After seven seasons, girls soccer head coach, Ian Rickerby, has decided to put an end to his coaching career. 

Rickerby, a native of England, moved to the United States in 1988 to receive his masters degree. His coaching career began almost instantly after moving, coaching at his alma mater Siena Heights, Michigan, along with Missouri Valley and Evansville. 

“My desire to move to America was fueled by ambition, boredom, fortune and adventure,” said Rickerby.

After spending time working his way up the coaching ladder, Rickerby earned bigger assistant coaching jobs at Iowa and Purdue, and eventually Indiana. After five seasons as an assistant women’s soccer coach at IU, Rickerby took a teaching job at Bloomington South and would take over as head coach of the girls soccer team. 

“I moved to the high school level because I kept getting fired from colleges. The transition from college to high school was tough because there’s no air conditioning or toilets on school buses. There’s also a big age difference.”

In his seven seasons at South, Rickerby would see tremendous success, accumulating a 91-37-10 record to go along with six sectional titles in seven seasons. 

“I made the decision to retire from coaching because I just felt like it was time. Bad knees, bad attitude, bad practice field. It was just time.”

“As funny as it may sound coach Rickerby is such a great coach because he simply knows the game so well,” said former South soccer player, Gaelle Wells. “Soccer is just different in Europe. He has an understanding of how it’s played here and how it’s played overseas. He is also a player’s coach. He really listens to the goals that the players have.”

Coach Rickerby will definitely be missed.