Girls Soccer Coach Leaves to Coach Boys Soccer Team

By Jay Alter - Jon Bradley has spent since 2006 as the Darien High School's Girls Soccer Varsity Coach and was an assistant coach from 2002 to 2004. But after nine seasons with the Girls Soccer program, Bradley will move his famous coaching chair across the turf to coach the Boys team. "It was a very difficult decision to leave the girls program but I am ready for a new challenge with the boys program," Bradley said after he was named the Boys Coach early saturday morning (7/30/11). Bradley brought the girls team to the FCIAC finals in both the 2006 and 2007 season and the girls have traditionally made both the FCIAC and CIAC tournaments when Bradley was coaching. Bradley also serves as the Coaching Coordinator for the Darien Soccer Association and is a part of a private soccer club in the area, Eastern Soccer Academy.
The coaching change comes a month before pre-season starts for both the boys and the girls teams, so the time to adjust is not long for both teams. The boys position became open after Nicolae Piperea stepped down after five seasons coaching the boys team, only getting to the FCIAC and CIAC tournament once and recording a mere 18 wins. "I'm confident that Jon Bradley is a man who, with his experience at the varsity level with the girls, can step right into the new position without any problems, and help turn the boys program around," said Senior Eric Kanigan. Jon Bradley will now have the reigns for the boys as he now tries to rebuild that program, but abandons a strong girls team. The girls made it to the FCIAC semi-final and the CIAC semi-final this past season and now are left without a coach. Sources say that Leigh Parsons is the top candidate for the job. Girls Captain Leslie Yuen said, "obviously getting a new coach is going to take some adjusting to but we have a lot of talent on the team and should be able to make the changes necessary to have a successful season. Jon has done a great job to build up our program and we hope to continue to carry on his efforts in the right direction."