NASHUA — Student athletes aren’t due on campus until early next week, but already there was news Tuesday for a Rivier University fall sports team.

The school announced yesterday four-year women’s soccer coach Brooke Arment has stepped down for family reasons, and longtime assistant David Richard (pictured) was named interim head coach.

Given the timing, it’s expected Richard will coach for the foreseeable future until a permanent replacement can be found, likely after the season. New Rivier athletic director Jonathan Harper just began his duties on campus last week. The Raiders will open up at home on Thursday, Sept. 1 vs. Eastern Nazarene at Joanne Merrill Field. Rivier went 3-13-3 overall last year, but winless — 0-10-3 — in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.

This year’s roster has yet to be finalized, but there were a few locals on last year’s team eligible to return: Defenders Carson Dowling (Nashua South), and Sami Blais (Nashua North), and Merrimack’s Jesse Mayhew.

Richard entered his first season as an assistant with the Rivier women’s soccer program in 2018-19. He began his tenure with the program working with the goalkeepers, recruiting, training, and game day responsibilities.

“My passion and enthusiasm for the game is contagious, and I look forward to continuing working with the student-athletes,” Richard said in an announcement sent out by the school. “I am honored to be asked to be the interim Head coach of the Rivier’s women’s soccer team for the 2022-23 season.

Richard will pull from his experiences with Seacoast United, where he has coached since 2010, and from the 2007/U16 DPL Girls team. He was honored with the New Hampshire’s Girls Competitive Coach of the Year award in 2012 for his work with all ages ranging from nine to twenty-one. He also earned his USSF “C” License back in 2014.

Richard is a graduate of New Hampshire College, known now as Southern New Hampshire University, and works at Liberty Mutual as a Senior Solutions Architect. He has three daughters and his wife Kathie, who works at Easter Seals NH.

Arment’s departure isn’t the only coaching change in recent weeks at Rivier. Baseball coach Louie Bernardini is not returning after two seasons at the helm and a couple as the Raiders assistant coach. Prior to that Berardini was the head coach at Daniel Webster College until it closed in May of 2017.

The Raiders have yet to fill the position.

(Rivier Sports Information Director Travis Giard contributed to this report.)

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