Coaching comes naturally to Bethanie Moreschi of Point Park women's soccer

Every once in a while, Point Park women’s soccer coach Bethanie Moreschi will catch herself channeling her father. Ron Moreschi has been coaching soccer for decades and led the Chartiers Valley girls team when the program was born in the early 1990s.

Bethanie was at his practices often, kicking balls with the “big girls” or sitting on their laps during idle moments.

Coaching, then, came naturally once her playing days at CV and La Roche were over. So, too, do some of her father’s tendencies. They are especially noticeable to Pioneers starters Tia Horew and Emily Gillot, who played for her father at Char Valley.

“She likes to take people under her wing and takes care of them and really takes pride in them doing well,” Gillot, a sophomore, said. “That was something her dad did.

“There’s little stuff that she will go over in practice that I remember her dad teaching me.”

Said Moreschi: “I definitely feel like we have a lot of (the same) ways we coach and communicate with players. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I feel that he was a great soccer coach and a good example and mentor for a lot of high school girls.”

Point Park is Moreschi’s first college head-coaching job — she coached North Hills’ girls team from 2014-17 — and she got the position practically at the last minute. She took over in early August after former coach Emily Kuhn left to take the Lock Haven job.

Moreschi, 28, was serving as an assistant at La Roche when she decided to take the plunge into running her own college program.

While the transition came easily for her — except, she said, for all the administrative duties — it wasn’t necessarily going to be the same for her players. Senior captain Gabby Widman (Brashear) said there was apprehension initially, particularly for the older players who had been in Kuhn’s program for a couple of years.

Gillot assured her teammates Moreschi would be a great hire, and they soon bought in.

“She is a younger person, so she could connect with us,” Widman said. “As soon as she started coaching, you could tell she was there to lead us to success not only in our soccer careers but in our future careers.”

Widman said Moreschi has simplified the team’s style, taking a more back-to-basics approach. She also injects fun into practices, Widman said.

“I think they are starting to understand me and what I am expecting from them,” Moreschi said. “And I have great soccer players here, and that’s always a good thing.”

The Pioneers struggled early, dropping their first four matches. After being blanked in the first three, they scored twice in their Sept. 7 match against Siena Heights.

That, Widman said, is a sign the team is starting to turn the corner and should be ready to challenge for a River States Conference title.

“It creates an environment for us to work hard,” Gillot said. “We’re broken in, I guess you could say, and ready to play the harder teams in our conference.”

And Ron Moreschi will be watching.

His coaching duties at Beadling Soccer Club kept him from attending the Pioneers’ early matches, but he typically watches replays online. Bethanie often asks for his opinions on strategy and gets tips on players she might want to recruit.

In the end, however, she wants to leave her own mark on coaching. “I want them to have a good experience,” she said. “Four years flies. Make relationships that matter with their teammates and coaches. I want to be someone they can trust and come back to in the future.

“And have success. In the end, no one likes to lose.”