Salem College Interim Director of Athletics Chelsey Stewart announced that Robin Ramirez was named the program’s head soccer coach on Monday, August 2nd, in a formal announcement.
Ramirez assumes the role after serving as the head coach at Hollins for the past six seasons (2014-21). He began his collegiate coaching career at Eureka College, leading the women’s soccer program from 2011-14. In addition to his roles at Hollins and Eureka, Ramirez has worked on the Club Soccer circuit since 2004.
Ramirez, who becomes the third coach in program history after Jay Callahan and Octavia Saunders, piloted Hollins to four wins and 4.50 goals against average in 2019, the lowest since the 2013 campaign. His Hollins units earned Team Ethics Award of Merit on three occasions including 2016 (Silver), 2017 (Gold) and 2018 (Silver), along with being named as United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award recipients in 2018 and 2019.
Ramirez’s first head coaching job at the collegiate level came in 2011 at Eureka College. He inherited 11 players from the previous season and quickly expanded the roster to 17 within just one season. Two years later, in 2013, Ramirez’s second recruiting class helped lead the program to their most single-season victories (five) in program history and set six single-season program records along the way. As a result, his goalkeeper had the lowest goals against average in program history and Eureka posted the most overall wins since 2008 and most league wins since 2009.
Upon graduating from Fordham, Ramirez built his coaching career on the Club Soccer circuit with positions in San Francisco, California (San Francisco University High School) and the Bronx, N.Y. (Bronx House) before being names as the men’s assistant soccer coach at Manhattan College. During his two seasons with the Jaspers, Robin served as an assistant coach and director of soccer operations for the men’s program.
After earning 24 hours towards a master’s degree in education with a focus in special education from Manhattan, Ramirez continued to develop as a soccer coach with positions at the Sports Domain Academy (Montclair, N.J.), Lindbergh Middle School (Peoria, Ill.), FC Metro Select Lil’ Devils (Eureka, Ill.) and VBR Star (Roanoke, Va.) with a multitude of titles.