Molloy moves to hire new head soccer coach

Chris Megaloudis, head coach of the Long Island Rough Riders soccer club, will embrace a new challenge, following the conclusion of the USL League Two season, as he steps into the role as the new head coach of the Molloy University men’s soccer team.

This season he has directed the Rough Riders to first place in the USL League Two Metropolitan Division, with a 9-1-1 record and 28 points with only one match remaining on July 10, just after press time on Tuesday.

Megaloudis, 40, grew up in Astoria, Queens, and would attend Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School, where he is the school’s all-time leading goal scorer. He went on to play at the NCAA Division I level for two years at St. Peter’s College, where he earned back-to-back all-conference and all-region honors, and completed his collegiate soccer career at Stony Brook University, where he was the leading goal scorer for the Seawolves.

He went on to make his Major League Soccer debut in 2008. Following a brief stint with the New York Red Bulls franchise, his interest started to shift towards coaching, although he would continue to find opportunities to play for teams in Puerto Rico and Serbia.

During his nine-year professional playing career, Megaloudis would play with the Puerto Rico national team from 2008 to 2012, including some meaningful World Cup qualifying matches.

He shifted towards the managerial side of operations, by taking a job as an assistant coach for the Nassau Community College’s women’s team, eventually being promoted to head coach. He spent five years as head coach, from 2017 to 2021, during which time the Nassau Lions had an outstanding 42 win record, secured three National Junior College Athletic Association regional crowns, two district titles and two trips to the NJCAA Division III National Championships.

He went on to spend two seasons as the top assistant coach at Adelphi University, where he led the Panthers to 18 wins, two Northeast-10 Conference tournament appearances, and an appearance in the NCAA Division II tournament. He was involved in all facets of running a successful collegiate program at the NCAA level with experience in training, recruitment, scheduling, fundraising, social media, scouting, community service and alumni relations.

“Coach Megaloudis is familiar with the East Coast Conference and East Region competition, which makes this coaching transition a perfect fit,” Susan Cassidy-Lyke, director of athletics at Molloy University, said in a release. “Coach [Matthew] Sloan did an excellent job with the team this past year, and I look forward to coach Megaloudis building on this culture both academically and athletically. I am confident that his professional and collegiate playing and coaching experience will enable us to remain competitive and hungry for an East Coast Conference Championship.”

Throughout his time coaching collegiate soccer, he has kept busy during the spring and summer “off-season” months, as the head coach of the Long Island Rough Riders men’s team, where he plans to finish out the season. He also dedicates his time to coaching youth soccer clubs on Long Island and in parts of Queens.

Coaching at Molloy will be his most prestigious assignment to date, as he prepares to take his first crack as the head coach of an NCAA ranked school.

“Having been a student-athlete, I know the importance of performing athletically while upholding high academic standards,” Megaloudis said. “I know how the success of our Molloy students affects the community at large.”

Megaloudis said that he is looking forward to bringing his decades of experience, wisdom and passion to the field and hopes to ignite a new sense of excitement and drive in his players in the upcoming 2024 season this fall.

“The school itself has a great reputation from an academic standpoint and the athletic side,” Megaloudis said. “I think (the opportunity was really for me. It was time to push myself to get a head coach position … and the reputation (of the school) was big for me.”

He said his key ambition is to build bonds and unity within the team, prioritizing character on and off the field, and having everyone work hard so they can compete. For Megaloudis, soccer was an instrumental part of what shaped his life, and one of his goals is to help shape young players and mentor them to reach even greater levels of success.

“I got to experience enough [soccer] for me to say, ‘this is great’ and I want to continue doing this,” Megaloudis said. “It’s in my family, it's in my blood, and I’m really fortunate to have that in my life. Now it’s just about giving back, sharing these experiences, and guiding these players. That’s why coaching is what I want to do.”

Molloy’s 2024 season will begin on September 5 at Southern New Hampshire University, where Megaloudis hopes to continue to effectively touch the lives of his players and have more successful experiences as a soccer head coach.