Posted: Jan 17, 2017
Penn State Harrisburg Assistant coach, Rudy Grubesky, was named the Girl's East Region Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) and was presented with this prestigious award on January 12, 2017 at the NSCAA annual convention in Los Angeles for his coaching at the Dillsburg Area and Hershey Soccer Clubs.
Coach Grubesky returned as an assistant coach in 2016 for the women's soccer team after a stint as a head coach at another local D3 college. He has been involved in coaching soccer at the youth, high school and college levels for over twenty years and received this award for his recent work as the head coach for a U-14 girls' team at the Dillsburg Area Soccer Club. He also helps train youth players at the Hershey Soccer Club during summer camps and as a fill-in trainer when needed.
In addition, whether he was coaching at the high school or college level, Coach Rudy also wanted to stay involved in coaching at the youth level to teach life lessons based on his law enforcement experience and to instruct soccer fundamentals to younger players.
According to Coach Grubesky, "I am honored to receive this important award and I consider this recognition as a career achievement award. I have been fortunate to have mentors like Coach Jeff Tipping and I have worked with some terrific coaches like Coach Adam Clay. I am also lucky to be coaching players like we have at Penn State. The young women on our team are very coachable and are willing to apply the lessons that we teach in our training sessions to their play in our matches." Grubesky stated, "I also like coaching at Penn State-Harrisburg because I am able to discuss coaching topics, team management issues, and teaching methods with our women's and men's soccer coaches as well as with the members of the athletic department administration, coaches of other sports, and our athletic trainers. It helps me to keep learning and improving as a coach."
"I think it is also important to help develop the next generation of soccer coaches. I am fortunate that two former Penn State-Harrisburg players, Mackenzie Gates and Kristin Peckman, are giving back to the soccer community and coaching with me at the Dillsburg Area Soccer Club," Grubesky said.
Head Penn State Harrisburg women's soccer coach was very impressed with one of his assistants winning such a prestigious award. "Coach Rudy may be an assistant on the staff, but I have felt very fortunate to be able to learn from his vast experience both on the soccer field and in life. Most importantly I feel that his character is an example for all of us and we are lucky to have him as an important part of the team."