By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – A local high school soccer coach with multiple state championships and more than 100 wins to his name will be taking the helm of the Alabaster City Schools soccer programs after he was hired by the Alabaster Board of Education during a July 9 meeting.

School Board members voted unanimously during the meeting to hire current Oak Mountain High School boys’ soccer coach Daniel DeMasters as the Warriors’ next girls’ head soccer coach and director of soccer for grades seven through 12 at Thompson High School and Thompson Middle School. DeMasters will teach math at THS.

“He is a quality teacher and a quality coach,” said Alabaster School Board President Adam Moseley. “It’s an excellent opportunity for our kids. We want to have the best programs we possibly can for all of our students.”

DeMasters has been with the OMHS soccer program since 2014, led the Eagles to a runner-up finish in his first year and won three state championships in a row from 2015-2017. He recorded his 100^th win with the Eagles in April, and has become one of the most successful high school soccer coaches in the state during his time at Oak Mountain.

Following the Eagles’ 28-0-2 state championship season in 2016, DeMasters was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s Coach of the Year for large schools in Alabama, and the Eagles were named the top high school soccer team in the country by the same organization.

DeMasters is a Philadelphia native and played collegiately at Villanova University. He coached collegiate soccer in Pennsylvania before moving to Birmingham to join the Eagles.

During his high school playing career, DeMasters was a three-time high school All-American and was the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year and later represented the United States in the USYSA Region 1 Olympic Development Team in Europe.

In 2010 and 2011, he served as the assistant men’s soccer coach at Division III Eastern University in St. David’s, Pennsylvania, and was the head men’s soccer coach at Division II West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Villanova and a master’s degree in multicultural education from Eastern University.

“He’s just a great guy, and we are excited about what he is bringing to our school system,” said ACS Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers.