Inverso of Rider and Donigan of Rutgers have 40-year bond

HAMILTON, N.J. (AP) - Charlie Inverso of Rider and Dan Donigan of Rutgers have more in common than leading their New Jersey schools to the NCAA men's soccer tournament.

The two coaches have a 40-year bond that started with Inverso coaching Donigan as a 9-year-old on a youth team in their native Hamilton Township near Trenton.

The coaches will guide their teams on Thursday when Rutgers plays host to Long Island University and Rider visits Virginia to face the defending national champion Cavaliers.

The Scarlet Knights of the Big Ten Conference received at at-large bid. Rider won the MAAC Tournament to earn its first NCAA berth in 17 years.

Neither could have imagined where they would be today when Inverso, a college freshman, mentored Donigan on the Our Lady of Sorrows CYO team in 1975.

"I thought he was the cool soccer guy," Donigan said. "He was young so he could relate to us. He was awesome. He let us have fun and at that age you just want to have fun. You can only teach a young kid so much at that level."

Inverso recalls Donigan as being charming, naturally gifted and clever with the ball.

"He was already legendary for a little kid," Inverso said. "He had that whole persona that all the parents liked, the blonde haired, blue eyed kid. Even the name - Danny Donigan - it's like a made up storybook name.

"Everyone was drawn to him and he still milks that today," Inverso said.

After winning five national championships at Mercer County Community College, Inverso served as Rutgers goalkeeping coach in 2010, Donigan's first year. Inverso then left for Rider and, in five seasons, has turned a downtrodden program into a conference champion.

Donigan set a single-season goal-scoring record at Steinert High School before earning Big East Player of the Decade honors at Connecticut in the 1980s. He guided St. Louis University to seven NCAA appearances in nine seasons before getting Rutgers into the 2011 Sweet 16. This is the Knights' first NCAA appearance since.

"I never saw him as somebody that wanted to go into the corporate world and wear a tie every day," Inverso said.

Inverso played for Notre Dame High in Lawrenceville and Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) before serving as Bob Bradley's assistant at Princeton. He took over Mercer in 1986, and Donigan would come home from UConn for Thanksgiving and watch MCCC host - and often win - the national championship.

Inverso, who also taught middle school, stepped down from the part-time coaching position in 2009 after 434 wins and 18 national tournament appearances at Mercer. A few months later, Donigan took over Rutgers and brought his friend on staff.

"For him to be able to help me out was just a great opportunity and a great thing for both of us," Donigan said. "It obviously led to the next great thing for him, being head coach at Rider."

Inverso, who left Princeton in 1985, was able to re-learn the latest nuances of Division I coaching at Rutgers. The Broncs had won just 42 games the previous 10 years and their last tournament berth was in 1998 before beating Monmouth in this year's MAAC title game to move to 14-5-1.

"After playing him last spring (in an exhibition) I told Charlie he was going to be able to win his conference and I couldn't be happier for him," Donigan said. "I've watched his teams over the last couple of years, he's brought in some incredibly talented, mature players and that's what it takes to win playing at this level."

Inverso and Donigan were inducted into the New Jersey Soccer Coaches Association's Hall of Fame last March, and Inverso loves that they are now going to the NCAAs together.

"I couldn't be happier for Danny," Inverso said. "He has such great passion and his management of players and their personalities is tremendous, just getting guys to buy into things and getting the most out of guys."