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Detroit City FC goalkeeper Bret Mollon celebrates with fans after one of the team's many wins during the 2013 NPSL season.

(Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

From defending Detroit City FC's goal at Cass Tech in downtown Detroit to the sun and sand of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Bret Mollon is undergoing a change in scenery. After a successful season with the NPSL club, the Washington, Mich. native has begun his coaching career at Coastal Carolina as the new goalkeeper coach for the men's and women's soccer programs.

With CCU, Bret says, "I could not have picked a better place to start my coaching career."

Bret will be coaching under the leadership of men's head coach Shaun Docking and women's head coach Paul Hogan where he hopes to help the NCAA Division I Big South Conference program continue to excel on and off the field.

The men's program is ranked No. 17 in the country by College Soccer News' preseason poll and they ended the season winning the Big South Conference title. They finished the season with a perfect 10-0-0 record and a No. 11 national ranking.

The women's program also won 10 games last year and have won 12 consecutive NCAA Team Academic Awards.

"I'm thrilled to be a Division I college coach at Coastal Carolina," said coach Mollon, who played his college ball at Temple University in Philadelphia. "Especially being that it's a top 25 national mens program. Both men's and women's coaching staffs are first rate and it has been a blessing to be able to work with both programs.

Mollon added: "The men's side is well established with goals of winning a national championship so being a part of that culture has been incredible. And with Paul Hogan on the women's side he is a relatively new coach at CCU who has done a great job with changing the culture into a competitive and winning program so it is equally exciting to be a part of that."

Mollon graduated from Notre Dame Prep High School and went on to play at Oakland University in 2006. In his Freshman year, he had shutouts in all 3 of his matches and was named to the Academic All-Summit League. Also in that same year, Bret was a member of the Michigan Bucks PDL team that won the North American championship. He continued with the Bucks through 2009, and then played for another PDL powerhouse, the Ocean City (N.J.) Nor'easters before returning home to Metro Detroit.

After Bret's freshman year at Oakland, he transferred to Temple University to finish out his college playing career where he would set the Owls' single-season shutout record (9) in this first year and was named to the 2009 Men's College Best XI by Philly Soccer News. He also led the Atlantic 10 in goals against average (1.04) and was second with a .824 save percentage.

Bret graduated from Temple with a Bachelor's Degree in Kinesiology and after a couple of professional tryouts, he moved back home to play with Detroit City FC.

Le Rouge, as they are known, finished with the best record in the NPSL and won the Great Lakes Division regular season championship and the Rust Belt Derby title with an undefeated season of 11-0-1. Mollon played in 7 games this year, playing 630 minutes and only allowing five goals. He finished the campaign with three shutouts and a 0.71 goals against average.

Former Bucks teammate Kyle Russell is a member of the Coastal Carolina coaching staff and he said his relationship with Mollon made it an easy sell to the other coaches.

"I already had a good playing relationship with Bret from our PDL days with the Michigan Bucks, so the level of trust was already there," said Russell. "Our programs felt that with his high level playing experiences, his blue-collar hard working attitude, and his passion for the game would suit our programs here at Coastal Carolina perfectly. In hiring Bret, we felt it was important that he had a strong playing background, which he certainly did with Temple, the Michigan Bucks and Detroit City FC."

For Mollon, having a familiar face on the staff made it an easy decision to move far away from home to start his coaching career.

"Kyle Russell is the one who came to me with the job opportunity and after talking with him it was a no brainer," said Mollon. "It's great to have him around to show me the ropes and take me under his wing, so to speak. He is a great assistant coach who is a huge asset to the men's program. His hard work and dedication is very much a reason why Coastal Carolina is a national contender."

Mollon played with DCFC under the first-year manager Ben Pirmann, who is also an assistant at Michigan State University.

"This is a great opportunity for Bret to step into one of the top mid-major college soccer programs in the country," said Pirmann. "Bret is a tireless worker and a great student of the game. Bret and Jeremy [Clark] were a great combination in goal this season on and off the field. To possibly not have either of them at the start of next season will be a point of rebuilding [for Detroit City FC]."

However, Mollon is hopeful to continue playing for the second year NPSL club.

"Playing for Detroit CIty FC was a great experience. The owners had a vision for soccer in Detroit and they probably surpassed their own expectations of what it could be. The fans are the best in the country and I was truly blessed to be a part of that club."

Surpringly enough for Mollon, he found that playing for Le Rouge ended up being more of a learning experience than he anticipated with many of his teammates also coaching.

Mollan said, "Each practice I tried to soak up as much as I could and learn as much about the game as I could because I knew coaching was in my future, I just didn't know it would be this soon."

Coaching is not entirely new to Bret as he has been helping with the Oakland and Temple University soccer camps for years and also spent time on staff for soccer camps at Vardar, one of Michigan's top travel clubs.

He goes into this position with confidence due to this experience and those that have helped and guided him along the way.

"My mentors and people who I have taken a lot from were my goalkeeper coaches from the past," said Mollon. "[Oakland University head coach] Eric Pogue who is regarded as one of the best around has been a huge influence on my playing and coaching career. Also, my goalkeeper coach at Temple, [current San Antonio Scorpions GK] Pat Hannigan with whom I worked with for three years of my college career is another reason for my success. I would not be where I am in soccer today if it weren't for my hard work and the guidance of these men."