BY: SAMUEL CAROZZA, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
With Donny George taking the head coaching job at Niagara University, the women’s soccer program at St. Bonaventure was left without a head coach until last month when Vice President and Intercollegiate Director of Athletics Bob Beretta announced that Melissa Sherwood would become the program’s 13th head coach.
Most recently, Sherwood coached the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland. She coached there from 2022-2024, leading the team to the MAAC semifinals in 2023. Sherwood accepted the Bonaventure head coaching job after Mount St. Mary’s went 5-13 the season prior.
Sherwood leaves Mount St. Mary’s with a record of 16 wins, 24 losses and 13 ties as the head coach there. Her career record is 26-75-11 as a collegiate head coach, making two MAAC tournament appearances and an NCAA tournament appearance in eight years as a head coach.
Before her time at Mount St. Mary’s, Sherwood was the head coach at Saint Peter’s from 2016 to 2019, leading them to a MAAC tournament appearance in her second season in 2017.
Sherwood was the head coach at South Carolina State in 2020 but did not coach a game due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She did recruit 13 players, which helped rebuild the program.
Sherwood was the associate head coach for Northwestern State in 2021, helping lead the team to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2005.
Bonaventure brings in Sherwood after a lackluster 2024 season where they saw themselves last in the Atlantic 10 conference with a total record of 2-13-3 and a conference record of 1-7-2. The Bonnies haven’t made the A-10 playoffs since 2021 where they finished 5th.
Before her coaching days, Sherwood played for 10 years, including professional stints in Australian and American leagues. This included playing for England’s top collegiate side, Leeds Metropolitan University, as well as Leeds United, Preston North End, Huddersfield and Sheffield in England. She also played in Australia for the Central Coast Mariners and the United States, where she represented the North Jersey Valkyries in the short-lived United Women’s Soccer League.
With a decade of a pro career under her belt and another eight years of head coaching experience, Sherwood begins her new chapter at St. Bonaventure.
