Growing up in Belfast, Ireland in a middle-class family, Gareth Elliott learned how to play soccer at a young age, and went on to play at the University of Rhode Island before making his name in the professional world.
After playing professionally in the Irish Premier League, the experienced head coach now leads the URI men’s soccer team, and recently secured his 100th win as the university’s head coach.
As a player at URI, Elliott played on the Rams soccer team from 1998-2001. Elliott went on to win various awards throughout his collegiate playing career, such as the Atlantic 10 Championship Most Outstanding Player in 2000, the A-10 tournament in 1999 and appeared in two NCAA tournaments.
“I’ve been a part of a lot of good teams, fortunately,” Elliott said. “It’s a lot of fun to play in the NCAA tournament and being involved in that atmosphere and that environment.”
After graduating from college, Elliott went on to play professional soccer for one season in the Irish Premier League with the Ards Football Club. Elliott became an assistant coach for the men’s soccer team at URI in 2003. Elliott spent five seasons as an assistant coach. During that time, URI won three A-10 championships in 2003, 2005 and 2006, under former head coaches Ed Bradley and John O’ Connor.
Following his first stint as a coach at URI, the Siena Saints of Siena College in New York made Elliott their head coach in 2008.
“It was my first head coaching job, so obviously that was a big step for me, the next step in my career,” Elliott said. “Being an assistant coach for five years and [I] enjoyed that part of it, but I thought at that point I was ready to have my own program, so it’s fun.”
Elliott’s first job as head coach from 2008-2012 was a successful one, as he helped the Saints develop the best winning percentage in team history with a 42-40-9 record and 51 percent win average. He also had a 24-14-5 record and a 61 percentage win-to-loss ratio in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Elliott guided his former team to a 6-1 conference record in 2012. He also won Coach of the Year in the same season.
“It was good to have my own program up there and [I] really enjoyed my time up in Siena,” Elliott said.
After Sinea, Elliott came back to the Rams in 2013 to coach the men’s soccer team. Under Elliott, the Rams broke a record the following year for being the first A-10 team to secure more than three conference victories after the team was winless in a A-10 campaign the previous year. In 2014, Elliott led a 7-1 team in the conference to gain the regular season title. However later on in the same season, the Rams fell short to Fordham University in the A-10 title game.
The 2014 season led the way for URI to have six A-10 semifinals appearances, which led to back to back titles in 2018 and 2019. Coach Elliott shared what changes were made for the team to improve under his leadership.
“It’s a cultural thing, right, it’s recruiting, it’s having guys that have great work ethic that want to be successful, that are coachable,” Elliott said. “Whenever I first got here, [I asked], ‘Who wants to be here? Who wants to put the work in, Who is willing to put the work in?’ if people were willing to put the work in we were going to work with them.”
On Tuesday, the Rams helped Elliott secure his 100th win as head coach against the University at Albany Great Danes in a 2-1 battle. Elliott is the third-winningest head coach in the URI soccer program behind Bradley with 192 wins and former head coach Geza Henni with 175 wins. On Saturday at 7 p.m. the 5-1-2 Rams will remain at home and host the 3-4-2 St. Bonaventure University Bonnies. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.