Coe College

Cedar Rapids, IA 52402

Iowa Midwest

Private Small Developing team

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Coaches

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James Culotta

Culotta joins Coe after a year-plus assistant coaching stint at Marian University, an NCAA Division III institution in Fon du Lac, Wisconsin. He brings seven years of coaching experience across various club, high school and college programs including stops at UW-Platteville and Ohio Wesleyan University.

"I am extremely grateful to Steve Cook and the entire search committee for giving me the opportunity to join the staff at Coe," said Culotta. "I think that Coe offers engaging and robust academic programs in a unique, urban setting that makes it a special community. I am looking forward to getting to campus and working with the faculty and staff while meeting and building relationships with our roster, reaching out to current recruits and connecting with the alumnae of the program."

Culotta, a 2014 graduate of Concordia University Chicago, played two seasons on the Cougar's varsity team. He returned to a full-time collegiate soccer position in 2018 when he began a two-year stint as a graduate assistant at UW-Platteville. While at Platteville, Culotta assisted with all aspects of the Pioneer women's soccer program during his tenure. Coach Culotta then served as an assistant coach at Ohio Wesleyan University during the 2020-21 school year. At OWU, Culotta was the recruiting coordinator and helped guide the program during the COVID-interrupted season.

"We are very excited to have James leading the future of our women's soccer program. His personality and enthusiasm are infectious," said Cook. "The depth of his assistant coaching experiences and knowledge of the game made him highly prepared to move into our head coaching role. We feel he will be an outstanding fit for our program, the athletic department, and the overall Coe community."

Cullota's most-recent stop as a college assistant coach came at Marian University. In 2021-22, he assisted in scheduling and designing training sessions, scouting, recruiting and developing fundraisers. This past fall, he helped the program earn its most conference wins since 2012, while three players earned all-league honors.

"There is a long list of coaches, players and mentors that I would like to thank that have helped prepare me for this opportunity," Coach Culotta said. "Whether it was coaching club, high school or collegiately, you have all had a profound impact on me and I am grateful for my relationship with each and every one of you."

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Lexie Rinderknecht

Assistant Women's Soccer Coach

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Kyle Bakas

Kyle is originally from Southern California where he grew up playing soccer. After high school he moved east to attend college in Washington D.C. at The Catholic University of America. He walked on to the team there and was an important player his junior and senior year. After college he coached at the youth club level primarily with Alexandria Soccer Association, and began to pursue coaching education opportunities. In 2015 he moved to Duluth to transition to the college and semi-professional game.

While there he worked as the men's and women's assistant coach at Lake Superior College. He was also the Head Coach at Duluth F.C. and after an undefeated first season, led the BlueGreens to their first NPSL North Conference title and a midwest conference semifinal appearance, where they lost to Detroit City F.C. After this stint Kyle moved to Montana where he was the Executive Director and Director of Coaching at Billings United Soccer Club. This experience reminded him of how much he loves coaching and he accepted a position at Coe College in August of 2019.

He is currently the Head Men's Soccer coach at Coe College and Assistant Coach at the Iowa Raptors in Cedar Rapids. Kyle holds the USSF Senior 'A' License and United Soccer Coaches Premier Diploma. While at Coe, Bakas helped coach the first all-conference player in three seasons as Carter Collis took home honorable mention honors in 2020.

Kyle believes in a player centered coaching style and ascribes to a positional possession-based style of play, which he has worked hard to implement while at Coe College.