THE name Rohan Narine might not be familiar in local football circles, but it surely is in the United States.

Narine was born in Georgetown, and lived at the corner of Sussex and Barr Streets, Albouystown, but migrated to England at a very tender age and lived there with his parents for ten tears before the family moved to the United States.

This year, he began his fourth year as head coach of the Coastal Carolina University women’s team earlier this year.

Coastal Carolina won their second Big South regular season title and advanced to the Big South Tournament championship game for the second consecutive season last year.

Narine and the Chanticleers won 13 games, drew seven and lost one (13-7-1) to win the Big South title with a (6-2-1) record.

Coastal Carolina also had big wins over Conference USA Carolina (2-1) and had a nine-game winning streak from August 31 to October 11.

Narine had two First Team All Big South members in Ashleigh Gunning and Emily McColl, while Gunning earned her second Big South Player-of-the-Year honour.

He also coached five All Big South selections, one Big South All-Freshman team member and three Big South All Tournament honorees.

Gunning and McColl were also named Academic All-Americans by ESPN magazine, while McColl was named the Big South’s Scholar-Athlete-of-the-Year.

Narine and the Chanticleers won the Big South regular season title and set the school record with 15 wins in 2007, the year he was named Coach-of-the-Year.

Under his tutelage, Coastal Carolina advanced to the Big South championship for the first time in the school’s history, defeating VMI and Winthorp by matching 1-0 scores before falling to High Point on penalty kicks in the final. The Chanticleers also had 12 shut-outs, a school record, and a 0.98 goals against average, leading the Big South in both categories.

Coastal Carolina went 13-6-1 in their 2006 campaign, including going 6-2 in the Big South for a second place regular season finish and they hosted the Big South tournament and defeated Radford 4-0 in the quarterfinals for Coastal Carolina’s first ever tournament victory.

The 2006 team tied the 2005 squad for most wins in a season (13) and Narine guided the Chanticleers to a 6-2 record at the Coastal Carolina football field. That year also, the Guyanese earned his 50th career victory.

The South Georgetown-born coach is now very familiar with Coastal Carolina women’s football, having served as an assistant coach during the 2002-2005 seasons. In 2005 he helped the school win a school-record 13 games, with the squad leading the Big South in goals.

In 2002, he helped the school to their first ever win and helped bring a recruiting class that would be part of a Big South regular season championship in 2003.

Between his two stints at Coastal Carolina, Narine spent the 2003 and 2004 seasons as the head women’s coach and was the Southerners first ever head coach.

The Guyanese has 23 years of coaching experience at the high school, collegiate and international levels. He spent four years as head coach of Coker College’s women football programme before his first stint at Coastal Carolina.

Narine migrated to England at a very tender age and started his football career. After spending 10 years in the European country, his parents migrated to the US when he was 16 years old.

He then joined the Theodore Rooseveldt High School team in Washington and was subsequently named team captain in 1980, the very year he was named the Washington Post’s Player-of-the-Year.

The Guyanese-born played collegiate football for national-ranked North Carolina Wesleyan College, helping lead the programme of the NCAA Division 111 National Tournament in 1984.

He was the team captain and was selected to the All-South Region teams.

His playing career ended in 1984 due to a knee injury, but he remained at NC Wesleyan as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s programmes during the 1985 and 1986 seasons.

Prior to accepting the position at Coker in 1998, Narine spent eight years at Beaufort Academy where he served as Athletic Director and Head Coach of the boys’ and girls’ football programmes. His team won eight State Championships and he was tabbed South Carolina’s Coach-of-the-Year eight consecutive seasons.

In 1999 Narine was called upon to assist in preparing Guyana’s national team for the Olympic qualifying round.