From East Stroudsburg University to Team U.S.A., Phil Wheddon has had a hand in coaching some of the best goalkeepers in the world. Now, he gets to do it on the world's biggest soccer stage.

Wheddon was the ESU goalkeepers coach in 1993. From those beginnings, Wheddon advanced his career to the point where he was recently appointed the goalie coach of the United States Men's National team.

The red, white and blue and their coaching staff will depart for Germany later this week to compete in the FIFA World Cup. The tournament, held every four years, pits the top 32 countries in the world against each other for a month-long competition. This year's eventual champion will be crowned on July 9, 2006.

The United States recently completed three friendlies and will open its quest for a World Cup title June 12 vs. the Czech Republic. Games with Italy and Ghana will follow to complete pool play. The Round of 16 begins June 24. The U.S. drew Group E, which has been dubbed by many experts as the "Group of Death" with such strong teams.

"Anyone involved in soccer knows that in group play you have one or two groups known as the ‘Group of Death' where you are pitted against the highest seeds. In our group, we have Czech Republic, ranked second in the world, and Italy, which is consistently among the best in the world. It is a very, very challenging group," Wheddon said. "Our initial goal is to take it game by game and advance from the group stages by being in the top two. To do that, we have to get a result against the Czech Republic, either a win or tie."

Wheddon got his coaching start at ESU and has since gained experience training some of the world's best goalies. Wheddon has worked with Briana Scurry, who led the U.S. women's team to an Olympic gold medal as well as international superstars Kasey Keller and Tim Howard.

Wheddon, a native of Basingstoke, England, came to ESU after receiving his degree in business finance from Crewe and Alsager College in England.

Jerry Sheska, ESU men's head soccer coach, gave Wheddon the opportunity to coach after finding that he was ineligible to play.

"I initially came to ESU to play and was made ineligible," Wheddon said. "Coach Sheska asked if I would be his goalkeeper coach. I was also asked to coach the women's goalkeepers which taught me flexibility and different ways to approach coaching the men's and women's game. What it really did was help me get my career going."

Before becoming the U.S. Men's National Team goalkeeper coach, Wheddon has been the U.S. Women's National Team goalkeeper coach since 2002. He assisted head coach April Heinrichs in the FIFA Women's World Cup and was with the team during the World Cup in 2003 and the Olympics in 2004.

"Coaching the Women's World Cup was unbelievable," Wheddon said. "Then we won gold in the Olympics in 2004 and I thought life could not get any better."

The United States won the gold medal in 2004 at the Olympics in Athens, Greece, site of the original Olympiad.

Then the phone rang early in 2005 and it was Bruce Arena, head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team. Coach Arena asked if Wheddon was interested in coming in to help out with the team. After the first camp, he was asked if he wanted to coach full time.

"This opportunity blew me away," Wheddon said. "You can't plan for these types of things. I think good things happen when you surround yourself with good people."

Wheddon graduated from ESU in 1994 with a degree in physical education and sport management and he has made many valuable stops before joining the U.S. Men's National Team.

First Wheddon was the assistant head coach and goalkeeper coach at Southern Connecticut State University where he trained both the men's and women's goalkeepers. During his three-year stint, he helped the men's team capture Division II national titles in 1998 and 1999.

After gaining additional experience at the collegiate level, Wheddon moved on to Major League Soccer where he was the goalkeeper coach for the then New York/New Jersey MetroStars (now the New York Red Bulls). During his time there he trained several top athletes including Howard, the back up on this year's World Cup team.

Like every coach, Wheddon has his own philosophy on how the game should be played and how he feels players best respond. His philosophy is simple and continues to be very successful.

"I keep training sessions as functional as possible and as closely related to the game as we can," Wheddon said. "We will warm up with simple footwork and handling exercises. The sessions progress from simple to complex and the keepers see shots without defenders or attackers. Then we incorporate balls from the sides and players finishing from varying angles and distances. More attackers and defenders are added so the sessions begin to look like games."

Following his time with the MetroStars, Wheddon went on to coach the Boston Breakers of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) as their top assistant and goalkeeper coach.

"One of the most challenging parts of my job is knowing when to provide feedback and when not to," Wheddon said. "I am dealing with seasoned professionals and sometimes it's acceptable and sometimes it's not. You need to gauge and read the players and see when the best time is to give input."

Wheddon has worked with many top athletes including one of the most internationally experienced players and top goalkeepers in the world in Keller, the starting keeper on the national team. Wheddon also coached Scurry, who led the United States Women to a World Cup championship in 1999 and to two Olympic gold medals and is considered the best U.S. goalkeeper of all time.

"On the men's side, Kasey Keller is the best I have coached, along with Tim Howard. They are very different goalkeepers. Casey is a professional and has been in the professional game for many years. Tim has had tremendous success with Manchester United and has the potential to possibly be the best in the world. On the women's side, I would say Brianna Scurry was the best I have coached."

Wheddon played with Swindon Town and Cambridge United in England. In the U.S. he played with the New York Fever of the A-League. He currently resides in Connecticut with his wife and two children.