The ETSU women’s soccer team announced the newest addition to their staff – assistant coach Matt Yelton.
Yelton is from East Tennessee, a King University and ETSU alumnus and brother to head coach Jay Yelton.
“For Jay and I, this is such a unique honor that we’re back here at ETSU.” Matt Yelton said. “We’re 18 months apart. We have pretty much done everything together our entire lives. We went to high school together. We went to college together. I think it’s one of those opportunities for he and I being so close to come back to our hometown and try to do something special.”
Matt Yelton played collegiate soccer at King University, in addition to spending time coaching there. He coached for 13 seasons, 11 of which were conference-winning seasons at Lee University.
While at Lee University, he became the winningest coach in the university’s history. Most recently, he was the vice president of youth soccer operations and senior director of coaching while at the Chattanooga Red Wolves Soccer Club Academy.
“I’m a very organized individual and my ability to help with the administrative side of things, my experience running an organization with a thousand members the last several years and being able to handle the recruiting allows Jay to focus on the job of coaching the team,” he said.
With the cancellation of sports this fall, Matt Yelton wants to the most of these unpredictable times with his new team.
“It’s definitely not an easy situation when you get into the unexpected,” he said. “You have to see everything as an opportunity and make the best of bad situations sometimes. It gives us more time to work with the girls and have an off season giving us a better opportunity for success in 2021.”
The connection that assistant coach Yelton has with his hometown of Johnson City, and getting to work alongside his brother creates a dream team scenario for the two of them.
“Because we’ve spent so much time together, we have an opportunity where we understand each other very well,” Matt Yelton said. “We’re not twins, but probably are as close to thinking like twins as brothers can be. I think that’s a unique situation because it helps Jay by already having that high comfort level.”
