Here’s how former Villanova coach Mark Fetrow seemingly became the ‘perfect fit’ at Drexel
The Fetrow era began with a 2-0 win over Saint Joseph’s, and through eight games, the Dragons are 5-1-2
Mark Fetrow was working at a Villanova soccer camp when his phone began to blow up. At the time, Fetrow, then the Wildcats’ associate head soccer coach had countless notifications pouring in, all about the same topic: Drexel’s program was looking for a new head coach.
It was seemingly a perfect fit for Fetrow, a West Chester native, except for one issue — the regular season was starting in a little over a month.
Initially, Fetrow decided he wasn’t going to go after it. The turnaround was too fast. But then, Villanova head coach Tom Carlin stepped in.
“He’s a natural born head coach, natural born leader,” Carlin said over the phone. “[...] As a guy that wasn’t just a colleague but a friend, you have to encourage them [to apply] because you know how premium being a coach is.”
Fetrow listened, and the process went quickly. Nine days after Drexel made Michael Marchiano’s resignation public, Fetrow’s hire was announced. He finally had his first head coaching job, but there was no time to bask in the achievement.
The season opener was just 28 days away.
“I felt like there was a culture of just really good people at Drexel that want to be successful and are there to support you,” Fetrow said in a phone interview. “That was a big thing for me that, if I was going to make this change [on] such short notice, I wanted to make sure that the structure and the foundation was set. And that’s the vibe I got.”
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Although it was fast, the process went rather smoothly. The Dragons didn’t lose anyone to the transfer portal, something Fetrow thinks was a combination of the players “valuing what Drexel has to offer,” the team being in a good place in terms of talent, and that everything happened so late, there wasn’t much of an opportunity for players to move.
Fetrow retained a team that went 7-5-6 overall last season and lost in the semifinals of the CAA championship to top-seeded Elon. The Fetrow era began with a 2-0 win over Saint Joseph’s, and through eight games, the Dragons are 5-1-2.
“I felt like everything was set up, and I didn’t have to rebuild a program,” Fetrow said. “I could just come in and really focus on coaching within the team. And I felt confident that what we had within the group was enough to be really competitive and fight for a championship.”
‘All the intangibles’
For Fetrow, this has been his path for a while. Growing up, he knew he wanted to be a college coach, and his coaching goals guided him in his college career playing at Penn State.
“My thought process going into college was, ‘Alright, let me put myself in an environment where I can learn from a coaching staff that is gonna help me ... take that next step in how I view the game and all the inner workings of what it takes to be a college soccer coach,’” he said. “So that’s what I knew going in. I didn’t know what I wanted to study. I knew I wanted to coach college soccer once somebody told me I wasn’t good enough to play anymore.”
At Penn State, Fetrow was a four-year starter for the Nittany Lions before being selected by the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer in the 2011 Supplemental Draft. His first coaching job came at his alma mater, where he spent a year as a graduate assistant, and later, he became an assistant coach at West Chester University.
In 2016, Fetrow was named an assistant coach at Villanova under Carlin, and in 2019, he was promoted to associate head coach. Fetrow’s relationship with Carlin dates back to when Fetrow was in high school. Carlin recruited him to the Main Line, and even then, he saw the qualities of a future head coach.
“He had all the intangibles,” Carlin said. “Ever since he was a little kid, he had always said that he wanted to be a head coach. He wanted to be a head coach in college. For him to be saying that since he’s 13, 14 years old, there’s something to be said about that.”
At 33, Fetrow’s finally living his dream. It’s something he thought about for 20 years and seemingly happened in 20 minutes all it took was a little nudge.