Questions, comments? JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
Vernon Rice, who just a few weeks ago earned the first New Era/L-L League Coaches girls’ soccer Coach of the Year award, is retiring. He’s spent the last 35 years coaching soccer and baseball at Mennonite, and the numbers he’s compiled (particularly on the soccer pitch) are simply staggering. His fast and furious substitution pattern and those colorful buckets he used to sit on during games were his trademarks. Here’s my story from Tuesday’s New Era:
Vernon Rice, who guided Lancaster Mennonite’s boys’ and girls’ soccer programs to a combined 783 victories, is retiring after prowling the Blazers’ sideline for 35 years, the New Era has learned.
“We really appreciate Vernon’s service as a coach and as a teacher,” Mennonite principal Miles Yoder said Monday. “We wish him well in his retirement.”
Contacted by the New Era, Rice, who led the boys’ program to 510 wins and the girls’ program to 273 victories, declined comment because he said he was still in the process of filling out his retirement papers.
But Yoder confirmed that Rice is leaving his position as boys’ and girls’ soccer coach and as a health and physical education teacher at Mennonite.
“He had a tremendous career here,” Yoder said.
Rice, a Kutztown High grad, joined the faculty at Mennonite in 1972 and started the boys’ soccer program the same year. The Blazers played an independent schedule until the Lancaster-Lebanon League formed a boys’ league in 1981.
He earned his 500th career victory with the boys’ program last Oct. 3, when Mennonite topped Northern Lebanon 5-0, and Rice finished with 510 wins while leading the Blazers to 11 L-L League section championships, six L-L League titles and four District 3 crowns.
“Leading the boys’ program to 500 victories was a tremendous accomplishment,” Yoder said.
Rice, who also coached baseball at Mennonite, served as Mennonite’s girls’ soccer coach since the inception of the L-L League in 1990. He compiled a 273-53-23 record with the girls’ program, leading the Blazers to 11 L-L League section titles, three L-L League championships and a pair of District 3 crowns.
Rice, who earned degrees from Hesston (Kansas) College and Goshen (Indiana) College, won Pennsylvania boys’ soccer Coach of the Year honors in 1981 and 2000.
Yoder said the search for Rice’s replacement will begin immediately.
JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
