Mark Sappington has completed his first year on the soccer coaching staff at Morehead State, helping lead an immediate resurgence of the program.
The Eagles had immense success in 2022 as they finished with seven wins including four OVC wins, the best season since 2015 for Morehead State. The program achieved a plethora of accolades and accomplishments. Some of the highlights include: the highest OVC finish since 2013 (third), most wins since 2015 (7), third longest unbeaten streak (6) in program history, least losses since 2014, fewest goals allowed in program history (21), averaging 64% possession in conference to rank first in the OVC (compared to 45% in 2021) and averaging 60% possession overall.
In addition, the Eagles' style of play led to ample opportunities for student-athletes to achieve a high number of individual honors, including the first OVC Offensive Player Of The Week awards since 2018 (Hadley Cytron and Colleen Swift), the first Defensive Player Of The Week since 2019 (Madelyn Mozeleski), first Goalkeeper Of The Week since 2019 (Erin Gibbs), first clean sweep of all three weekly awards since 2007, the first First-Team All-Conference award since 2018 (Colleen Swift), the first Second-Team All-Conference honor since 2019 (Nicole Fiantaco), first OVC All-Newcomer Team awards since 2018 (Hadley Cytron/ErinGibbs) and the first OVC All-Tournament Team players since 2015 (Anna Lohrer/Avery Redmon).
As recruiting coordinator, Sappington has been able to attract high level recruits and transfers to the program immediately, including freshman goalkeeper Erin Gibbs and OVC All-Newcomer award winner transfer Hadley Cytron.
Sappington’s Primary coaching responsibility is to work with goalkeepers coach at Morehead state, Sappington helped the freshman Gibbs set the program record for best goals against average (0.84), while being named to the OVC All-Newcomer Team and OVC Goalkeeper of the Week, and being ranked nationally in several goalkeeper statistical categories.
Sappington joined the Eagle program after spending the 2 seasons at Campbell University in NC, where he helped lead the Camels to a number 22 national ranking according to Top Drawer Soccer and their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1993. Sappington used his expertise in goalkeeper coaching to guide the Camels to six shutouts, allowing only 11 goals all of last season.
Prior to his time at Campbell, Sappington spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Slippery Rock University, where his keepers accumulated a 63-29-6 record and held opponents to under a goal per game, while breaking multiple school records. Notably, in 2019, Sappington helped Slippery Rock win the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, earned a berth to the Division II NCAA Tournament, making it to the 2nd round, and finishing with and 18-4 record .
Sappington has also had stops at the University of Scranton, where he served as assistant coach, and Shippensburg University, where he was a volunteer assistant for both the men’s and women’s soccer programs. Sappington also has four years of collegiate experience on the pitch as a goalkeeper for Wheeling Jesuit University.
Sappington holds his Master’s Degree from Lock Haven University in Sports Psychology, and has 3 published scientific peered reviewed academic articles.
Sappington resides in Morehead with his wife Janna.
