Gabe Mejail has coached at Merrimack College for more than half of the institution’s existence.
He has coached more than 400 women’s soccer players and he could tell you the jersey number for pretty much every one of them. He is now coaching the daughters of former players. His teams play their home games on a field that bears his name. He has won at the national and regional level, across Division I and Division II.
And on Thursday, Aug. 14, against the University of Vermont, he became college women’s soccer’s newest “iron man” head coach. At 46 seasons, no one in the history of the sport has coached more seasons than Mejail.
“It is exciting that it is going to happen, but I am not going to hold my breath because records are meant to be broken,” said Mejail, who is currently No. 7 on the all-time wins list in college women’s soccer with 524. “This is a sport, not a job, and as long as you keep having fun the winning takes care of itself.”
The winning has certainly taken care of itself for the Warriors during Mejail’s tenure over the past four decades: 37 winning seasons, 11 NCAA tournament appearances, 14 Northeast-10 conference championships, a Northeast Conference regular season championship and 27 All-American honorees, just to name a few.
He joined Merrimack in 1984, following coaching stints at Wheaton College and Brookline High School, and quickly established a tough, gritty and relentless style of play. Mejail says it is a hallmark of Merrimack women’s soccer, whether playing in the NE-10 or the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
“I never want to lose a game because we didn’t try,” said Mejail. “In all these years, a lack of work has never been an issue.”
All-American goalie Sue Plante ’90, who was recruited to come to Merrimack after writing Mejail a letter and sending him newspaper clippings about her play, said he generally looked for players who played the same way he did at MIT.
“He worked just as hard as we did,” said Plante. “You just wanted to play hard for him and the harder you played, the more excited he got. We didn’t have plays to go around opponents. We would just bowl them over.”
That intensity has rarely waned over the years. Sarah (Boyd) Harty ’93 and her daughter Rebekah Harty ’22 served as captains during their times playing for Mejail and have both witnessed his passion translate into the occasional frustrated hat toss or being reprimanded in Spanish.
“When the Spanish came out, you knew he was serious,” Sarah Harty said with a laugh of the Argentinian-born-and-raised coach. “He is just a great guy. He wants to make sure you are going to be happy across your entire experience at Merrimack and he concentrates on you as a person more than a player.”
When Rebekah Harty started attending Merrimack games, even before she began her college search, she always noticed how loud and supportive the Warriors’ bench was throughout games.
“The sideline was never quiet,” said Rebekah. “I love Merrimack and I would not have made a different decision in any other lifetime. Gabe genuinely wants everyone to be successful, whether it’s on the field, in the classroom or applying for your first job.”
Mejail takes great pride in the culture and camaraderie that have been a foundation of the Merrimack program. He can’t recall losing a recruit after they made an overnight visit and spent time with the team, and he enjoys how many high school rivals have ultimately played together at Merrimack.
“You need to keep the kids believing in each other,” said Mejail. “And Merrimack is an easy sell.”
Jessica (Peacock) Cellucci ’12, an associate professor in Merrimack’s School of Nursing and Health Sciences who earned All-America honors as a defender playing for Mejail, said 13 years after playing, she is still in close contact with former teammates.
“Gabe is truly one of a kind,” she said. “There is something unique about him that the hundreds of players he has coached don’t forget.”
And while breaking a coaching longevity record is impressive, Plante said what’s more impressive is Mejail’s consistency and success through so many changes.
“If you look at the adaptability of this guy and everything he has seen as a coach, from rules changes to the evolution of the NCAA to College leadership changes to going from Division II to Division I, and he just keeps winning; if that isn’t a resilient human, I don’t know what is,” said Plante.
As he continues to recruit, Mejail recognizes that more and more he is asked if he is going to retire any time soon, and his answer is always a simple, “Not yet.
“I still get nervous for the games,” he said. “And I still always look forward to practice. That is what I miss most in the offseason because the players are really themselves at practice.”
