Chad Duernberger was named Rider’s seventh Men’s Soccer Head Coach in January 2023. A proven winner, Duernberger has won six championships in five years as a Head Coach at the DII and DI levels. He made an immediate impact in his first season, leading the Broncs to their sixth MAAC Championship and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2023 and a repeat appearance in the MAAC Championship Game in 2024. Along the way, he led the Broncs to the fourth-largest improvement in the country in wins in 2023, taking a team that won three games in 2022 and winning 12 games in his first season. The team also enjoyed the sixth-greatest improvement in winning percentage in the country (+.347). Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Broncs' 26 wins ranked tied for ninth in NCAA Division I.
Duernberger guided a program-record eight Broncs to All-MAAC honors in his first season, with Adel Al Masude, Saad Chaouki, Babacar Diene and Momo Diop earning First Team honors, Sebastian Rojek taking Second Team and Martin Chladek, Jack McGeechan and Ethan Shaw receiving Third Team recognition. Chaouki was also named MAAC Rookie of the Year and took national All-Freshman Second Team recognition from both Top Drawer Soccer and College Soccer News. Diene and Diop were honored on the All-Region Third Team. In Duernberger's first year at the helm, the Broncs enjoyed a pair of long unbeaten streaks, with an eight-game unbeaten streak early in the year and a seven-match winning streak with the first four closing out the regular season and the last three coming in the MAAC Championship run.
In 2024, Duernberger led Rider to its first share of a MAAC Regular Season Championship since the Broncs' inaugural season in the league (1997). In doing so, he was named MAAC Coach of the Year, becoming Rider's first men's soccer conference Coach of the Year since Russ Fager earned the honor in the East Coast Conference in 1987. Duernberger also mentored Momo Diop and Adam Salama to MAAC Golden Boot and Golden Glove honors, signifying the league's top offensive player and goalkeeper, respectively. The team again put eight players on the All-Conference Teams, with Diop, Salama and Bryan Akongo on the First Team, Adel Al-Masude, Theo Da Silva, Jack McGeechan and Martin Chladek on Second Team and Andrew Erickson on the Third Team. Diop and Salama were also recognized on the All-ECAC Team, while Chladek and Luke Kirilenko were recognized as CSC Academic All-Disctrict Team honorees. Rider's .725 winning percentage (14-5-1 record) on the year was the best mark by a Rider team since the 1992 also went 14-5-1.
Prior to joining the Broncs, Duernberger served as both a Head Coach of his alma mater, the University of Charleston, and as an Assistant Coach, most recently at Dartmouth, with previous stints at Penn State and Marshall. He replaced Charlie Inverso, who retired after guiding the Broncs to three MAAC Championships in his 12 seasons at the helm.
“We are excited to add Chad to our athletic family,” said Harnum. “Chad emerged as our top candidate from a strong candidate pool which indicates that our men's soccer program is perceived positively within the collegiate soccer community. Due to the success he has experienced as both a head coach and as an assistant, I am confident that Chad will provide a well-rounded, positive, and competitive athletic experience for our student-athletes.”
In his time at Dartmouth, Duernberger mentored 19 All-Ivy selections over four seasons played, with a fifth lost due to COVID-19. Five different Big Green student-athletes were named Academic All-Ivy, while six were selected to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team in 2022. Included in the student-athletes Duernberger coached at Dartmouth was 2021 MLS SuperDraft Second Round selection Dawson McCartney. Duernberger served as Dartmouth’s lead recruiter, both nationally and internationally.
“I’m absolutely honored to be named the next head coach of Rider University men’s soccer,” said Duernberger. “I would like to thank Athletic Director Don Harnum, BJ Merriam and the rest of the search committee for giving me this opportunity. When I arrived on campus, I immediately felt this is exactly where I wanted to be. I cannot wait to serve the student-athletes of Rider men’s soccer to help build on the fantastic history of the program. My family and I are looking forward to getting started.”
Prior to his time at Dartmouth, Duernberger coached at Penn State for seven years, being elevated to Associate Head Coach in 2016. With the Nittany Lions, Duernberger helped lead the team to back-to-back Big Ten regular season titles and coached them in two NCAA Tournament appearances. After winning the Big Ten in 2013, Penn State entered the tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 10 UC Santa Barbara. In 2014, Duernberger was on the sidelines as the Nittany Lions recorded their 800th win while on their way to the best start in program history (10-0-1) winning seven-straight matches for the first time since 2005.
Before joining Penn State, Duernberger spent three seasons as the head coach at his alma mater, the University of Charleston, a Division II program in the capital city of West Virginia. He inherited a team that finished 0-17 in the prior season and began to turn the team around posting a 4-11-2 record the following season. In his second year, the transition came full circle, as he coached the Golden Eagles to a 19-4-0 mark, including a perfect 10-0 in West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. UC won the WVIAC regular season and tournament titles and ended the season ranked No. 7 in the nation in Division II. For the turnaround, Duernberger was named the NSCAA DII National Coach of the Year.
In his final season at Charleston, the team finished 16-4-1 overall and 10-1-0 in league action, again winning the WVIAC season and tournament crowns. Through his time coaching at UC, he produced four NSCAA All-Americans, 10 NSCAA All-Atlantic Region honorees and 12 First Team All-WVIAC selections.
Before his tenure at Charleston, Duernberger was a graduate assistant at Marshall University from 2006-07. He was a four-year starter at Charleston from 2002-06, earning First Team All-WVIAC honors three times and all-region recognition in 2002. For his accomplishments as both a player and coach at Charleston, Duernberger was inducted into the Charleston Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.
A native of Belle, West Virginia, he was named the 2001 West Virginia High School State Forward of the Year and was named First Team All-State in three consecutive seasons. Duernberger was inducted into the West Virginia High School Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
