La Crosse, Wis. - Viterbo University Athletics Director, Barry Fried announced today that Scott Pirnstill has been hired to take over the V-Hawk women's soccer program and replace Will Lemke who left in December to take over the women's soccer program at Youngstown State University.

"Scott's been an assistant for the past 8 years here at Viterbo and during that time, he's proven himself as a coach and a recruiter," commented Fried. "There's no question he's ready to take the reigns and lead our program. He's very familiar with Viterbo, the current players and incoming recruits. I think it will be a very seamless transition."

Coach Pirnstill may be very familiar to those who have followed the V-Hawk soccer program as he was an assistant coach for Coach Lemke during his eight seasons. During those eight seasons, Pirnstill helped lead a V-Hawk program that won 84 games, two MCC regular season championships, a MCC tournament championship, as well as made two trips to the NAIA regional tournament.

"First, I want to thank Diane Brimmer, Barry Fried and the entire search committee for giving me the opportunity to lead a successful program," commented Coach Pirnstill. "The entire Viterbo staff has been like family to me for the last 8 years as an assistant coach and I have been lucky to have great mentors at Viterbo over those years."

One of the key reasons the V-Hawks have had success the past few seasons is because of their ability to recruit top student-athletes. Coach Pirnstill's coaching and recruiting experiences helped show why he was a top candidate. In addition to his coaching experience at Viterbo, Coach Pirnstill has spent the past two seasons as the co-head girls coach at West Salem High School. Pirnstill has also been a coach for the Coulee Region Minnesota Soccer Club (CRM) since 2004. During his time coaching for the (CRM), Coach Pirnstill's teams have qualified for three Minnesota Youth Soccer Association state tournaments winning one and finishing runner up in another.

"The Viterbo Women's soccer program has become a perennial MCC soccer power over the past 4 years; I look forward to the challenge of maintaining such a high level of competition," stated Coach Pirnstill. "I truly believe this program can continue to have success at the conference level and feel that we are ready to become a program that can have success at the NAIA national level."

Outside of coaching, Coach Pirnstill works for Smith and Nephew Orthopedics where he is a sales representative. Coach Pirnstill will begin his duties at Viterbo immediately as he has to replace nine players who are graduating including Midwest Collegiate Conference Player of the Year Ashley Sorenson (Sr. - Reedsburg, Wis.).

Editors Note - Coach Pirnstill can be reached for further comments by contacting him via phone (608-304-0371) or email (pirnscottpunt@charter.net). Barry Fried can be reached for further comments by contacting him via phone (608-796-3812) or email (bjfried@viterbo.edu).