Copyright Baltimore Sun
As Joe Mallia’s coaching career in women’s soccer took him to stops as an assistant coach at UCLA, Tennessee and Navy and a head coach at Loyola Marymount, Reagan Mallia — the second of three daughters to Joe and Amy — drew close to the sport and the players on her father’s teams. “I’d get their autographs after every single game,” she said. “I thought they were like celebrities and superstars. So I always just knew that’s something that I wanted to do.” Reagan Mallia has developed into one of the players she admired. The Severna Park resident and Spalding graduate played at West Virginia and Lipscomb before transferring this past summer to Loyola Maryland, where she is a starting midfielder for a team that qualified for its seventh consecutive appearance in the six-team Patriot League Tournament as the No. 6 seed and will face No. 3 seed Army West Point (11-5-2, 5-3-1) in a quarterfinal on Sunday at 1 p.m. in West Point, New York. And Mallia has joined her dad, who has helmed the Greyhounds (5-4-8, 2-2-5 conference) since December 2018. The reunion has been a pleasant surprise for father and daughter. “It‘s such a cool opportunity just to say that I’ve played for my dad,” Reagan said. “Senior night [on Oct. 18] was really cool for me because I was like, ‘Wow, all of this has led me to playing for my dad.’” Added Joe, a former goalkeeper for Old Dominion and the Baltimore Spirt: “I know I was worried about it between she and I. But for me, it’s been one of the highlights of my coaching career, and I’ve really, really enjoyed it.” Reagan Mallia said with her grandfather and father having coached soccer, older sister Kaitlyn, her and younger sister Addison seemed destined to pick up the sport, too. “Just growing up around my dad coaching, I was just always on the soccer field,” said Reagan, who dabbled in basketball and gymnastics. “So I feel like it was kind of no question. Me and my sisters were like, ‘Well, obviously we have to play soccer because we’re around it all the time.’” When the time came to pick a college, Reagan chose West Virginia over South Florida. Despite Joe’s position at Loyola, both father and daughter agreed that taking separate paths was better. “She wanted me to be her dad, not her coach,” Joe said. “I think we vowed that we would keep our relationship in the college world as dad and daughter versus coach and player.” Reagan took a redshirt in her freshman year in 2022. And just as she prepared to participate in an exhibition the following spring, she tore the ACL in her left knee. “That was my biggest fear honestly because it’s such a common injury, and I’d seen it when I was younger with older girls, and one of my best friends had torn her ACL in high school,” she said. “So just seeing that when it happened, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening to me.’” After an 11-month recovery that required her to sit out the 2023 season, Reagan returned in the spring of 2024 only to experience tightness and cramping in her calves. The pain subsided somewhat over the summer, allowing her to practice and appear in one game in the fall. Still, Reagan opted to enter the transfer portal and went to Lipscomb. Although she participated in practices and games in the spring, the pain in her legs re-emerged, and the Lady Bisons coach informed her that her spot on the team was not guaranteed. Then in early April, a doctor told her the pain was the result of compartment syndrome, a condition in which pressure buildup around muscles can cause tissue damage or paralysis. Reagan underwent a bilateral fasciotomy to relieve the pressure, which took three months to recover from. As scary as the second operation was, Reagan would not be deterred from pursuing soccer. “I didn’t want it to be someone else’s decision for me,” she said. “So I was like, ‘All right, I’ll throw my name in the portal, I’ll see what happens.’” In July, Reagan narrowed her choices to Florida Atlantic and Loyola. Joe gave her his standard recruiting pitch, and Reagan visited the campus, talking to university president Terrence Sawyer and men’s soccer coach Steve Nichols, whose son, Richie, is a graduate student midfielder for the Greyhounds. “And I talked to a couple girls,” she said. “I was, like, ‘All right, maybe this is more than just the place that my dad works. Maybe this is somewhere I could actually see myself.’” In 15 games including seven starts, Reagan has scored one goal and assisted on another. Joe said he is gratified that Reagan has contributed to Loyola’s overall success, which includes a 3-1-1 start that matched the program’s best opening since 2016. “I’ve really enjoyed coaching this team, and it’s not because my kid’s a piece of that,” he said. “I’ve just really enjoyed coaching this team, and I’m proud of what we’ve done as a team this year. We’ve had some really good moments.” Reagan and Joe said they have also strengthened their relationship. “Some days when I need my dad, I’m like, ‘All right, I need my dad right now. I don’t need my coach,’” Reagan said. “And then other days, I need him to be like, ‘All right, this is what you did during the game or during practice. You need to get better at this.’ So I think it’s been really cool also to see him in a different environment and just being able to balance both.” Said Joe: “I feel like there’s been a greater understanding of each other and a greater appreciation of each other without a whole lot of verbal communication. … I think we both wondered if we could separate church and state in this place, and I’m pretty proud that I think we’ve done a really good job of it.” Reagan has two more years of eligibility remaining. Might she and her father remain together with the Greyhounds? “It could be a long time,” she said with a smile. “I don’t know if it will be, but it could be.”
