Maryville College soccer coach recruits around the country, world
June 12, 2023
“If you build it, they will come” is a familiar mantra among sports fans, but Maryville College’s Pepe Fernandez has been building something special for more than three decades, and his players keep coming from all over the world.
Fernandez began working as the men’s soccer coach at Maryville College in the summer of 1989. The following year, he began coaching the women’s soccer team, as well, and never looked back.
When Fernandez began serving as head coach at the College, his family decided that they were “all in” on supporting Fernandez’s passion for soccer. The Fernandez family worked to bolster soccer camps in and around Maryville.
Eventually, Fernandez was running soccer camps in different parts of the country. Fernandez remarked that almost every single current Maryville College soccer player attended one of his soccer camps before their tenure at the College.
Fernandez views the recruiting process as “developing a relationship that will last as they begin their journey at MC.”
A core value of the soccer program at the College, under Fernandez’s leadership, is that a team is a “collection of friends first and soccer players second.” He believes that his recruiting efforts are effective because of his emphasis on building a community.
At the beginning of 2023, Ellie Schuld and Madison McDonald announced they were planning to sign with Maryville College Soccer and enroll at the College in the fall. Both Schuld and McDonald are from Anchorage, Alaska.
Fernandez ran a soccer camp in Alaska, which is how the women learned of Maryville College. This is not the first time he has recruited student-athletes from far-flung regions to join the Scots program. John Robertson ‘13 was recruited from Scotland in the United Kingdom.
Robertson, who describes himself as the first ever “Scottish Fighting Scot,” explained that Fernandez treated him like family, and that helped Robertson choose MC. Fernandez even flew to Scotland to meet Robertson’s family and assure the parents that he would take care of their son while studying and playing far from home.
Robertson described Fernandez’s coaching style as “teaching players the game so they have enough soccer IQ to make decisions and win the game for themselves.”
And win they do. During his tenure, Fernandez has amassed 805 victories, 342 losses and 85 ties for a winning percentage of .688 record and garnered 7 Coach of the Year honors. In 2011, he was inducted into the College’s Wall of Fame.
In addition to Scotland, Fernandez has recruited players from Spain, Nigeria and Norway. Caleb Platillero ‘23, who grew up in Alicante, Spain, also credited Fernandez’s coaching style with his choice for attending MC.
“I chose to play soccer at MC because I liked Fernandez’s style of play and the unity between the men’s and women’s soccer teams,” he said. “I also liked that he always emphasized that we were students first and then athletes.”
Stateside, Fernandez regularly has filled his roster with talented players from teams in Georgia, Florida Ohio, Illinois, New York and more. Delaney Muldoon ’24 from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Sydeney Mahr ’25 from Syracuse, New York, both explained that Fernandez’s emphasis on creating a family atmosphere and an environment where they could both pursue their academic pursuits attracted them to the College.
Robertson explained that Fernandez’s “legacy of creating a familial environment that empowers players continues as he recruits players from all over the world.”
Fernandez continues to make a lasting impact at the College by not only preparing the soccer teams to win but to be students and family as well.
“I think that something that sums up my coaching philosophy is that we have a set of core values and the soccer teams decide their core values together. We defer to each other, just like a family,” he said.
For more information about Fernandez and the soccer program at Maryville College, visit https://mcscots.com/.