Next fall, as mandated by the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Southern University and the rest of the SWAC will begin women’s soccer conference play as part of the federally mandated Title IX program which grants funding equality in women’s sports program.
Although Alabama A&M, Alcorn State, Jackson State, Prairie View A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff have already incepted a soccer program, Southern will start its inaugural season in the fall and Rohan Omarshan Naraine has been named as head coach.
“We fully expect Coach Naraine to build a quality program here at Southern,” said SU Athletic Direct Floyd Kerr. “He has demonstrated his knowledge and experience and we think he will fit in well at Southern.”
Experience is something that the new coach has plenty of.
A native of British Guyana, South America, Naraine moved to London where he learned to play soccer during his intermediate school years. At the age of 16, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended Theodore Roosevelt High School and was named The Washington Post’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
After high school, he attended North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he was captain of his team and became the assistant coach after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during his sophomore year.
He later went on to rebuild soccer programs at Atlantic Christian College (renamed Barton College) in Wilson, N.C and Beaufort Academy in Beaufort, S.C.
At Beaufort, he won eight state titles, was named coach of the year eight times in a row and served as athletic director for four years.
He said that while at Beaufort, his men and women’s soccer teams have won a combined 341 games, have lost only 100 and have tied only 20 times during his tenure at Beaufort.
Last fall, he was head coach and recruiter at Coastal Carolina University, in Conway, S.C. and his record was 8-5-3 and the Chanticleers finished third in the Big South Conference last season.
But before his tenure at CCU, he coached at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C., where his record was 8-6-1 and two Academic All-Americans were produced.
“Academics are always first for me,” said Naraine. ” I try to bring them (the players) in smart and then you don’t have to worry about them during the season. If they can’t produce academically, I will not play them or leave them at home during away games.”
The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated member has also been a coach with the United States Olympic Developmental Program since 1990. It is this program where players are prepared for Olympic play on the U.S. National Olympic Soccer Team.
Naraine said that he has a five-year plan for the soccer program. Starting with four scholarships, he wants to find talented players and by the second year, he wants to have the program on track.
By the fifth year, he wants to have Southern receiving a bid in the NCAA tournament. Most of all, he wants to see the young women athletes of Southern University to get involved with what has become the university’s 18th varsity sport.
I want to see the girls here become a part of history,” said Naraine. “Ten years down the line I want them to say ‘I was a part of that inaugural year…I made history.”
History will be made indeed, but how long will it take for the SWAC to make history by crowning its first soccer champion?
According to Kerr, the conference has to build a championship and one way that the SWAC can do that is by having a tournament. After two or three years of conference play, an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament can be requested.
As for now, Naraine is getting settled in his new job so that he can move his wife of eight years, Nalini and his one-year-old daughter Nikki from Florence, S.C. to Baton Rouge. In his eyes, his move has not been soon enough.
“Soccer should have come earlier. Soccer is the number one sport in the world and women should be a part of it,” said Naraine. “Southern should be a part of it and Louisiana should grow with it.”
