July 9, 2008

VILLANOVA, Pa. - First year women's soccer head coach John Byford today announced the appointment of Peye Garcia to the team as an assistant coach. Garcia will assist Byford in all aspects of the program and will be heavily involved in the team's recruiting efforts.

Garcia comes to Villanova along with Byford from Loyola College (Md.), where the two coached together for the past three seasons. In his three years as an assistant to Byford at Loyola, Garcia helped lead the Greyhounds to 35 victories. The team won regular season league championships in 2005 and 2006 and the conference tournament title in 2007 along the way to advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

Garcia is a former collegiate standout at Hartwick College and the University of Massachusetts and his coaching stops have also included Saint Joseph's University and the University of Delaware.

During two seasons at Saint Joseph's in 2003 and 2004, Garcia was a part of a Hawks program that reached the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship for the first time ever in 2003 and then followed that performance up by reaching the semifinals a year later. He also helped to recruit the 18th and 20th best recruiting classes in the Mid-Atlantic region during his two seasons. Garcia began his coaching career as an assistant with the men's program at Delaware in 2001 and 2002.

As a player, Garcia was a three-year member and two-year captain at Massachusetts, where he earned all-conference honors in both 1997 and 1998. He joined the Minutemen after transferring from Hartwick in 1996. Following his graduation from UMass, Garcia played professionally with the Delaware Wizards (1999-00) and Western Mass Pioneers (2001).

Garcia earned a Bachelor's degree in Sports Management from Massachusetts in 2000.