The 2021 Northern Oklahoma College Soccer season celebrates the 25th year of soccer at NOC Tonkawa as the Mavs begin play this fall.Current men and women’s coach Michael DuRoy has been at NOC since the soccer program’s inception in 1997, first as an assistant and later as head coach of both programs.“It’s been a wild ride,” DuRoy said. “It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years.”DuRoy, a Ponca City native, had finished school at UCO and was working in Oklahoma City when he saw an advertisement in the newspaper that NOC was looking for an assistant soccer coach.“I was super excited,” he said. “I was hired to assist the men’s and women’s soccer programs and be the intramural director for $14,000.”“I thought I was in heaven,” DuRoy joked.DuRoy was assisting Mike Riley, who started the programs.“I enjoyed working with coach Riley,” DuRoy said. “He taught me a lot about coaching and life in general.”DuRoy was an assistant two years and then took over the men’s program. He later took over both programs when Riley retired in 2011. After coaching both for three years, he gave up the girls’ program but after coach Jade Ovendale left NOC in Summer 2020, DuRoy then took over the women’s program. Josh Smith and Juan de Dios Castillo also coached the Mavs’ women.Coach Riley started soccer at NOC in 1997. Riley was assisting the men’s and women’s basketball programs as their strength and conditioning coach.“There was talk around campus that NOC was going to add other sports,” Riley said. “Then coach Shamburg (men’s assistant coach) told me that they were considering me to be the head soccer coach.”“It was surprising to me,” Riley said. “I had coached soccer in Colorado and in the Broken Arrow Soccer Club program but I had been out of the sport for seven or eight years but I always had a love for soccer.”“When Dr. Kinzer asked me to do it, I told him I’d do my best,” he said.“The best thing we did was hire coach DuRoy,” Riley said. “It was a great experience for both of us. We worked well together, he understood the technical aspects of the game and I was better at motivating players and getting them to compete and play hard. It was a good combination.”“I was excited when we split the head coaching duties and Michael (DuRoy) took over the men’s program. He has ...
