Dale Marsh, affectionately nicknamed Moose, was, in 1990, one of the seven founding members of the Stroudsburg United Soccer Club (SUSC) along with Jim Hall, Kevin Yost, Kevin Lavelle, Gary Olson, Glen Yetter and Jack Fossett. Dale was a lifelong resident of Stroudsburg, Pa and was graduated from Stroudsburg High School and East Stroudsburg University. He loved the game of soccer and played at the high school, college and amateur level.
Dale began his association with the game of soccer in high school when he, along with fellow classmates, persuaded German teacher, Karl Dickl, to start the first scholastic soccer program at Stroudsburg High School. Many life-long soccer relationships developed as a result of that effort. After High School, Dale played at East Stroudsburg University (ESU) and, upon graduation, was an assistant coach at ESU under head coach, Doc McKeon. The ESU teams of those days won many championships, reached regional playoffs numerous times and produced many notable players and coaches of today.
Dale played amateur soccer with many of those same ESU players for the Allentown Sengerbund Club. Eventually, a local amateur team was formed known as the “Pocono Snow”. Dale was a member of that very successful team, competing in the Lehigh Valley Soccer League, many tournaments in the tri-state area and abroad in Germany.
Dale started coaching the boys’ varsity team at North Hunterdon High School in New Jersey in 1972. His team’s reputation grew from year to year winning numerous championships and being a regular participant in the New Jersey state playoffs. He received “Coach of the Year” honors many times but it was not these rewards that were most important to Dale. Among his greatest joys were watching the young soccer players he coached grow into mature responsible adults with several of them moving into coaching themselves.
Dale coached both boys’ and girls’ teams under the SUSC banner until his health made him stop coaching in 2001. All his teams performed extremely well on the soccer field and his love of coaching and his skill at doing so was readily apparent as his teams continually improved each year.
Dale’s son, Luke, and daughter, Laura, have both continues his legacy as players and coaches. Luke played high school soccer, coached the Butler High School girls to 2nd place in the PA State Championships in 2001 and is now the assistant girls soccer coach at Mars High School in the Pittsburgh area. Laura played college soccer for Pittsburgh where she lettered for four years and now plays on a women’s amateur team in Battle Ground, Wa.
Dale passed away in 2002 of a very rare liver disease at far too young an age.
