Casey Derkacz joined the coaching staff at Slippery Rock in July of 2012 as the top assistant to head coach Noreen Herlihy.
Derkacz will be entering his third year as a collegiate coach in 2013, but has been coaching at some level since 2004.
In his one season at the collegiate level, he helped guide the Penn State Behrend men's and women's teams to NCAA Division III tournament berths and Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championships.
Derkacz served as an assistant at Behrend while finishing his course work for his master's of business administration from the Penn State University Black School of Business, which he completed in June 2012. He began his undergraduate work at Penn State and played on the Division I soccer team for two seasons (2007-09) before transferring to the University at Buffalo to finish his degree in business adminstration (2009-2011). While at Buffalo, he continued to play at the Division I level.
For his playing career, Derkacz appeared in 64 games and made 49 starts as a midfielder. He led the University at Buffalo in assists during his senior year and helped the team reach the conference semifinals. On top of his playing accolades, Derkacz was an exceptional student, earning Academic All-Big 10 honors at Penn State and MAC Academic All-Conference honors at UB.
A native of Hamburg, N.Y., Derkacz has also been involved with the Empire United Soccer Academy, where he was a head coach from 2009-2011, working with a boys U-15 team.
On top of his coaching efforts, Derkacz has made it a point to be involved in growing soccer throughout the communities he has lived in. Most recently, he served as the coordinator for the TOPS Soccer program, which helps deliver soccer instruction to special needs children. His other volunteer work includes working with Habitat for Humanity.
Derkacz owns a National Diploma from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and a United States Soccer Federation D License.
Slippery Rock, under the guidance of Herlihy, has established itself as one of the premier Division II programs. The Rock, ranked No. 14 in the final rankings following the 2011 season, has put together a stretch of 16 consecutive winning seasons with 10 or more wins. That streak is the eighth-best in Division II history.
The Rock reached the NCAA Round of 16 last season and finished the year with a 16-5-2 overall record, marking the second highest single-season win total in program history.
