Coaches
Methembe Ndlovu
Head Men's Soccer Coach
methembe.ndlovu@trincoll.edu
860-297-2063
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Methembe Ndlovu enters his second season as Trinity College's head men's soccer coach in 2023. Ndlovu came to Trinity in 2022 owning a wealth of impressive coaching and playing experience at many levels. A four-time All-Ivy League player at Dartmouth College, Ndlovu coached at numerous clubs both in the U.S. and abroad and most recently served as an assistant coach at Penn State University and women's associate head coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in California. Ndlovu was also the Africa CEO of Grassroot Soccer and played both professionally and for the Zimbabwe National Team. He replaces Mike Pilger who retired from coaching following the 2021 season.
Ndlovu earned his bachelor's degree in government from Dartmouth in 1997, where he starred on the pitch for the Big Green. He went on to a professional career that saw him spend six years with the Albuquerque Geckos, Highlanders FC in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and the Boston Bulldogs. In addition, Ndlovu earned nine international caps with the full Zimbabwe Men's National Team between 1997 and 1999. Ndlovu started his coaching career as a player assistant coach with the Cape Cod Crusaders, then of the PDL, in 2002. In his first season as head coach in 2003, he led the Crusaders to the 2003 PDL National Championship. He then joined the PDL Indiana Invaders as general manager and head coach. A holder of the USSF B License, he was voted 2004 PDL National Coach of the Year. That year, Ndlovu also served as a volunteer assistant coach with the University of Notre Dame men's soccer team under one of his mentors, the legendary Bobby Clark.
Ndlovu was the head coach of the Highlanders Football Club from 2006 to July 2008, leading the club to a CAF Africa Champions League qualification in 2006 and the CAF Confederations Cup in 2008. Ndlovu was also the Zimbabwe National Under-20 Men's Head Coach from 2007 to 2010, and guided that squad to the COSAFA championship in 2007 and to the COSAFA silver medal in 2008. Ndlovu went on to found and serve as CEO and technical director of Bantu Rovers Football Club in Zimbabwe for 10 years (2008-17). Bantu fostered sporting and academic excellence, sent players to professional leagues in Africa and beyond, and sent student-athletes to prestigious prep schools in the United States. As CEO, he was responsible for all club operations and as technical director he oversaw the clubs' technical staff. He re-entered college coaching at Penn State under another of his mentors, Jeff Cook, in 2020 and helped guide the Athenas to a 9-4-3 record at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps last fall.
Ndlovu's achievements as a co-founder of Grassroot Soccer, Inc. (GRS), a youth health, non-governmental organization that uses soccer as a tool for social change, is equally if not more impressive as those as a player and coach. In 2010, Ndlovu was awarded the Dartmouth College Martin Luther King Social Justice Award for his vision, enthusiasm and persistence in youth health education. Ndlovu was part of the organization's Africa leadership team and was The Grassroot Soccer Africa CEO when he left the organization's management team in 2018 to serve on the GRS Global Board as a trustee.
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