An Ocean Away and Right Where They Belong

Both from northwest England. Both found their way to Ashland. 

Head Men’s Soccer Coach Nick Roberts grew up playing soccer in the working-class leagues of England where the game meant everything. He came to the States to play college soccer, pursued coaching with intention and spent decades building programs from the ground up.

Sophomore Tom Woodward made his own version of that leap. Six hours on a plane wondering somewhere over the Atlantic whether he was trading something he couldn’t get back. He arrived from Salford having spent a gap year in the non-league lower divisions playing against seasoned men twice his age who had no interest in going easy on him. That year tested him. By his first season at Ashland he had earned All-Region honors as a freshman and helped anchor a team made almost entirely of first-year players still learning to find their footing.

Thousands of miles from home, what settled them wasn’t soccer. It was the people. Tom arrived not knowing what to expect and found a community that welcomed him before he’d earned it. Nick has spent years reminding his players that the people around them are the ones who make the pursuit worth it. At Ashland both of them found that to be true.