

"It's one of those things you sort of always maybe even dream about," Riley told The Striker Texas. "There's only one job at each school, and then obviously, your alma mater, and Notre Dame being such a great place, there's no shortage of people who would love to be in my position. I think its something you always thought maybe you hoped would happen, but certainly nothing you ever planned on as far as being the head coach here. But then, once you're in the position, you really want to do your best to make it successful." 

Riley graduated from Notre Dame in 2004 and went on to serve as an assistant coach at Oberlin College in Ohio during the 2004 season and at St. John’s in 2005 before returning to South Bend as an assistant to Bobby Clark for six seasons, 2006-11, and then departing to Dartmouth in 2012. He took over as the head coach at Dartmouth in 2013 until 2017, returning again to Notre Dame to replace the retiring Clark. 

He credits each of his college stops, as well as those who coached him in Houston, as major influences on his style of coaching. 

"I think I've been lucky in my life as far as running a college program and a lot of the coaching at this level," said Riley. "I think Bobby, who I played for and coached with, Bobby Clark's a big, big mentor; Dave Masur, who I got to work with as well at St. John's; Blake New, who I worked with at Oberlin; and obviously, friends and colleagues that you coach with. But then, before that, when I was in Houston, I was fortunate to have great coaches. Tony Johnson was a big coach of mine. Glenn Davis was a big influence of mine, Alfredo Martinez, who is in Houston still coaching. I actually got a text the other day from Paul McGinlay at Trinity who was one of my ODP coaches. So I think I've been blessed to have a lot of a lot of great coaches that have helped form the way I see the game and the way I try to build my teams."

One of his closest friends in coaching is one of his former childhood teammates in Houston: Northeastern University head coach Chris Gbandi, who played over 100 MLS matches as a defender with FC Dallas from 2002–2007. 

"I think, during our generation, we're fortunate to have a lot of guys really go and have great careers but for some reason, yeah, I do think that sometimes the Houston guys are a little bit under the radar," said Riley about Houston's production of professional soccer players and coaches throughout the years.

"When I was growing up, it was us, the Houston Hurricanes, the Texans and then Houstonians came in and did a great job," Riley continued. "There was a lot of great soccer being played during during that time growing up and it was all the coaches I mentioned before, Glenn and Tony and Alfredo, Roy Reese really got the the Texans going well. I do think it is a little bit under the radar, but I think [Texas] has been producing great players and coaches for for quite a long time now."

Riley's Notre Dame squad counts three players from the Lone Star State: forward Tyler Shea (Dallas), midfielder Bryce Boneau (Keller) and defender Josh Ramsey (Plano). They're hoping to make Sunday's championship game, where they would face the winner of No. 2 Washington vs. No. 3 Georgetown.

With two matches in three days, depth will be key for each of the four remaining teams. Only one will get to raise the trophy, which will require a strong-minded team, something Riley believes the college game can offer.

"I think it's got inherent value, regardless of what our national team or anything else," said Riley about the place of the college game in the U.S. Soccer system. "I think it's an unbelievable place to develop as a as a player, but also as a person. I think at the end of the day, good players have to be strong people at whatever level. So I think what you get at college is that next level of where development becomes a little bit more of a byproduct of trying to win, because I think you have to win, and when you play professional soccer, you don't play for very long if you're not helping your team win."

Riley also mentions his home state is one that will always have his attention when it comes to recruitment.

"It's one of the states that we'll always really focus," Riley said. "There's just so many good players that there's going to be way more good players than you can really know about. So I think it's one that between Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, there's just so many good, good players concentrated in that area that we will always spend a lot of time recruiting Texas."

No. 4 Notre Dame will play No. 8 Clemson on Friday, 5 p.m. CT on ESPNU, with No. 3 Georgetown and No. 2 Washington facing off right after at 7:30 p.m. CT. The winners of those matches will face off on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT on ESPNU in the National Championship game at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.

One game at a time is the strategy for Coach Riley as his team is within arms distance of finishing the season with the trophy.

"It's the goal of so many teams and certainly the goal every year for our team to win a national championship," said Riley. "To be at the College Cup, we're really excited and feel very grateful and fortunate to be rewarded to be in this position."