Hood College

Brian Wall, the lone head coach in the program’s history,enters his 10th season at the helm of the Hood men's soccer programas the Blazers in 2013.

On Feb. 4, 2012, Wall was inducted into the Mount St. Mary'sUniversity Sports Hall of Fame. As a player at the Mount, Wall wasa four-year starter as a central defender and served as a teamcaptain during his junior and senior seasons. He earnedAll-Northeast Conference honors and All-South third team honors in1995 and 1996. Upon his graduation in 1998, he earned the John M.Kolon Award for academic and athletic excellence.

In just the team’s second season, Hood posted animpressive turnaround, finishing 8-4-1 in 2005 after its 1-12inaugural season. The 7.5-game improvement tied for the third-bestturnaround in all of NCAA Division III from 2004 to 2005. Hoodmatched its win total in 2006, compiling a mark of 8-10-1.

In 2006, during the team's inaugural season in the CapitalAthletic Conference, the Blazers faced a challenging schedule butmanaged to defeat teams such as Frostburg State University andMcDaniel College. The team faced top-seeded York College (Pa.) inthe first round of the CAC playoffs, falling only 3-0.

The soccer program got underway in 2004 with Wall--formerly theboys' soccer coach at nearby Damascus (Md.) High School--leadingthe way. In their first season of competition, the Blazers took onseveral national powers, including NCAA Division III Final Fourparticipant Salisbury University, and laid the foundation for theprogram.

In 2007, Wall returned seven recruits from his initial season in2004 who became the first four-year men’s soccer players inthe history of the program. The 2007 squad posted a record of 5-13and 1-7 in the CAC.

In 2008, Wall and the Blazers went 4-12 and went 1-7 in the CAC.Then in 2009, Hood recorded a mark of 3-13 overall and 1-7 in theCAC.

In 2010, Wall's Blazers owned a 7-9 record and defeated two CACteams (Marymount University and Wesley College) for the first timein program history. In addition, forward/midfielder Chris Mendez'12 became the first player in program history to be recognized asan all-CAC honoree with his selection to the second team.

In 2011, Hood started out strong and was unbeaten in four of itsfirst five games, but the Blazers were bit by the injury bug atmany key positions in their starting lineup and went on to finishwith an overall mark of 3-10-1. Goalkeeper Will Lane '13 was namedto the all-CAC second team following a stellar junior campaign.

Last year, the Blazers played their first season in theCommonwealth Conference and finished 4-10-2 and defeated Lycomingfor the first win in the new conference on Oct. 27. Eric Diehl wasnamed All-Commonwealth Conference First Team after finished amongthe conference’s scoring leaders with 24 points, eight goalsand eight assists. The selection gave the Blazers an all-conferencepick for the third straight year.

Wall, who holds a National Soccer Coaches Association of America‘B' License and a U.S. Soccer Federation Class ‘C'License, served as an assistant at the Mount from 1998-2000 and wasresponsible for recruiting and monitoring the academic progress ofteam members. In addition, he helped increase the men's soccerteam's fundraising revenue by 70 percent and implemented changemanagement techniques to increase team motivation and performance.Wall assisted under the renowned Mark Mettrick, who is now themen's soccer head coach at NCAA Division I national power LoyolaUniversity (Md.).

Wall earned a bachelor's degree in business administration andfinance in 1998 and a master's degree in finance in 2000, both fromthe Mount.

He has served as a business technology teacher at Damascus since2001.