ASSISTANT COACH - MENS SOCCER
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Stewart Flaherty returns to Hanover in 2019 for his second season as an assistant coach for the Dartmouth men's soccer team after six seasons at Bates College.
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A native of Middlesbrough, England, and a 2004 graduate of Loughborough University with a master's degree in sport psychology, Flaherty has accumulated extensive experience with player development and recruitment in the US. In addition to serving six seasons as head coach of Bates College, Flaherty also served as assistant coach with the Portland Phoenix senior team in the Premier Development League (PDL).
Flaherty helped the Phoenix make the PDL playoffs in five different seasons, including four Northeast Division titles. The team also competed four times on the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, advancing to the second round in 2013.
Flaherty has coached several first-round MLS draft picks at the PDL leve, including Charlie Rugg (Los Angeles Galaxy 2013), Emmanuel Appiah (Colorado Rapids 2016) and Dartmouth's own Wyatt Omsberg (Minnesota United 2018). Omsberg's youth coach for three years, Flaherty also coached PDL goalkeepers Ciaran Nugent (Galway United) and Matt Williams (Dayton Dutch Lions) with the latter going on to break the USL Pro career record for saves.
At Bates, Flaherty took the reins after the team had two winless NESCAC records in the previous three years. In his final season (2017) leading the Bobcats, Flaherty guided the team to an 8-6-2 mark (3-5-2 NESCAC) in what was the program's best record in a decade, and their qualification for postseason play ended an eight-year playoff drought. Bates also ended a six-year stretch without a home NESCAC win in 2014, and won at Williams for the first time in 36 years the following season.
In 2013, Flaherty became the first Bates athletic department staff member to earn the Harward Center Award for community volunteerism, leadership, and engagement. His soccer squad put considerable time into the community, volunteering at Hillview School, Tree Street Youth and Trinity Soup Kitchen, plus participating in MLK Reading Day. The team also played two 9/11 memorial games after which commemorative jerseys were auctioned off, helping to raise over $10,000 benefitting the Lewiston Fire Department and Families of Freedom.
After graduating from Loughborough University, Flaherty served his first coaching role as a volunteer assistant with Loughborough College in England. He accepted his first head coaching position as girls' soccer coach at Cody High School in Wyoming, where he helped the Fillies break the school's all-time record for wins in a single season in 2005 and land their first two all-state players, one of whom also won the Gatorade Player of the Year Award for Wyoming. Flaherty then spent over a year working as a youth development coach for MLS Camps and the MLS franchise Real Salt Lake.
At the end of 2006, Flaherty moved East and spent time coaching with TSF Academy and the MPS Cape Cod Crusaders. He led the TSF U23 Women to a USSF Region I Championship, as the team went the entire season undefeated and had players from Seton Hall, Penn State and Rutgers on the roster.
In 2009, Flaherty entered the NCAA coaching ranks with Division II Felician College in Rutherford, New Jersey, where he served as goalkeeper coach under Patrick Snyder and current New York Red Bulls Youth Director Simon Nee.