Kodiaks new co-head coach Mark Pries (Photo Courtesy: Lethbridge College)

By Lara Fominoff

Kodiaks assistant soccer coach promoted to co-head coach

Aug 12, 2019 | 1:43 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A long-time Lethbridge College assistant soccer and futsal coach has been promoted to co-head coach of both the women’s and men’s teams.

Mark Pries has spent the last eight seasons with the college and will now join Sean Carey taking on additional responsibilities. Pries grew up in Lethbridge and graduated from Catholic Central High School. He joined the Kodiaks soccer team and played as a defender in 1996 and again from 2000 to 2004. He joined the staff of women’s soccer head coach Barry Morrison in 2011 and stayed on to work with the new women’s head coach Mike Racz from 2012 to 2016. He began working with the men’s team in 2016 and stayed there when Carey was hired in 2017.

Last spring Carey became the first coach ever, to win the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) coach of the year honours for both men’s and women’s teams in the same season.

Pries says he’s flattered and looking forward to his new challenges.

“When we first started, it was all about trying to build a program that would compete for a playoff spot,” he said. “And as we’ve reached those goals, now it’s all about winning banners, and winning some hardware.”

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The new arrangement will allow for more distribution of on and off field responsibilities and will make both coaches eligible to lead teams in playoffs if they find themselves in different locations at the same time.

Last season, both Kodiaks soccer teams qualified for the ACAC playoffs and both made the conference semifinals. The women’s team also took home a bronze medal – the first medal for the program in nearly 25 years.