Usually, the end of the school year is a time for students to say goodbye to their teachers or deliver the traditional “Have a good summer”. However, for coach Billy Chiles, there will be no next year roaming the fields and halls of Springbrook High School. The varsity soccer coach accepted the position of assistant coach of the men’s soccer team at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

William “Billy” Chiles started playing soccer at the age of 6 years old. He played as a forward and a defender for his club teams. Chiles was known to be too physical on the field so, one of the parents that was on his team suggested him playing as a goalkeeper. After playing goalkeeper a few times, he begin to fall in love with the position and the sport.

“I became a goalkeeper accidentally,” Chiles said.

Chiles grew into a fantastic goalkeeper and once it was time to head to high school, Chiles chose “The Brook”, and continued to play soccer with the soccer team here at Springbrook. While his time at Springbrook, Chiles showed his impressive abilities, and caught attention from the county. In 2002, he apart of the All-Met team, and was a part of the Decade Team.

According to the Washington Post, “An imposing figure in the net, Chiles had five shutouts, a 0.5 goals against average and allowed only three goals all season.”

After being noticed locally, Chiles received the attention from colleges and in 2003, he committed to Rutgers University, and played with the Scarlet Knights. After 3 years of playing soccer at Rutgers, Chiles transferred to Towson University. There, he won awards such as, NSCAA 2nd Team All-American, 1st Team All-CAA, and CAA All Tournament Team in 2007-2008.

Chiles graduated from Towson in 2008, and became a prospect in the 2008 MLS Supplemental Draft. He was drafted by Columbus Crew with the 6th pick of the first round.

Soon after his MLS career ended, he became the assistant coach at Towson University from 2009-13 until the the Men’s Soccer program was dissolved.

Chiles then took the head coaching job of the Maryland United FC, and has served as the head coach for the last five years. While coaching in Bowie, Maryland, he became the head coach at Springbrook, and has been serving here for two seasons. This season, his team was able to make it to the Regional Finals, by beating out Paint Branch and Mergenthaler Voc Tech.

Although he was beginning to start something special here at Springbrook, he was accepted the assistant coaching job at George Mason University.

“We are thrilled to have Billy Chiles join our staff.” GMU head coach Andrulis said, “Billy is a tremendous coach and brings the highest level of experience to our program. The entire Mason soccer family is excited to work with Billy.”

Chiles has been with Springbrook High School for 2 years, and while he coached varsity boys’ soccer, he also worked as a Special Education Paraeducator. He has been in the classroom with different types of learning styles from different students.

“As a paraeducator, learning styles constantly vary. These different learning techniques force you to be adaptable as well understanding. No one student is the same,” Chiles said.

Varsity players offered their praise for Chiles.

“Coach Billy is an influential coach, and he will have success years to come,” former player, Eric Ramirez said.

Chiles hopes to gain success at George Mason.

“I think being an assistant coach will help me continue to learn from my peers both on and off the field. As a coach, you must keep an open mind to all information being provided,” Chiles said.