A familiar face will be leading the Rockbridge County High School girls soccer team this spring. After Danny Wheeler announced this winter that he was stepping down as the team’s head coach, Carrie Dietz was promoted from assistant coach to head coach.
The RC athletic department announced the hire on Feb. 10. Confident in Dietz’s leadership ability, RC athletic director Anthony Marasco said, “Coach Dietz’s experience and dedication to the sport will undoubtedly propel Rockbridge girls soccer to the next level. We are excited to welcome her to our athletic community and look forward to the impact she will have on our student-athletes, both on and off the field.”
Wheeler, who stepped down after two years at the helm to take care of his health, is also confident in having the program under Dietz’s direction. “Carrie is a great selection to move it forward, and I’ve ensured her that I will support and sustain her efforts with the team, and I will continue to be a pillar of support for the team and for the organization.”
Last year, the Wildcats set a program record for wins in a season, going 10-7 overall, and they also earned the program’s first regional tournament win when they defeated ninthseeded Broadway 3-2 in the first round of the Region 3C tournament. The eighthseeded Wildcats concluded their season with a 7-0 loss at top seed Wilson Memorial in the regional quarterfinals. Two years ago, the Wildcats went 8-9 and made it to the Region 3C tournament, falling at Western Albemarle in the first round.
Pleased with what the Wildcats accomplished while he was guiding them, with assistance from Dietz, Wheeler said, “As a coach, it’s always the desire to step away for a time period, having left the organization in a better standing than what it was when you step into it, and we’ve done that. It’s been a great source of satisfaction, not only for me but for the other coaches involved, and it’s been an honor and a privilege to work with them the last few years.”
Prior to serving as an assistant coach under Wheeler, Dietz coached soccer for two years at Buffalo Gap High School, in 2009 and 2010. She and her husband, Brian, then had a daughter, and Dietz took time off from coaching. She also works as a math teacher at RCHS, teaching Algebra I and Geometry.
Dietz played soccer at Riverheads High School, now a Shenandoah District opponent of the Wildcats. She was a three-year starter for Riverheads and earned alldistrict, all-region and allstate honors twice before graduating in 2004. She then went to Bridgewater College and was a forward and midfielder for the women’s soccer team, majoring in math and graduating in 2008.
Working with Wheeler over the last two years has been “really rewarding,” Dietz said. “Danny is a super positive individual. He wants team camaraderie and teamwork before soccer. He’s very competitive, and he was about developing the whole player, as well as soccer. He was always looking at their mental health. He would bring in snacks and peanut butter and jelly and bread.”
Dietz said she applied for the head coaching position because she cares about the team and “wanted to make sure the girls got what they needed.”
Dietz and her husband have two children: Kelly, a freshman at RC, and Cooper, a 6-year-old who is involved in wrestling.
This season, after seven years in the Valley District, the Wildcats have joined the Shenandoah District, with shorter travel distances between opponents. Although they graduated six players – led by all-district selections Madelyn Jones, Lydia Kendall and Madeline Swisher – they have a talented group of players returning.
DIETZ
