Dr. Soner Dogan is newly appointed head coach of men’s soccer team at Riverland Community College. Dr. Dogan has been involved with the game of soccer at every level. He is a professional soccer referee. He has been officiating professional soccer games and Division-I college games (including Big-10 colleges), high schools games in and out of Minnesota past 12 years.  He was an assistant coach for the men’s soccer team at Hamline University in St. Paul in 1999. He was on the varsity soccer team when he was a student at the college of Veterinary Medicine at Ankara University in Turkey. 

In addition to coaching position, Dr. Dogan has been teaching biology related courses like Human Biology, Anatomy and Physiology at Riverland CC. He has completed his Master and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities. Then, he was a research associate at the Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota where he conducted researches on obesity and breast cancer development past five years.  

Dr. Dogan explains why he is so happy to be at Riverland like this “I see myself as an educator. I have passion for two things; teaching and soccer. With my current teaching/coaching position I will be able to do both”.

Mario was born in SanJose de Gracia Michoacan, Mexico.  He is the 13th child of 15 children. He started playing soccer when he was five years old.  He played for the little league champion teams, PRI and PAN in Mexican little league.  He played in high school varsity team for three years. He was a goal keeper and then started playing as midfielder in high school years.  When he was in college he played as a goal keeper in varsity team until he broke his arm during one of the college soccer games.  Later on, Mario moved to Washington State where he had played in amateur league for 10 years before he moved to Austin in 2001.  He still plays and referees soccer games in Austin. In addition, he is one of the commissioners in Austin Amateur soccer league.  He is father of three. Besides playing soccer he likes to go for fishing with his wife and kids. He also like dancing. Mario’s favorite soccer team is Barcelona and his favorite player is Rafa Marquez.

Troy is a 1979 graduate of Albert Lea High School. His soccer career began just east of Los Angeles as the varsity goalkeeper for Mt. San Antonio Community College. He transferred to Pepperdine University, where he played club soccer while earning his bachelor's degree in accounting. His coaching background includes one-year stints with Pepperdine's men's soccer club and Skagit Storm, a select girls' soccer team in Washington state. In addition to soccer, Troy attends Riverland as a student in its radiography program.