Robin Dieterich retires as 10-time state championship Father Ryan soccer coach

Longtime Father Ryan boys and girls soccer coach, Robin Dieterich, is retiring at the end of the school year and the school has named his replacement as well as the school's next boys and girls golf.

Dieterich wraps up 46 years of coaching that included 10 TSSAA state championships and induction into the TSSAA Hall of Fame. He was the 2019 recipient of the Tennessean's Fred Russell Lifetime Achievement award. He'll continue to teach English at Father Ryan.

"I felt like after 40-plus years it was time for me to turn it over to someone else," Dieterich said. "I think I'm ready for that. I'm going to miss it, but the game's changed a bit, the players have changed and the parents too. It's time for me to step aside and let someone else take the reins."

Father Ryan golf coach Greg Thompson will also retire.

“Robin’s hall of fame career is one of the most remarkable in high school history with him playing a role as player or coach in all 12 of Father Ryan’s soccer state titles over a 52-year span," Father Ryan athletic director Ann Mullins said. "And Greg has led a program that has produced a girls regional (golf) title, multiple state tournament qualifiers, and two state individual runners-up in just the last five years."

Dieterich coached Father Ryan to five Division II-AA state titles in boys soccer and five in girls. His last came in 2020 when the Lady Irish beat Girls Preparatory Schools, 3-2.

"They're all different," Dieterich said about his 10 state titles. "It's not a cookie-cutter thing."

"We had an alumni night a few days ago and that was special because a lot of players I coached came back and some coaches I coached with were there. Those are the things that are most memorable when you can share that with players, coaches and teammates."

Dieterich held two state championship trophies in the same school year when Father Ryan's girls won it in the fall of 2012, followed by the boys' title in the spring of 2013. His boys team won the 1998 spring state championship and his girls captured one in the fall of that year.

Prior to soccer being sanctioned by the TSSAA for the 1986-87 school year, Dieterich was part of two championship teams at Father Ryan as a player in 1972 and 1973.

"I don't know what you'd call that kind of championship," he said. "It was mostly made up of private schools during that time but we played teams from Memphis and other areas of the state."

Dieterich began coaching at Father Ryan in the late 1970s. He spent six years coaching boys and girls soccer at Brentwood (1986-1992) and returned to Father Ryan in 1993. He's coached at the developmental and club soccer level and was inducted into the TSSAA all of Fame in 2018.

Steve Graham, who is the head golf pro at Champions Run Golf Course in Rockvale, will take over the Fighting Irish's boys and girls golf programs July 1. Assistant golf coach, Kate Cole, was named associate head coach.

Graham graduated from Father Ryan in 1987 and from MTSU in 1991, where he was a Tennessee Amateur Champion in 1990. He played professionally before joining Champions Run in 2002 as the course's general manager and golf director.

Father Ryan soccer assistant, Gerry Armbruster III has been promoted to the girls head coach and will assume that position July 1. Armbruster is a 2012 graduate of Father Ryan and has been on staff since 2017.

Christakis Agisilaou will head the boys' soccer program beginning Nov. 1. He arrives in Nashville after six seasons at Madisonville North-Hopkins in Kentucky where he won 117 games, three region titles and a state tournament appearance. He was named the Kentucky High School Coach of the Year in 2022.

“All of these coaches bring impressive credentials to these coaching positions, and I am confident they will continue our tradition of athletic success while developing outstanding student-athletes for Father Ryan,” Mullins said.

Reach sports writer George Robinson at georgerobinsontheleafchronicle.com and on the X platform (formerly Twitter) @Cville_Sports.