BGSU Women’s Soccer Assistant Coach Named Head Coach at Bluffton

Bluffton University Athletics Release

Bluffton, Ohio – Rhonda Gottschalk, an assistant coach on the women's soccer team at Bowling Green State University the last two years, was named the first full-time head coach in Bluffton women's soccer history earlier this month.

Patrick (Rick) Nussbaum had been both the head men's and women's soccer coach since 2010 and, with the duties now split, has become the first full-time head coach of the men's program.

"This is a great opportunity for Rhonda and right in her wheelhouse after two years at BGSU where we have spent time redefining a winning culture, which is the type of program she has taken over at Bluffton," commented BGSU women's soccer head coach Lindsay Basalyga. "Rhonda has the tool set necessary for this next role in her coaching career and I'm excited to see what she is able to accomplish in the coming years as the first Women's Soccer Head Coach at Bluffton."

At BGSU each of the last two years, Gottschalk worked with the goalkeepers, including redshirt-sophomore Lauren Cadel who led the Mid-American Conference in 2014 both in saves, a BGSU school-record 146, and saves per game with 8.11 per contest. Cadel also earned a spot on the 2014 All-MAC Second-Team for her record setting season.

Gottschalk was previously an assistant women's coach at Youngstown State University in 2012, the most successful season in the program's history, and at Duquesne University from 2010-11. From 2007-10, she was an assistant women's and men's coach at Ashland University.

Gottschalk earned her bachelor's degree in education, physical education and health in 2006 from Concord University in Athens, West Virginia. During her four-year playing career at the NCAA Division II school, she was a two-time captain who received all-conference honorable mention in 2002—when her team won the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title—and second-team all-conference honors in 2003.

Gottschalk, who completed a master's degree in applied exercise science at Ashland in 2009, has directed soccer camps at Bowling Green and Youngstown State, has been an assistant camp director at Duquesne and has coached at other college-based camps.

In addition to her collegiate coaching experience, Gottschalk has coached several club teams. She coached for the Pennine United Soccer Club in Lodi, Ohio, in 2008-09, and served as the head coach of the FC Pittsburgh U14 girls team since 2011.

Gottschalk is a member of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and earned her NSCAA National Diploma License in 2009. She earned her NSCAA Advance National Diploma License in 2012 and her NSCAA Goalkeeper 3 Diploma License in 2013.

In addition to her coaching duties at Bluffton, she will have teaching responsibilities in the university's academic department of health, fitness and sport science.

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