Jonathan Thayil enters his sixth season as head coach of the Shepherd University women’s soccer program. Thayil has coached the men’s soccer team at Shepherd since 2007 and has led the Rams to postseason conference play in 2007, 2010, and 2012; he has taken the women’s team to post-season play in five consecutive years starting in 2011.
Thayil led the Shepherd women’s soccer team to a 7-7-5 overall record in 2015, and a conference record of 6-6-4 which was good enough for a fourth place MEC finish. The Rams lost to eventual MEC Champions #6 West Virginia Wesleyan in the conference semi-final, taking the Bobcats to penalty kicks before they advanced.
Thayil came to Shepherd from Hartwick College in New York where he was the head coach for the women’s team from 2003-2006. Over four seasons, Thayil produced six All-Conference players including the Rookie of the Year in 2004. In Thayil’s first season at Hartwick, they won the New York State Women’s Collegiate Athletic Association Championship; upsetting the first and second seeds on the way to the title. Prior to coaching at Hartwick, Thayil was the head coach for women’s soccer at Stevenson University in Baltimore, Maryland.
A number of players have garnered conference recognition since Thayil started with the women’s team in 2011. Shepherd has been represented by a total of twenty one players over the last five years on the WVIAC All-Conference and MEC All-Conference teams. Lexi Vondrak garnered First Team honors last year; Kelsey Fletcher and Taylor Harwood took home Second Team honors, and Regan Stout was named Honorable Mention. Five players have received First Team recognition; fourteen players have been named to the Second Team, and two players to the Honorable Mention list. Erika Martin was recognized as a Regional All-American for the 2013 season; only the second Regional All-American in the history of the program which started in 2000.
Thayil has spent 22 years as a coach with the educational staff of the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association, and has taught youth license courses all over the state of Maryland. In 2004, Thayil worked as a team liaison for Chelsea Football Club of England during their US Tour. He traveled with the team for four weeks and worked closely with the players and the coaching staff during Jose Mourinho’s first season at Chelsea. He has traveled extensively to study soccer visiting Brazil twice, as well as England, Scotland, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and most recently Barcelona, Spain with the women’s team over Thanksgiving break.
Thayil holds a “B License” from the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), an “Advanced National Diploma” from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), a “B License” from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and an Advanced Coaching Diploma from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Thayil also holds coaching certificates from Holland and Ireland.
Thayil received a B.A. in Politics and Public Policy from Bethany College, in Bethany, West Virginia where he competed as a soccer player and swimmer. He completed his M.S. in Exercise Science with a concentration in Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention from the California University of Pennsylvania in 2008, and is currently pursuing his M.B.A. in Sports Management from Shepherd University. Thayil resides in Frederick, Maryland with his wife and two children.
