By Shane Riley
Carrie Dietz stepped away from her job as head coach of the girls soccer team at Buffalo Gap High School in 2010, taking time off to raise a family with her husband, Brian.
She returned to coaching in 2016, working as a varsity assistant coach at several area schools. Now, she has worked her way back to a head coaching position at Rockbridge County High School, where she started in February.
“She makes soccer really fun, and it makes this program a lot better,” senior midfielder Elsa Kerin-Rice said.
Dietz said that she has had to adapt her coaching to fit how the game has changed.
“The game of soccer has really changed in the years I took time off,” she said. “It took a while for me to adjust.”
Dietz has made changes already this season at RCHS. She has brought in two Washington and Lee University soccer players to coach the junior varsity team; she says she’s also changed her mindset as a coach, looking to help her players develop as people, not just as athletes.
She grew up in Staunton and went to Riverheads High School, where she played soccer. She also played soccer in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference for Bridgewater College, graduating in 2008.
Dietz, 40, who lives in Rockbridge County, has two children — a daughter, Kelly, 15, and a son, Cooper, 6. She says her son picked up the love of sports she has while her daughter is into music and band.
She also is a math teacher at RCHS specifically teaching algebra and geometry. She did not stop teaching when she took a break from coaching, but she said she appreciates both roles.
“You need to be somebody that the kids can talk to and joke around with,” she said. “The more you can break down those barriers, the more successful a teacher or coach you will be.”
Since returning to coaching in 2016, Dietz first made stops as an assistant coach at Riverheads High School in Staunton and then at Wilson Memorial High School in Fishersville. She then came to RCHS as an assistant coach for the 2024 season. After former RCHS coach Danny Wheeler announced he was stepping down in the winter, Dietz said she felt ready to lead the team.
“It’s hard to break away from the girls,” Dietz said. “When they were talking about potentially getting a new coach, I was worried… Where would my place be?”
RCHS Athletic Director said Dietz is the best fit for the role
Athletic Director Anthony Marasco said the school posted the job, just like any other position, trying to find the best candidate. Dietz ended up blowing him away in the interview process, he said.
“There’s a lot of times you get these club coaches and travel coaches. Coaching at the high school is so different,” he said. “She was able to understand that and dive into what her plan is and what she’s seen at the program, what she wants to continue, what she wants to build on and what she wants to fix.”
Some of the changes she has made involve how she makes in-game adjustments. Every game, at halftime, she sets a specific rule for the second half that her team must abide by, given what happened in the prior half of play.
For the Wildcats’ first game of the season, against Wilson Memorial, Dietz implemented the ‘five yards, five seconds’ rule. The rule meant that if a player makes a mistake, they have either five seconds or five yards, depending on the scenario, to give full effort and try to help the team recover from the mistake.
“We noticed that we were acting a certain way, and we can control how we act,” she said.
Dietz said the goal of making a new rule at halftime for each game is to focus on one aspect of the team to improve collectively.
“The girls, they love when we get one thing we can do as a team and just fix it,” Dietz said. “It changes every game because every game is different.”
Junior goalie Caden Marshall said Dietz is almost always open when players need to talk.
“I always meet with her like seventh period, and we just go over plays, or we talk about soccer or anything,” she said.
Midfielder Lucy Boller-Pinkham, who is planning to graduate this year, said Dietz is open to discussing things on or off the field. She is even open to tactical suggestions for how the team should play on a certain night.
“After practice, Caden and I, we went up to hear and suggested how the defense should shift one more time before the game,” she said. “She had us meet, I think, about 15 minutes before the next game to explain that to the team.”
W&L students step up as J.V. coaches
Dietz tapped into local soccer expertise by hiring two Washington and Lee senior soccer players, Bryn Bissinger and Helen Otteni, to coach the junior varsity team. She also brought in Zachery Byrd, a high school teaching assistant, who helps with emotional support.
Bissinger and Otteni have made immediate impact as the J.V. coaches, she said.
“The girls really look up to them because they have so much knowledge and they’re so positive and exciting to be around,” Dietz said.
Both Bissinger and Otteni played for four years on the W&L women’s soccer team. Without their coaching help, the J.V. team was at risk of not having a season.
They both said they have very limited coaching experience. Otteni, 21, of Arlington, Virginia, said they just wanted to give the players a chance to experience high school soccer.
“We wanted them to have the chance to play on a soccer team like what we grew up with and wanted to give them the opportunity to build relationships,” she said. “We knew that they’d probably enjoy some young female coaches, so we thought we’d step in.”
Bissinger, 22, of Greenville, South Carolina, said learning to coach has been and up-and-down experience, but that Dietz has allowed them to step fully into the role and find their footing.
“She gives us a lot of freedom to have our own team and be head coaches,” she said. “She’s been there to help us when we need help and we’re trying to be there for when she needs help in varsity.”
The Wildcats are currently 0-3 to start the season, but Dietz said she prioritizes winning academically and emotionally just as much as coming out on top on the scoreboard.
“That’s my favorite saying, ‘attitude, effort, and teamwork. Positive attitude, positive effort and positive teamwork can really further your game in soccer, but also as a person,” she said. “It furthers your ability to lead in the classroom or on and off the field.”
Dietz’s players and assistant coaches say she has already made a positive impact.
“She makes soccer really fun, and it makes this program a lot better,” senior midfielder Elsa Kerin-Rice said.