Merrimack women's soccer is Mejail's team

Since 1984, squad has been a winner

By Maureen Mullen
Globe Correspondent


NORTH ANDOVER - Coach Gabe Mejail was driving to practice Monday evening as the seedings were being announced for the NCAA Division 2 women's soccer tournament. His Merrimack College women's soccer team received the fourth seed for the Northeast Regional this weekend in Albany, N.Y.

Mejail, the only head coach of the women's team that Merrimack has ever known, was not met by a collection of anxious young women who had been waiting to learn their team's fate. News spreads fast in the Internet age.

That is just one example of how things have changed since Mejail was hired in 1984, when recruiting was limited to posting signs in the school's dorms and the team's game uniforms were ordered late and never arrived - Mejail and his team choosing to wear their practice uniforms in games rather than the men's hand-me-downs.

"Yeah, it's been a while. I can't believe I'm still here," said the 53-year-old coach. "But, I really enjoy it.

"I really like it here. I really like the girls. I really like the school. For me, I really find it easy to sell the program and recruit the kids and sell the school itself. I tell them, 'Come and visit. Hang out. You'll like it.' "

Since that first year of the program, Mejial has guided Merrimack into one of the most successful programs nationally. It is the only team to make the Northeast-10 playoffs in each of the conference's 23 seasons. The program has produced 15 All-Americans. Mejial is a seven-time Northeast-10 coach of the year, a two-time National Soccer Coaches of America Association coach of the year, and the association's collegiate national coach of the year.

This year's NCAA invitation marks the eighth time Merrimack, which had a 12-4-4 record this year, has been selected for the tournament in the program's 24-year history, and the sixth time in the last seven years. The Warriors have been regional finalists four times, most recently in 2002, and advanced to the Elite Eight in 1996.

One of the most satisfying accomplishments for the part-time coach: His teams have never known a losing season, holding the NCAA Division 2 women's soccer record for consecutive winning seasons, all 24 years and counting.

"We had a winning season our first year, right from the get-go, and that was kind of exciting," he said.

"I still remember our first away game at Saint Anselm, and then telling the team, because everybody was kind of nervous and quiet, and I said, 'Hey, you know what? Saint A's has never beaten us.' Of course, we had never played them. And I actually used that speech for three or four years before they finally beat us. But it was a great feeling. It was a fun team, a fun group.

"We've never had a losing season at Merrimack. I don't like to say that because I'm afraid I'll jinx it. But it won't be this year, at least. I'm always able to tell the players whenever we clinch a winning season, 'Well, now you're part of the tradition.' "

more stories like thisMejail - assisted by associate head coach Paul Athanasiadis and volunteer coaches Maegan Vondal and Rich Perry, - is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division 2 history (338-131-28 at Merrimack, 373-156-37 overall, which includes four years at Wheaton College in Norton).

When he took the job in August 1984, thoughts of staying at the small, bucolic campus for three decades were not on his mind.

"I guess I just thought, 'Well, I'll be here a couple of years. I don't know how long I'll coach.' And I've had a great time.

"The job was open [two weeks before the season], and I remember meeting [athletic director] Bob DiGregorio. He drove me around in his little golf cart, pointing everything out. I remember putting the [recruiting] signs in the dorms my first year. And it's so different now."

Julie Anderson, a red-shirt senior captain who missed all of last season with two anterior cruciate tears, said: Mejail "understands that we have other things besides soccer going on. He's always positive. He just makes it so we want to go to practice and want to play for him.

"He's not a screamer at all. . . . We respect him."

The road to Merrimack led Mejail through two continents. The Reading resident and father of three - 15-year-old Emily and 4-year-old twins Jonathan and Matthew - was born in Argentina and moved to the United States in 1969. He became a US citizen in 1974.

After graduating from MIT in 1978 with a degree in urban planning, he received his master's degree in education from Harvard in 1989, and has taught history for 15 years at the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge.

"The best part of the job is showing up to practice and forgetting everything else except just coaching. For two hours, I'm in a different world. I can leave everything behind. The papers that I have to correct, the mortgage - that all just goes away. That's very nice. Really just showing up to practice, much more than games.

"I'm a wreck during games. I get so nervous. I still get nervous. I got nervous my first year, and I'm still nervous 24 years later. That has not changed. It's funny. I think when I stop getting nervous, I'll know there's something wrong."

But, for this 24th season, all is right.