By Scott Brinton
A Calhoun High School phys. ed. teacher and coach, the 28-year-old Riddiough also played three seasons with the Long Island Lady Riders, a professional women's soccer team that has attracted a number of the world's elite players. (Greek Olympian Maria Yatrakis joined the squad this past season.)
The Lady Riders team was born in 1994, amid the near national obsession with women's soccer sparked by international superstar -- and World Cup and Olympic champion -- Mia Hamm. The Lady Riders squad is the female counterpart to the Long Island Rough Riders, the men's team.
From the get-go, the Lady Riders excelled, capturing the United Soccer Leagues' W-League inaugural championship. The team has since won a second title and beaten the Brazilian national team, which is ranked among the world's best squads.
Riddiough loved playing for the ever-dominating Lady Riders from 2002 to 2004, and may sign on for a fourth season in 2006. With the Riders, she says, she perfected her game.
Her tenure with the team helps explain the meteoric rise of the Calhoun varsity girls' soccer team. The Colts ended the fall season as Conference III champions, with a 9-2-1 record. In 2006, the squad will move up to the more competitive Conference II. "It was an amazing season," Riddiough says. "I try to explain to the team that when they're on the field, keep it simple."
She adds, "With this team, it was about believing in themselves. A lot of teams give up and start yelling at each other" when they're losing. "This team remembered not to start yelling at each other. I love every one of those kids. I had 22 great kids on that team."
Saul Lerner, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District athletic director, said of Riddiough, "The same things that made her a great player make her a great coach. She's very driven -- the intensity, the desire to succeed.
"With that," Lerner adds, "she cares about the kids, and that's a good combination."
Maureen Kogel, one of the girls' squad's co-captains, says Riddiough is "always trying to make us a better team, even from pre-season. She's out to win every game. It's good when the coach says we want to win."
Kogel adds that the team gelled this year. "It was one of the first times we were really a team," she says. "Ms. Riddiough helped us do that. Everyone was so close."
Riddiough grew up in upstate New York. Hofstra recruited her to play lacrosse and soccer on a scholarship a decade ago, and she never left Long Island. She has played soccer since age 5, and during high school she earned a spot on New York's Olympic Development Team.
Much of her life revolves around soccer. She is married to the head coach of Hofstra¹s women's soccer team, Simon Riddiough. Hofstra, an NCAA Division I squad, just grabbed the Colonial Athletic Association championship by beating Virginia Commonwealth.
Riddiough, who makes her home in Massapequa Park with her husband, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in phys. ed. from Hofstra. She is now pursuing a second master's there, in educational administration.
No doubt, Riddiough is an excellent teacher and student, though she feels most at home not in the classroom, but on the field. "The best feeling is being able to create plays on the field," she says, smiling.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
