Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Hires Two Assistant Soccer Coaches
6/28/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
June 28, 2001
Winston-Salem, NC - Wake Forest men's soccer coach Jay Vidovich officially announced the addition of Bobby Muuss and Kevin Rice to the coaching staff on Tuesday.
Muuss joins the Demon Deacons from the defending national champions, the University of Connecticut. He will assist Vidovich in all aspects of the day-to-day operations of the WFU program and will play a major role in recruiting.
"I'm excited to be here working with one of the nation's best coaches and some of the best student-athletes in the country," Muuss said. "I'm ready to get started. We've got a good team in place that we feel can make a run for the ACC title this year. On a bigger scale, we can consistently make Wake Forest a national power and I'm thrilled to be part of that."
Rice is a familiar face to the program having been a two-time captain for Wake Forest in the late-90's. Rice will bring first-hand knowledge of what it takes to win in the Atlantic Coast Conference. He played for head coach Jay Vidovich from 1994-97 and was the team captain as a junior and senior. He led the Demon Deacons to a pair of second place regular season finishes in the ACC.
Rice had been working for the Wachovia Corporation in Winston-Salem. He will be involved with recruiting and the team's travel arrangements, in addition to his on-field duties with the Demon Deacons. He will also be in charge of alumni relations.
Muuss comes to Wake Forest after a four-year stint at the University of Connecticut where he served as a volunteer assistant coach. Over the course of four seasons at Connecticut, Muuss helped lead the Huskies to the 2000 national championship, three Big East regular season titles and two College Cup appearances. Working closely with the goalkeepers, he helped develop UConn's keepers into national competitors, ranking them alnnually among the nation's best in several goalkeeping categories.
Under his direction, UConn's goalkeepers broke such records as career wins, career shutouts, single season shutouts and lowest single season goals against average. During Muuss' four seasons at UConn, his teams accumulated a combined overall record of 67-19-4 (.767) and held a No. 1 national ranking on several occasions.
Muuss has a great deal of experience at the youth coaching level having been involved in the Connecticut Olympic Development Program and various club teams. He was the director of coaching for the Northeast United Premier Soccer Club and the Manchester Premier club team.
A native of East Islip, N.Y., and a four-year soccer letterwinner at East Islip High School, Muuss transferred to UConn from Southern Connecticut State in the fall of 1997 and earned his undergraduate degree in the spring of 1999 in communication science. While at Southern, Muuss was a member of the 1995 Division II National Championship Team. He currently holds a USSF "C" coaching license.
Muuss replaces Paul McDonough who recently accepted a position at the University of South Carolina.
