Briarwood Soccer Club 2023-2024 Coaching Staff
Ryan Leib // Director
Ryan is the Director of Coaching for Briarwood SC. He is from Farmington, Maine and played his college soccer at the University of New Hampshire. He played professionally in the US for the Virginia Beach Mariners (’95-‘96), the Charlotte Eagles (’97-’01), and the Atlanta Silverbacks (’02). He has coached at the youth level from 1997-2002 in Charlotte, NC and in Birmingham since 2002. He coaches Briarwood Christian School Lady Lions since 2006. Ryan holds the USSF B license, the USSF National Youth License, the NSCAA’s Premier, Advanced National, National, and Youth National coaching licenses. He enjoys developing coaches and players to use the game to impact others and his favorite verse is II Corinthians 4:18.
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Stuart Adam //Stuart grew up in Atlanta and played his college soccer at University of the South in Tennessee. He went on to play professionally with the Birmingham Grasshoppers team of the USISL. He has been coaching in the Birmingham area since 2006 and with Briarwood SC since 2008. He holds his USSF E license and loves to impact these young players for the good through his coaching. He lives in Birmingham with his wife Renee and 3 children, his favorite Bible passage is the 23rd Psalm.
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Billy Hoffman // 08 Ambassadors Gold
Coach Hoffman grew up in Birmingham and played at John Carroll High School and went on to play at Valley Forge Military Academy where he went on to serve our country in the Armed Forces. He holds the USSF D and E coaching licenses as well as the Youth Module 1 and Youth Module 2 diplomas. He has been coaching with BSC since 2011 and loves every minute of it. He likes to show the kids how to improve their skills by getting out there with them, pointing them how to improve and how to do the right thing in life. His favorite verse is Matthew 10:16.
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Jamie Likens // 07 Ambassadors GoldJamie is from Owensboro, Kentucky where he grew up playing the game. He played his college soccer at Vanderbilt University. He has been coaching since 2006 and with Briarwood SC since 2011. He holds his USSF D coaching license and loves to teach kids to play the game with skill and passion and to lead them to be Ambassadors for Christ. He lives in Birmingham with his wife Chassidi, and 4 children. His favorite Bible passage is the book of Romans.
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Shawn Marlow // 12 Lady Ambassadors Gold // GK TrainingCoach Marlow is in his tenth year at Briarwood Soccer Club. Coach Marlow is also on the EPD staff for the state of Alabama and is an assistant coach for Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham. He holds the USSF National "Y" youth license and USSF "D" and "E" level national coaching license and also has the youth module one and two certificates. He also holds the NSCAA Level III GK license. He is the head coach for both the Lady Ambassadors Gold 05 and the Lady Ambassadors Gold 04 teams. Shawn has traveled with the soccer club mission team trips to Belo Horizonte, Brazil for many years. Coach Marlow specializes in developing young players to reach their full potential. He is employed by Briarwood Soccer Club as field manager, coach and registrar. When he is not coaching soccer you will find him spending time with his wife Ginger and his two children Gretchen and Hannah. He enjoys fishing, hiking, roto baseball, hockey and soccer and following the University of Tennessee sports. His favorite bible verse is Ecclesiastes 7:14, "In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him."
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Jeff Martin // 11 Lady Ambassadors GoldCoach Martin grew up in Vestavia, AL where he played club and high school here in Birmingham. He played his college soccer at Furman University and has been coaching since 2008 at Palmetto SC in South Carolina. He joins the BSC staff with a wealth of knowledge of the game and a desire to teach our players. He enjoys mentoring young players in the game and in life, using the game of soccer to impact kids decision-making. He holds his USSF E coaching license and lives in Birmingham with his wife Annette and 2 children. His Favorite Bible passage is Isaiah 1:17
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David Palmore // 07 Lady Ambassadors Gold
David has been coaching for many years in the Birmingham area youth soccer scene. He has been with BSC since 2019. He holds the USSF D coaching license. He has a passion for the game and a heart to reach kids, helping them get to the next level.
Joseph Randal // 10 Ambassadors Blue // Coerver Coaching
Coach Randal joined our staff after graduating from Alabama A&M in 2017. He grew up playing for the Ambassadors 93/94 teams and graduated from John Carroll High School. He loves teaching young players the skill of the game and knitting them together as a cohesive team. He holds the USSF Grassroots diploma, he loves pointing his players to the Lord and he is a big Ronaldo fan.
Brantley Visser // 10 Lady Ambassadors AcademyCoach Brantley grew up in the Birmingham area and played for Briarwood High School as well as Mountain Brook and Vestavia club teams. He has been coaching for since 2007 with the Auburn club and now for BSC since 2008, he holds his USSF E license. He loves to teach creative attacking soccer and to watch players grow and develop into a cohesive team. He greatly enjoys imparting life’s lessons through soccer pointing them toward God, his favorite Bible verse is Romans 5:3-5.
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Bobby West // 10 Ambassadors Gold
Bobby has been coaching with BSC since 2012. He holds the USSFE and Grass Roots Coaching licenses. He loves coaching the game and pushing kids to be their best.
Darin White //Dr. Darin White has an immense amount of coaching experience. Growing up, he served as captain for the Alabama State Olympic Development Team and was the first player in the state to make the Region III ODP Pool. He also captained Vestavia Hills High School team before earning a scholarship to play for Birmingham Southern College. After his four year playing career ended at BSC, he went on to get his PhD in marketing strategy/analytics at the University of Alabama.
He was founding men's head soccer coach at Union University, a Southern Baptist university in Tennessee for 12 years where he won the NCCAA National Championship in 2003. His team also won the Buffalo Funds National Champions of Character Award the same season. Two years later White was named 2005 Coach of the Year by Adidas and National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NAIA south region). During his time at Union, he coached several All-Americans and 13 young men that played for their country's national team, including Brazil, Canada, Guatemala, Serbia, Scotland, and Australia. White stepped down from college coaching in 2005 in order to spend more time coaching his children's teams. He helped found the Tennessee Rush Soccer Club in Memphis, serving as Technical Director from 2006-08 where his 03 boys team won 5 Division I Tennessee State Cup Championships and made it to the USYS Regional quarterfinals in 2008. White moved back home to Birmingham to work as a sports marketing professor for Samford University and started coaching for the Briarwood Soccer Club in 2015. His teams have won two Alabama State Cup Championships and made it to the USYS President's Cup in 2019. Most recently his team won the 2019 Alabama Division II State League with a record of 7-0-2. Darin holds several national coaching licenses, including the NSCAA Advanced National License. When not coaching soccer, White serves as the Executive Director for the Center for Sports Analytics in the Brock School of Business at Samford University where he trains students to enter the business side of sports to be ambassadors for Christ in the sports business world. He has served as a consultant for some of the biggest sports teams in the world, including Bayern Munich F.C., Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, and the Atlanta Braves. Students from his program currently work in the front office for NBA, NFL, MLB, and USL teams across the nation. The Center for Sports Analytics program also serves as the official analytics partner for Birmingham's professional soccer team, Legion F.C. White and his wife, Laura, have seven children and two grandchildren. They reside in Vestavia Hills and attend the Church at Brook Hills. His favorite aspect of coaching is to raise up the next generation of Kingdom-minded, Christ-treasuring young men and women to work or play in the sports world. His favorite passage in the Bible is Psalm 1. |