Chad Riley was named head coach Bobby Clark’s successor Thursday after Clark announced his retirement after 17 years with the program in November. Riley, a 2004 Notre Dame graduate, is a former Irish player and assistant coach, but he has been serving as head coach at Dartmouth for the past five years.
“My wife and I are excited to come home, not only to Notre Dame, but to the South Bend community,” Riley said in a statement. “This is our home, and we look forward to getting back involved with this wonderful community. I would like to thank Fr. John Jenkins, Jack Swarbrick and Beth Hunter for their trust in me as the next leader of this special program. ... This opportunity combines everything for me, to be a part of the best University in the world, to work with amazing students and to build a program that will compete for championships every year. We are going to be an ambitious program and will build on the wonderful legacy that Coach Clark has left behind. Our aim is now to take Notre Dame soccer to new heights, and I simply can’t wait to get started.”
Riley has led Dartmouth to Ivy League titles each of the last four years and has amassed a 51-26-14 record with the Big Green, claiming Ivy League Coach of the Year honors three of the last four seasons. Each of his Dartmouth teams has advanced to postseason play, and it earned the No. 15 seed this season.
“Chad Riley not only brings to Notre Dame a track record of winning titles and regularly qualifying for NCAA championship play, but having both played and coached for Bobby Clark, he already has a great understanding of the culture this program has built over the last two decades,” director of athletics Jack Swarbrick said of Riley in the statement. “We expect Chad to have a seamless transition into his new assignment in great part because he has a perfect sense of the expectations and opportunities both on and off the field at Notre Dame. This is a program that has achieved at the very highest levels, including an NCAA title four years ago, and we are confident Chad has what it takes to continue that sort of achievement.”
Riley also served as an assistant coach at Notre Dame for six seasons, during which time the Irish registered a 71-37-21 record. The Irish made trips to the NCAA tournament in five of those six seasons and advanced to the NCAA championship quarterfinals twice. The Irish also won back-to-back Big East titles under Riley’s tutelage in 2007 and 2008.
Before coaching the Irish, Riley held coaching jobs at Oberlin and St. John’s.
As a player, the midfielder was a four-time monogram winner, notching 52 career points. Riley led the Irish in assists in three seasons and ranks second on the all-time Irish assists leaderboard. As a senior, he was named an assistant team captain. Riley was named second team All-Big East in 2003 and third team All-Big East in 2001 and 2002.
