Riddiough uses unique blueprint for Hofstra women's soccer success

We can learn a thing or two from the Hofstra women's soccer team, which mowed down 18 consecutive opponents this fall on its way to Friday's first-round game in the NCAA championships tournament. (Hofstra, 18-2-0, will play UConn, 10-9-3, on the Boston College campus.)

The coach, first of all, is something of a pardox: A native of England, soccer's mother country, Simon Riddiough nevertheless got "all my experiences and methodology as a coach here in America." More of an anomaly has been Riddiough's equal use this season of two goalkeepers - one (Krista Thorn of Smithtown in the first half of every game) and the other (Emily Morphitis of London in the second half).

Given Hofstra's "mid-major" status, that space in Division I that automatically puts it a competitive step behind perennial powers such as North Carolina and Portland, this year's regular-season Colonial Athletic Association champion was assembled in the usual needle-in-the-haystack, diamond-in-the-rough manner.

Typically, Hofstra's talent was "overlooked by some big schools," said Riddiough (it's pronounced Rid-ee-off), citing senior Tiffany Yovino as a primary example. Yovino scored 11 goals in 20 games this season and became the first in Hofstra women's soccer history to be named conference player of the year.

"She's brilliant," Riddiough said. "And she's more impressive when you see her. She's 4-foot-11. In the media guide it says 5-foot, and that's because she's deeply distraught that she's under 5-foot, but she's just a monster, a woman among girls. And that's how she plays. She's got the heart of a lion."

Yovino's attacking sidekick, senior Salma Tarik of Bellmore, scored 12 goals and joined Yovino on the all-CAA team, along with junior midfielder Brittany Butts of Massapequa Park. Two other Hofstra regulars were named to the all-conference second team - junior midfielder Courtney Breen of Hickville and senior defender Dana Bergstrom of Billerica, Mass., while Morphitis and forward Amber Stobbs of London, both freshman, received CAA all-rookie honors.

Riddiough gushes about all of them, claiming his recruiting process consisted of "getting on my knees and praying a little bit." This is his fifth season as head coach and already Riddiough has produced the two school's two winningest seasons (18-4 in 2007 before this year) and second NCAA appearance in four years. (Hofstra lost in the second round to Penn State in overtime in 2007.)

How he got to Hofstra from his native Barnsley in northern England, Riddiough said with a straight face, was "on a plane." One of the first recruits by Richard Nuttall, Hofstra's men's soccer coach for 22 years, Riddiough lettered for four years and served as team captain, got both an undergraduate and Master's degree at the Hempstead school and settled on Long Island, eventually taking the job as women's assistant coach.

Working soccer camps while still in school, he had found "my personality is much easier for dealing with women than with men. Guys, you have to be really harsh, disciplinarian, yelling, and that's not me. I'm laid back, and girls are more receptive to that.

"You're coaching emotions with women, where with men, you're coaching attitude. I struggled more with smacking than with listening to people."

So, in his current job, neither the attitude nor the soccer jives with his experiences as a boy in England, where "the ball never touched the ground" in the style of his boyhood. "It was just smack it and everybody chased it and kicked each other. It was almost like a fistfight with a soccer ball.

"In England, it's changed tremendously in the last 20 years, but I've been here the last 20 years, so I can't use any of my growing-up experiences. Yeah, you go back to the passion you got from soccer in England, and the love for the game, but in reality, the style that's imprinted on me is from my coach at Hofstra and my experiences here."

As for the two-goalie system, which hardly appears ideal, Riddiough said, "I don't think it's ideal, either. The ideology, methodology, whatever you call it, says you don't switch keepers at halftime. I hate it. However, the team has invested in both goalkeepers, they believe in both goalkeepers, they're confident in both goalkeepers. And both goalkeepers are very good. And it just seems to work."

The lesson seems to be that success doesn't always come from obvious places.