LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women’s soccer head coach Drew Fitzgerald has announced the promotion of Molly Kubacher along with the addition of former Albion Hurricanes FC head coach Jason Cherry to its 2022 staff.
Kubacher, the native of Gillette, Wyoming is being promoted to assistant coach after serving five months as the Cowgirls Director of Game Operations.
The four-year letterwinner at Wyoming earned her undergraduate degree in Business Marketing with a minor in Marketing Communications in 2021.
During her playing days at Wyoming, Kubacher was a member of the 2018 Mountain West regular season championship team, served as team captain for two years and earned Scholar Athlete honors.
Following her collegiate career, Kubacher signed with second division Hungarian professional club, Újpest FC in Budapest, Hungary. The team went 10-0-2 with Kuhbacher making seven starts.
Kubacher attended Campbell County High School where she earned all-state honors three years and helped her team to the state championship in 2017.
Cherry, the native of South Bend, Indiana served as the head coach for three to four teams per season in the ECNL-RL League. He is the only coach of the ECNL-RL staff to have teams qualify for nationals by winning the regionals tournament in 2022. He has assisted numerous players with the recruiting process and helped them earn collegiate playing opportunities. Cherry has been at Albion since 2017.
Cherry helped Northwestern State piece together one of its best defensive seasons in program history as the assistant coach led goalkeeping efforts in 2016.
Cherry coached Alex Latham, the All-Louisiana and All-Southland Conference Goalkeeper of the Year, to a 1.11 goals against average.
Latham made 120 saves (No. 5 in the NCAA) with an .851 save percentage. Her seven shutouts tied for second in NSU single-season history as the Lady Demons allowed just 1.32 goals per game.
Cherry has a wealth of experience, serving as a head coach at Eastern Illinois for three seasons after being a top collegiate assistant for eight seasons. After his EIU tenure, Cherry served as an assistant at IUPUI.
In his first season at EIU, Cherry was named Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, becoming just the fourth OVC coach to win the honor in his or her first season.
He guided the Panthers back to the OVC Tournament with a 6-4 conference mark after the program missed the postseason in 2012 for the first time in its history. His 2014 squad won the OVC Sportsmanship award and produced the league’s top GPA (3.62).
He started his EIU tenure in 2012 as an assistant after spending one season as an assistant at Eastern Carolina.
He helped ECU to 11 wins and the Conference USA Tournament semifinals in 2011 after the program hadn’t played in the previous two conference tournaments.
At Western Illinois, Cherry served as the top assistant from 2008-11. He aided the Leathernecks to a combined 26-22-9 record in three seasons including a 15-9-2 mark in conference action.
In 2010, his goalkeepers tied a program record for nine shutouts and finished in the Top 30 nationally in save percentage (0.848) and top 55 in goals against average (0.84).
As an assistant coach at NAIA member Bethel College from 2005-08, Cherry helped the program to a 35-21-12 mark with two national tournament appearances and conference regular season and tournament titles in 2005. Additionally, Bethel won the NAIA Futsal title in 2007.
Cherry spent 10 seasons at the high school ranks as a goalkeeper coach.
He is NSCAA and USSF licensed coach. Cherry played two seasons as a goalkeeper at NAIA member Goshen College. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University.
Cherry and wife Karly have four children- Natalie, Owen, Henry, and Colin.