After only one season at the helm of the Seton Hall men’s soccer program, coach Andreas Lindberg has decided to shake up his original coaching staff.
In doing so, Lindberg returned to the Division II ranks to bring a new assistant to South Orange. On Feb. 25, Seton Hall and Lindberg announced the addition of former Barry University assistant Ali Simmons to the coaching staff for the 2019 season.
At Barry, Simmons was a member of the coaching staffs that have won the last two Division II national championships. Given Lindberg’s extensive experience coaching at LIU-Post, he is no stranger to the quality of coaching at Barry, where Simmons helped the Bucs to a 16-4-3 record and a national title. In 2017, Simmons coached at the University of Charleston in West Virginia and helped the Golden Eagles go 21-1-1 and win another championship.
Simmons’ experience goes far beyond the Division II level. In London,England, he served as the director of football and men’s first-team head coach at his alma mater Brunel University. For his efforts, he was voted Coach of the Year in 2016-17.
Simmons also served as an analyst at Football Radar, a company that develops scouting software. He was also a senior lecturer and the lead coach at ProFootball Acadamies, the director of coaching at Seashore Youth Soccer Leagues and the youth technical director at the United States Sports Academy in North Carolina.
To go along with his coaching accolades, Simmons holds an NSCAA National Diploma and an NSCAA Goalkeeping Level 1. He is also certified by the UEFA with a B license and A preparation course.
With an expertise in goalkeeping, Simmons will work directly with Andreas Nota and Steven Catudal at Seton Hall.
In 2018, Nota appeared in 14 games, made 57 saves and stopped 77 percent of shots. He was also in net for all of Seton Hall’s six wins. Catudal spent the 2018 season getting back into form after tearing his ACL five games into the 2017 season. In five games a year ago, Catudal saved 20 shots and 69 percent of the attempts fired his way.
After going 6-7-2 last season, Lindberg is looking to take the program to the next level in his second year in charge. The hope is that adding an assistant with goalkeeping expertise such as Simmons can help turn the tide and get the Pirates back on the path to being a contender in the Big East.
Tyler Calvaruso can be reached at tyler.calvaruso@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @tyler_calvaruso.
