In the final days of her playing career for Rutgers women’s soccer in 2007, Meghan Nemzer did what any graduating senior would do and took home her jerseys and other memorabilia, keepsakes from playing the sport she might never play again.
The Maryland native and three-year captain for the Scarlet Knights then got a call from her coach Glenn Crooks asking to meet in his office the next morning. Thinking she was in trouble, Nemzer packed up the gear in a trash bag to return it. But instead of telling her off, Crooks asked Nemzer to be a volunteer assistant coach, an offer that would kick-start a 14-year coaching career at her alma mater.
Throughout the next decade-plus, Nemzer became a highly touted head coaching candidate. After Crooks left in 2013, she was promoted to associate head coach under Michael O’Neill. Nemzer fielded several coaching offers, but she declined to leave.
That changed last year when Maryland athletic director Damon Evans called Nemzer after No. 1 seed Rutgers lost in the College Cup semifinals to Florida State. What she heard from Evans intrigued her. He promised her support and resources and told her of a new 8,800-seat soccer-specific stadium that would eventually replace Ludwig Field.
“It was a lifetime opportunity to come back home to be a head coach, to do it in my home state and had my family around me,” Nemzer said in an interview in January, about a month after she was announced as the Terps’ head coach. “I just felt like it wouldn’t come again.”
“Three Brilliant Soccer Minds”
Raised in Crofton, Md., Nemzer attended St. Mary’s High School in Annapolis, where she played for legendary coach Jerry Tobin.
Nemzer was part of two IAAM A Conference championship teams, including her senior squad in 2001 that finished 21-1-1. She anchored the team’s central defense and earned second-team Baltimore Sun All-Metro honors as a senior despite having twice suffered a torn ACL prior to that.
While she recovered from her injuries, Tobin encouraged her to keep coming to practice and games and learn from the staff.
“He said, look you’re good at what you do, why don’t you continue to be around the program?” Nemzer said. “I just really sat next to him during the game, and [St. Mary’s assistant coach] Pat Noel, who is a big influence on my life as well, and learned a lot from him.”
Nemzer also played for a talented club team, the Bethesda Dragons, under head coach Steve Campbell.
As a 15-year-old, Nemzer had a physicality and intelligence that helped her elevate her game despite the fierce competition on the team and led to her earning an invitation to the U.S. youth national team, Campbell said.
“That’s a testament to her and the environment we created,” said Campbell, who is now the technical director for Maryland United FC. “She elevated herself. You can’t say that about many players.”
Between Tobin, Noel and Campbell, Nemzer had “three brilliant soccer minds I learned a lot from,” she said.
“When I came back from my ACL, tactically, I was well above when I started,” she said. “I’m very thankful for them allowing me to have that opportunity and listen to them coach.”
Unique Opportunity
Throughout the years, Nemzer received numerous coaching offers but she declined all of them, including an opportunity to coach Maryland in 2016.
The timing wasn’t right, Nemzer said of the first offer, but fast-forward five years and much had changed. Nemzer was now married and had given birth to her first child, Bethany Marie, in September 2020. Nemzer’s parents still live in Maryland. Being close to her family was a key part of her decision to come home, she said.
If she had wanted to, she could have stayed in New Jersey and taken over for O’Neill when he eventually retired, she said, but when Maryland approached her again following the 2021 season, she couldn’t say no.
“It’s been my dream job since I was a little kid,” she said. “I always say it’s not really my job. It’s my passion. I’m very lucky that I get to do it in my home state and get to do it with some of the best people around me.”
Nemzer’s love of Maryland began as a youngster when she served as a ball girl during the program’s heyday under head coach Shannon Higgins-Cirovski.
Higgins-Cirovski, who led the Terps for six seasons and amassed a 62-51-10 record before leaving in 2006, recruited Nemzer. And though the Maryland native ended up at Rutgers, she saw the Hall of Fame player-turned-coach as an idol and a trailblazer in the male-dominated ranks of women’s soccer coaching.
Higgins-Cirovski was one of the first calls Nemzer made after she got the job.
“As soon as I got [the job], I’ve reached out to some alumni, reached out to [Higgins-Cirovski] and the amount of support that they have is unbelievable,” Nemzer said. “I want to put Maryland back on the map and make it a powerhouse that it once was.”
“Be Maryland Legends”
Nemzer is taking the reins of a storied program that has appeared in 13 NCAA Tournaments and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 three times since it was founded in 1987. But during the last decade, the success has dwindled.
In the last six seasons under Ray Leone, Maryland had just one winning record, a 9-8-3 finish in 2019. The team ended the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season winless and went 4-9-5 last season. Leone, who went 27-60-19 as the Terps’ coach, did not have his contract renewed after the season.
After a nationwide search, Maryland got its coach in Nemzer, who is confident the program can make a quick return to its winning ways.
At Rutgers, Nemzer was responsible for scouting other teams, including Maryland. She sees offensive firepower that can be unlocked but on defense is where the Terps must get better.
“For me, defense wins championships. That’s something we’re going to focus on right away,” she said.
Nemzer will get some immediate help from Kelsey Smith, a standout forward from McDonogh School who notched 17 goals and four assists for the Eagles. McDonogh won the IAAM A Conference title thanks to an assist by Smith on the game-winning goal in double-overtime against Archbishop Spalding in the championship.
It all starts with recruiting in-state players like Smith, Nemzer said.
“I want to a put a net around Maryland. If you keep the best players at home in the DMV, it’s going to be very dangerous,” Nemzer said. “I want girls who have pride in Maryland that want to come in and compete and have that blue-collar work ethic.”
Despite being on the recruiting trail for only a few weeks, her pitch to prospects has been simple: “Be Maryland legends. Be part of something instead of going somewhere and being a number.”
“That way when you come home you can say ‘I built that,'” she said. “When you see stands completely full and the team doing well, you know you were the foundation of that.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics