Michael Piranian begins his ninth season as the Wilkes men's soccer head coach in 2025.
In 2024, the Colonels finished 4-15-1 overall with a 1-8 record in Landmark Conference play.
The 2023 season marked the Colonels first as a part of the Landmark Conference, finishing with a 1-6-2 record in conference play with a 3-8-5 overall record. Under Piranian's leadership, Nick Kinzler was named to the All-Landmark First Team while Colin Schulmeister was named an All-Landmark Honorable Mention.
In 2022 Piranian coached the Colonels into the MAC Freedom Play-In Game as the fifth seed after finishing the regular season with a 4-3-1 conference record and 7-9-3 overall. Matthew Horwedel was named Third Team All-Region IV by the United Soccer Coaches and First Team All-MAC Freedom. He was joined as first team all-conference by Colin Schulmeister. Nicholas Surgent was named Second Team and Xavier Guerreiro was Honorable Mention.
The 2021 team made the MAC Freedom Tournament for the first time since the 2009 season, playing in the 4/5 game as the fifth seed after finishing the regular season with a 5-3-0 conference record. Piranian coached the Colonels to a 12-7-0 overall record for the program's most wins since the 2006 season. Matthew Horwedel was named First Team All-MAC Freedom and Second Team All-Region IV by the United Soccer Coaches. He was also the Colonels first men's soccer player to be named Academic All-MAC. Lucas Mueller was selected the MAC Freedom Rookie of the Year, Second Team All-MAC Freedom and Third Team All-Region IV by the United Soccer Coaches. Andrew Reichard (Second Team) and Andrew Slusser (Honorable Mention) also made all-conference.
In total, Piranian has mentored 16 all-conference selections and three all-region players in his six seasons.
In Piranian's third season (2019) the Colonels finished with a 9-8-3 record for its first winning season since the 2013 campaign. The team won its ECAC Tournament First Round game and hosted the first two rounds at Bruggeworth Field.
Piranian's 2018 team made the postseason for the first time since 2009 with a berth into the ECAC Tournament.
He has been working with the NCAA as a Regional Advisory Committee member for Region IV since 2022. Piranian has attended a coaching course run by Raymond Verheijen with the World Football Association titled Football Braining in 2018. In 2019, he went to Spain for a coaching course run by Todd Beane and TOVO. Most recently he has added two Performance Analysis certifications run by the United Soccer Coaches in 2021. He also holds his NSCAA Advanced National Diploma, USSF "B" Coaching License.
Piranian came to Wilkes after two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania. Last season he helped lead the Quakers to a 5-6-6 overall mark and 3-3-1 record in the Ivy League including wins over Brown, Yale and Cornell. During his time at Penn, Piranian coached six All-Ivy selections, one NSCAA All-East Region selection as well as drawing the twelfth ranked recruiting class in Division I in 2015. Those Penn teams also earned NSCAA Team Academic Awards for obtaining a 3.0 or higher grade point average.
Prior to Penn, Piranian spent six years as an assistant at Carnegie Melon University from 2008 until 2014. While at Carnegie Mellon, Piranian helped guide the Tartans to four NCAA Tournament appearances, the most recent coming in 2013. In their four trips to the national tournament during Piranian’s tenure, the Tartans won five matches.
In 2013, Piranian and the Tartans reached the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season and finished 2013 ranked No. 18 in the country. That followed a 2012 campaign where Carnegie Mellon won the University Athletic Association (UAA) championship and was ranked as high as No. 4 in the country during the season.
The 2009 team won two NCAA postseason games, set five school records and finished the year as co-champions of the UAA with a 16-3-1 (5-1-1) record. The 2010 team once again won all its non-conference matches and finished with an 11-4-1 mark.
Overall during his six seasons at Carnegie Mellon, Piranian’s teams went 74-25-8 with a 23-14-5 record in the UAA with two UAA Players of the Year, 33 All-UAA selections and 72 All-UAA Academic honorees. The Tartans, ranked as high as No. 2 nationally, had 17 NSCAA All-Region selections and three All-Americans while Piranian was on staff, and 16 student-athletes earned CoSIDA Academic All-America honors – including the first-ever men’s soccer player to repeat Academic All-America of the Year.
Piranian came to Pittsburgh after spending four years as an assistant coach at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. In 2007, the Generals finished with a 12-3-3 overall record and a runner-up finish in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament after posting a 6-1-2 conference mark. During Piranian's tenure as assistant coach, the Generals posted a 39-19-10 record, winning 12 games in both 2006 and 2007.
While at Washington & Lee, Piranian was involved with every facet of maintaining and improving the successful Generals program including recruiting, scouting, planning and running practices and goalkeeper sessions, game-day preparations, scheduling, travel arrangements and video analysis.
Prior to Piranian's coaching start at Washington & Lee, the Lexington, Va., native worked as the Field Management and Special Events Coordinator for the Capital Area Soccer League (CASL) in 2003 and 2004. During this time he organized events for the club, the Atlantic Coast Conference men's and women's soccer tournaments, and NCAA Championships hosted by CASL in Cary, N.C., at the SAS Soccer Complex.
Piranian earned his Bachelor of Science degree in consumer studies from Virginia Tech University in 2002 after four successful years as a defender on the men's soccer team. The Hokies tallied a 43-22-4 record, accumulating double-digit wins in each season.
Piranian completed a master's degree in sports management from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2009.
