Lyon College

Lyon College Athletics
 2300 Highland Road Batesville, AR 72501
Division 3 Arkansas South
Private Very Small National competitor
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Coaches

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Emanuel Santos

Coach Santos enters his third season in charge of the men’s soccer program, with an overall record of 14-19-4, as Lyon enters its final exploratory year of its transition from NAIA to NCAA Division III.


Originally from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Santos landed at Lyon in the Fall of 2018, as a transfer student athlete from Jacksonville College, in Jacksonville, Texas. In two years defending the Scots, he appeared in all 39 possible games, making 34 starts, with 13 goals and 16 assists, He helped the team to reach the AMC championship game in both 2018 and 2019, and to an NAIA national tournament appearance in 2019 as one of the team captains. He earned AMC first team all conference honors in both 2018 and 2019, also being selected to the Academic All-District Team By CoSIDA in 2019. Coach Santos also has a background playing in semi professional summer leagues in the U.S, with a stint at NPSL side Tyler FC in 2018, and two stints with USL 2 side Kalamazoo FC, in 2019 and 2021, when he was part of the team that won the Great Lakes division, and reached the final eight of the national tournament.


In 2020, Santos graduated from Lyon with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a minor in physical education, with honors. He immediately became part of the previous coaching staff led by David Groves, taking a volunteer position. In two years as an assistant, he helped the program to a 22-9-3 record. In 2021, the Scots were both AMC regular conference and tournament champions, winning its first ever game in the NAIA National tournament, and finishing the season ranked 19th in the country. In May of 2022, with the departure of the previous staff, Santos was named the seventh Scots head men’s soccer coach. Other coaching experiences include a stint with FC Dallas Searcy Youth, and most recently, a return to USL 2 side Kalamazoo FC in the summer of 2023 as an assistant coach, a position that he currently holds as well. Coach Santos resides in Batesville with his wife Kelcey.

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Robert Pope

Lyon College Athletics is pleased to announce that Robert Pope will be the next Lyon College Scots men’s soccer assistant coach for the 2024 season.


Pope attended the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas from 2015 to 2017 and played a total of 40 matches for the men's soccer team, with 30 starts and four assists.


In March of 2018, he joined the United States Air Force as Security Forces and was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base. Pope was deployed in June of 2020 to Qatar for six months. He completed his four-year commitment and was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant in March of 2022.


Pope went back to the University of the Ozarks for the fall 2022 semester to finish school and was a volunteer assistant coach for the men's soccer team for the 2022 and 2023 fall and spring seasons while being a full-time student. He graduated, with honors, in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in psychology with minors in philosophy and sociology.


"I am very excited to officially start my coaching career at Lyon College,” Pope said. “I am grateful that I can be a part of this program and have the opportunity to continue to add to its successful history."

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