Olli Harder, who has a wealth of international coachingexperience, is in his first season as a member of Brian Tompkins'staff.
Most recently, Harder served as a football development officerat Club Football China, where he worked with Chinese youth players.Previously he was a Regional Coaching Director with MaestroSoccer Academy in New Jersey.
His first collegiate coaching assignment came at NJIT where hespent two seasons as goalkeeper coach.
Harder is a native of New Zealand where he played and began hiscoaching career. He is a graduate of the New Zealand Institute ofTechnology with a bachelor of sport degree. His studies included asemester in the United States at Virginia Tech.
He played in New Zealand’s Northern Premier League for twoteams as their starting goalkeeper and also played for two teams inNew Zealand’s highest league, the New Zealand FootballChampionship.
He began his coaching career at Lynfield High School at the ageof 20 and was named the Northland secondary schools Coach of theYear.
“For such a young coach, Olli has extensive workexperience in several countries and has accumulated a tremendousamount of knowledge,” said Yale head coach Brian Tompkins.“He brings a high level of teaching ability and terrificdynamism to our environment and his impact will be quickly felt onand off the field.”
