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The Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association has announced that Baldwin Wallace University men’s soccer head coach Reid Ayers has received the 2018-2019 Ohio Collegiate Soccer Coaches Association “Honor Award” by a vote of his coaching peers. Ayers, a native of Bay Village, Ohio and a graduate of Hiram College resides in Green, Ohio.
“Reid was most deserving of the Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association’s Honor Award, the highest level of recognition given by the Association,” said OCSA Executive Committee Member and Wilmington College Head Coach Bud Lewis, who is a past recipient of the award. “His service to the Association over the last 10 years has been very significant in the growth and general operations of the OCSA.
“Under Reid’s leadership, the OCSA, established in 1953, continues to serve a membership of more than 100 Ohio Collegiate Soccer programs providing recognition for All-Ohio, Academic All-Ohio, Player of the Year and an annual membership social at the United Soccer Coaches Convention,” continued Lewis. “Reid has given his time and talents in rewriting the Association’s mission and constitution and the OCSA is in a much better place because of his service and leadership.”
In order to receive the award, coaches must have a minimum of 15 years of service in the state of Ohio in addition to a history of “outstanding achievement and/or service to the association and/or made contributions that have had a positive impact on the improvement, advancement and/or presentation of intercollegiate soccer in Ohio.”
“This is a tremendous honor and certainly one of the highlights of my career to date,” Ayers said. “To be mentioned in the same sentence with other Honor Award winners is incredibly humbling.
“Throughout my coaching career, I have been very fortunate to have been in situations where I could learn from great coaches and mentors who helped shape my coaching philosophies,” said Ayers. “To be able to pick up the phone or walk down the hallway in the BW athletic office and get tremendous advice has been invaluable to my personal development. Equally important, I have had the opportunity to work with some tremendous student-athletes who bought into our culture of achievement on the field and in the classroom. I am very thankful that I have been able and continue to coach for a living.”
Having spent 17 years at the helm in Berea, Ayers is the third-longest tenured head coach as well as the winningest coach in the history of BW men’s and women’s soccer with more than 300 combined victories to his credit. A two-time Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, BW has produced 12 All-Region players and eight OAC positional Players of the Year under Ayers’ tenure.
Ayers has also established a tradition of excellence in the classroom as well. His teams have earned Team Academic honors from the United Soccer Coaches (formerly National Soccer Coaches Association of America) a total of 14 times. Meanwhile, the program has produced six College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA)/Google Cloud Academic All-Americans and two Scholar All-Americans since 2006.
Off the field, Ayers is active in the highest levels of coaching throughout the country. He is an Age Group Head Coach for the Region II Olympic Development Program where he assesses and trains elite players from 13 different states in preparation for domestic and international competition. Previously, Ayers has served as a Professional Match Evaluator for Major League Soccer and as a scout for the United States Soccer Federation Development Academy.
In 2017, Ayers was also honored with Ohio’s Director of Coaching Award recognizing “exceptional contributions to the growth and development of the game and who served to inspire us by example.”
Currently, Ayers serves on the executive board of the OCSA as well as both the United Soccer Coaches ranking and All-American committees. He holds his National ‘A’ and National Youth Licenses from the USSF as well as a Premier Diploma from the NSCAA.
The OCSA is one of the oldest and most prestigious college soccer associations in the nation, representing all NCAA, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) institutions in Ohio.
