Dan Keefe made the leap from assistant to head coach at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg in just seven months. (Photo courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburgh.)
If Dan Keefe were a businessman, he would be climbing the corporate ladder so fast he might be leaving Donald Trump in the dust.
As it is, he is scaling the walls of coaching with the same kind of speed. Within just over a year, the Steinert High graduate went from an assistant soccer coach at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg, then to the associate head coach, and now to the head coach.
All before his 25th birthday.
Keefe is uncertain if he is the youngest head soccer coach in the NCAA, but he’s got to be in the running.
“To think at 24 I’m a head coach, it’s a little mind boggling,” he said. “It really is a great opportunity, it’s exciting. It’s not a 9 to 5 job, and I think that’s what I really like about it.”
He better like it, as college coaching is pretty much a 24-7 job that takes an energetic and enthusiastic approach. Keefe is all that and more, which is how he landed in the profession to begin with.
It’s a passion that started “as far back as I can remember.” Keefe came up through the Hamilton Recreation and YMCA Leagues before joining the Hibernians for travel soccer. He moved on to Steinert’s squad, where he was the main goalkeeper his junior and senior seasons.
Even then, he started to show the leadership qualities that might lend themselves to coaching. Spartan head coach Todd Jacobs said Keefe “was like a sponge,” always working hard and listening to his teammates and instructors. His coachability, Jacobs added, set him apart from his peers.
“Danny had all the physical qualities, the skill was there,” Jacobs said. “But he also had the mental ability to perform in practices and games—and win. His game was constantly evolving. Danny was always eager to learn, grow and adapt to any situation. He was a vocal leader in the net, and he knew how to direct his teammates. As the game went on, he always had the confidence of his teammates.”
After graduating in 2009, Keefe played goalie for three years at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. After his junior year, he began to think about his future.
“I kind of had a lingering injury and saw the writing on the wall for my playing career coming to an end,” he said. “I wanted to stay around the game. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to stay around the game.”
He did that by transferring to Seton Hall and working under head coach Gerson Echeverry, the former U.S. National U-17 coach. Keefe got a referral from Rider coach Charlie Inverso—who is best friends with Keefe’s father, George—and Echeverry decided to give Keefe a position termed “assistant/video choreographer.”
“When Gerson got the job, Charlie really helped me and said to see if it was something I wanted to do,” Keefe said. “He knew Gerson, and he got me hooked up with him, and it was the greatest move I could have made for my career.”
Keefe spent two years as an undergraduate at Seton Hall and earned a degree in journalism in 2014. And while he put those skills to work, his “real” classroom featured Echeverry as the teacher. Watching the head man and his assistants made Keefe realize that coaching was something he wanted to pursue.
He already had some experience running things as the Director of Goalkeeping for both West Windsor Plainsboro Soccer Association and Match Ready Soccer.
“I was basically a fly on the wall, watching everything,” he said. “Just seeing how they did everything, seeing how much they enjoyed it, really made me enjoy it. I was just watching and listening, like a sponge taking it all in.”
Former Seton Hall coach Manfred Schellscheidt, one of the nation’s most influential soccer figures, would also drop in and take it to another level.
“He’s like an encyclopedia,” Keefe said. “It’s unbelievable. One of the big things I learned from those guys was professionalism and how to really run a program like an elite international team. That’s what Gerson knew, he was part of an elite team in Florida, and he ran Seton Hall like an elite international program. That’s something I really took out of it – the whole sense of begin a professional and I want to pass that professionalism on to my players.”
As graduation neared, Keefe rifled out resumes throughout the country. He put no limits on where he would go and heard from Pitt-Greensburg first-year coach Robert Spain last April.
Keefe knew as much about Division III Pitt-Greensburg as he knows about how to perform arterial heart transplants. Fortunately, it was easier to research the school than to save a life, and Keefe did his homework.
What he discovered was a program that went 3-16 in 2013 and had not had a winning season in a decade. But he enjoyed the town of Greensburg, a suburb just south of Pittsburgh, and felt comfortable with the famously friendly residents of Western Pennsylvania. Most importantly, he was getting a foot in the door, but not without seeing what might lie on the other side.
“When I was speaking to [Spain] we were talking about if I were to accept the job, what would happen?” Keefe said. “We had to change a lot to get back to where we needed to be.”
Keefe liked what he heard and, after graduating in May, he packed his bags and officially became the P-G assistant coach in July of last summer. It was a part-time position and Keefe was offered no housing, but the money he made from running the goalie clubs helped him survive.
With Keefe’s assistance, the Bobcats enjoyed one of the greatest turnarounds in NCAA Division III history, recording a 12-7-1 mark—a swing of nine games—for their best record in 10 years. It culminated in the program’s best conference regular-season finish and best conference tournament finish since 2004. The ‘Cats also hosted a playoff game and got their first postseason win in a decade.
“It was a pretty big deal for us to take it that far,” Keefe said. “We’re really fortunate with a good group of guys, and they’re changing the culture of the program around. They’re turning it from this kind of lackluster, no-enthusiasm, no-professionalism type of team and flipping it upside down.”
By the end of the year, Spain promoted Keefe from assistant coach to associate head coach, feeling recruits would be more impressed by that title than assistant coach. But then the University of Illinois came calling, and Spain left to take an assistant’s job.
Before it became official, Athletic Director Tony Berich mentioned to Keefe that Spain might be leaving and asked Keefe if he had any interest in the job.
“I was like, ‘Well….yeah!’” he said with a laugh.
Due to the Bobcats’ success, Berich wanted to maintain some continuity in the program to keep it headed in the right direction. Once it was officially offered to him, Keefe took a millisecond to get the words “I’ll take it” out of his mouth. By late January, he had gone from part-time assistant to head man in seven months.
“This is definitely well-deserved, and he has moved up the ranks pretty quickly,” Jacobs said. “I think Danny will make an excellent coach. It looks like he has continued to educate himself on the game and has earned the respect of many people. I wish him all the best.”
He will need those wishes when it comes to recruiting, as Division III coaches cannot offer athletic scholarships. But Keefe has already landed five official recruits, and is looking to get at least five more. His main turf is Western Pennsylvania, but he is not ruling out New Jersey and New York.
“We still have a long road to really putting it together,” Keefe said. “My sales pitch is that they could have the opportunity to play right away. We have nine guys returning and there’s 11 on the field. There’s certainly that opportunity to come and give a positive contribution right away.”
One thing he won’t do is try to act older than he is.
“One of the things I say to recruits is, ‘I can’t be a father figure to you, I’m not old enough. I’m not old enough to be an uncle to you. I’m your older brother,’” Keefe said. “That’s how it’s run. It’s not a dictatorship. I don’t have an ego where it’s my way or highway. I think guys 17 or 18 can relate to that. I think it would be awesome to play for a young coach, but it still comes back to professionalism and being professional.”
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