American University

Washington, DC 20016

Dist of Columbia Northeast

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Coaches

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Marsha Harper

Marsha Harper is the seventh head coach in women's soccer history at American University, announced Director of Athletics and Recreation Dr. Billy Walker on December 29, 2019. Harper joined the Eagles after two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts, during which time the Minutewomen went 21-12-4.

Harper was part of a full coaching staff change at UMass, working with head coach Jason Dowiak who was a former mentor and colleague from the University of South Florida. While at UMass, Harper was directly in charge of all internal operations such as the development of practices, recruiting, social media, compliance and admissions for the women's soccer program.

Prior to her time at UMass, Harper spent two seasons at Richmond, another Atlantic 10 Conference program. She has also had assistant coaching stints at Bowling Green State University (2015) and Northwestern State University (2014).

In addition to her tenures as an assistant coach at the collegiate level, the USF double-graduate has spent time coaching at the club and Olympic Developmental levels.

After completing her collegiate playing career, Harper volunteered as an assistant coach at USF in the spring of 2014 while also serving as a staff coach for the Future 50 Soccer Camp.

Harper was a member of the University of Florida women's soccer team for three seasons before transferring to USF in 2011. She served as captain for the Bulls during the 2013 season. The collegiate defender earned her bachelor’s degree in applied science in 2012 and her master’s degree in exercise science at USF in 2014.

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Katie Greenberg

Katie Greenberg enters her first season at American in 2020 and comes to Tenleytown with eight seasons of Division I coaching experience, including the last five at Purdue University.

At Purdue, Greenberg coached the goalkeepers and also served as the coordinator of Purdue’s youth soccer camps. In 2019, Purdue returned to the conference tournament, and Greenberg guided sophomore goalkeeper Marisa Bova to nine shutouts and a 0.81 GAA, which was the lowest goals against allowed by a Purdue keeper since 2007.

The Boilermakers upset No. 1 seed Wisconsin to advance to the Big Ten semifinals in 2019, which ended the Badgers’ 17-game home winning streak. It was only the fourth time in conference history that a No. 8 seed had topped the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

She was part of a staff led by Drew Roff that saw the greatest turnaround in program history, as the Boilermakers won 10 games in 2017 and returned to the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2009. During that 2017 season, Purdue did not surrender a goal at home for 470 consecutive minutes from Aug. 21 through Oct. 12, the longest such streak in program history. Under Greenberg’s guidance, two Boilermakers were named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.

Prior to her time in West Lafayette, Greenberg spent three seasons at Illinois State University, also working under Drew Roff. Greenberg helped the Redbirds to three straight Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championships and three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

Greenberg also coached Aryn Newsom to Goalkeeper of the Year accolades in 2013 after the junior compiled a 0.33 goals against average in league play. She also coached four-time MVC Player of the Year, Rachel Tejada, who played a huge role in Illinois State running up a 46-18-5 ledger from 2012-14.

As a player at Ohio State University, Greenberg helped lead the Buckeyes to a share of the Big Ten title in 2010 and an appearance in the national semifinals at the NCAA College Cup. She was the starting goalkeeper as OSU posted shutouts against St. Francis (Pa.), Dayton and Georgetown in the NCAA Tournament that year.

She was named to the College Cup All-Tournament Team after making 10 saves in a 1-0 loss to a Notre Dame team that went on to win the national title. She started every game as a senior in 2011 as the Buckeyes advanced to the sweet sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament.

Greenberg has served as an assistant on the club level with the GK 1 Goalkeeper Academy and Worthington Crew Juniors, both of Columbus, Ohio, and the Fusion Soccer Club of Normal, Ill.

She holds a USSF National “B” License and earned a master’s degree in sport psychology from Illinois State.

A native of nearby Sterling, Va., the former Katie Baumgardner married Dan Greenberg in January 2018.

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Zach Samol

Zach Samol enters his second season as head men’s soccer coach at American University in 2020-21. Samol is the 16th head coach in over 60 years of the program's existence and came to AU after 13 seasons at Georgetown University, including seven as associate head coach.

In his first season at the helm, Samol oversaw a rebuilding team that picked up three Patriot League wins and was competitive in every other league contest. He coached one Academic All-Patriot League player (Tim Neumann) and a league-best 20 members of the PL Academic Honor Roll in 2019.

During his time with the Hoyas, Samol helped guide Georgetown into a top team in the NCAA with seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament — including the NCAA Championship game in 2012 and the 2014 NCAA Quarterfinals — and three Big East Championships.

At Georgetown, Samol coached 19 players who signed with a Major League Soccer squad, one Hermann Trophy finalist, three Hermann Trophy semifinalists, 10 All-Americans, 33 regional All-Americans, 11 Big East Players of the Year and 49 All-Big East honorees as well as the College Cup Most Outstanding Offensive Player.

On the academic side, he coached two Academic All-Americans, one Academic All-Region honoree, two Big East Scholar-Athletes and one NCAA Elite89 Award winner.

In 2012, Samol was named the United Soccer Coaches Northeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year.

Prior to Georgetown, Samol spent four years at Yale under head coach Brian Tompkins. In 2005, the Bulldogs won their first Ivy League Championship in over 14 years and reached the NCAA Tournament after a six-year hiatus.

In 2000, Samol began his coaching career at Boston College and spent two seasons with the Eagles, reaching the NCAA Tournament twice and capturing the Big East title in 2000.

An All-Ivy League selection in 1997, Samol graduated from Dartmouth in the Class of 1998 with a degree in psychology.

Following his graduation, Samol played professionally from 1998-2003 with the Connecticut Wolves (A-League), the Cape Cod Crusaders (D-3 Pro League), the Boston Bulldogs (A-League) and the Western Mass Pioneers (D-3 Pro League.

Locally in the DMV, Samol spent two seasons as a head coach with the Potomac U.S. Soccer Developmental Academy and served as the academy director at the McLean U.S. Soccer Developmental Academy Program for two years.

Samol resides in Arlington, Va., with his wife Amber and their daughters Juliette (4) and Colette (2).

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Mike Montross

Mike Montross was hired as an assistant coach for American University men's soccer starting in the 2019 season.

Montross returned back to The District after four years at Villanova and two years at Lehigh. He was previously with head coach Zach Samol for two seasons as a volunteer assistant at Georgetown.

In his first season at American, Montross oversaw a rebuilding team that picked up three Patriot League wins and was competitive in every other league contest. He coached one Academic All-Patriot League player (Tim Neumann) and a league-best 20 members of the PL Academic Honor Roll in 2019.

At Villanova, Montross was promoted from an assistant coach to associate head coach during his four seasons. He helped with all aspects of the program including recruiting, practice planning, video analysis, player development as well as academic success. During the 2016 season, the Wildcats appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history and finished the season with their highest RPI. On the recruiting trails, Montross was part of the first two (2016, 2017) top-20 ranked classes in program history.

Additionally, he coached and helped develop multiple award winners on and off the field. This included six players named to the All-Big East teams, three named to the All-Big East Freshman team, and three players named to the NSCAA/United Soccer Coaches All Region Team as well as multiple All Big East academic award recipients.

No stranger to the Patriot League, Montross spent two seasons at Lehigh (2013-14) where he helped the Mountain Hawks make the second highest RPI jump of any Division I program (from No. 187 to No. 78) and recorded double-digit victories for the first time since 2006. He coached and recruited multiple All-League players as well as academic award recipients. In 2014, five players were named to the Patriot League All-Conference teams, one player to the Academic All-Patriot League team, and one player to the NSCAA All Region Team. In both of his years at Lehigh, the team earned the NSCAA team academic award.

While at Georgetown, the Hoyas posted the most single-season wins (19) in program history and earned a Big East Blue Division championship while advancing to the Finals of the NCAA College Cup. That year, Steve Neumann was a MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist and earned College Cup Most Outstanding Offensive Player, while Brandon Allen was named the Big East Rookie of the Year as well as the national rookie of the year by a number of outlets. That unit also featured two All-Americans as well as six All-Big East honorees. Academically, Keon Parsa was honored with the Elite 89 Award, given to the student-athlete at the College Cup with the highest GPA.

Throughout his coaching career, Montross has worked with and prepared 18 student-athletes that signed professional contracts or were drafted by the MLS.

Montross is a 2011 graduate of Dickinson College, where he earned four varsity letters and and captained the team as a senior. He helped lead his team to its first two conference and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2007 and 2008 and was also on the Dean's List. The native of Bethesda, Md., received a degree in international business and management and minored in Spanish. He speaks Spanish fluently.

Montross received his master's degree in education from Villanova and married Vivianne Alves de Sa in July 2018.

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Dan Louisignau

Dan Louisignau joined the American University men's soccer staff as an assistant coach starting in the 2019 season.

In his first season at American, Louisignau oversaw a rebuilding team that picked up three Patriot League wins and was competitive in every other league contest. He coached one Academic All-Patriot League player (Tim Neumann) and a league-best 20 members of the PL Academic Honor Roll in 2019.

Prior to American University, Louisignau spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Appalachian State University. He helped lead the Mountaineers to their first winning season since 2012. Louisignau was the recruiting coordinator who evaluated student-athletes both athletically and academically. While rebuilding the program, Appalachian State brought in 13 recruits for the 2017 class and 14 recruits for the 2018 class.

Under the leadership of Jason O’Keefe, the Mountaineers, for the first time in school history, produced seven Sun-Belt All-Conference players in 2018 and had a sophomore and freshman voted to the 2nd Team All NCCSIA. Additionally, two freshman, two sophomores, and one senior received 2018 Sun-Belt Weekly Awards.

Louisignau also worked with the keepers and oversaw the development of Jake Chasteen. In 2018, Chasteen was voted as Sun Belt Co-Conference Player of the Year. Having only conceded 12 goals during the regular season, he led the conference in shutouts, shutouts per game, goals against average, and save percentage. During the 2018 season, Chasteen earned seven shutouts, tying for second-most in school history. Under Louisignau’s coaching, Chasteen produced a combined 13 shutouts during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. For one stretch of the 2017 season, the Mountaineers posted three straight blank sheets. App State's defense played a pivotal role in defeating three eventual NCAA Tournament teams. The three wins at Ted Mack Soccer Stadium were the most since 2015 when the Mountaineers won five matches.

Prior to Appalachian State, Louisignau spent four seasons as an assistant coach at UMBC, helping lead the Retrievers to the America East regular-season title in 2013 and 2014 and league tournament championships in three straight years. In 2014, UMBC made it to the College Cup for the first time in school history. The coaching staff at UMBC earned America East Coaching Staff of the Year honors, while their head coach, Pete Caringi, won NSCAA and Soccer America Coach of the Year honors. While working primarily with goalkeepers and defenders, Louisignau also worked at recruiting players and developing strong ties with the alumni base.

While at UMBC, he oversaw the development of goalkeeper Phil Saunders, who signed a professional contract with BÍ Bolungarvík of the Icelandic First Division in 2013 after being voted America East Conference Tournament MVP the year prior. Louisignau also coached goalkeeper Billy Heavner, who led the conference in goals-against average (.830) and shutouts (10) in 2014. Through five games in the 2014 NCAA Tournament run, UMBC posted four shutouts as the Retrievers became the first unseeded team in NCAA history to post four clean sheets in as many games on the road.

As a student-athlete himself, Louisignau played at UMBC (2009-11). During his time at UMBC, the Retrievers posted a winning percentage of .731 and an overall record of 41-11-15 for the most wins during a three-year period in UMBC Men's Soccer history.

In 2011, Louisignau was named the America East Conference Goalkeeper of the Year and earned First Team All-Conference honors after leading the conference in saves, save percentage and shutouts. In 2010, he had a save percentage of 84.5% that was good for 10th in the nation. In addition, he led the America East Conference in save percentage and saves per game (5.57) during league games. In more than 200 minutes of action in the NCAA Tournament, Louisignau only allowed one goal and had a six-save effort against then-No. 9 William & Mary for a 0-0 double overtime draw.

A Wilmington, Del., native, Louisignau graduated from UMBC in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. While living in Delaware, he played club soccer for the Baltimore Bays, where he won the USYSA National Championship in 2006 and 2009 and won the US Soccer Developmental Academy in 2008. Louisignau was also invited to train with the U18 U.S. National Team in 2007.