KINGSTON, R.I. - Rhode Island men's soccer head coach Gareth Elliott announced that Giovani Riello has joined the staff as the team's goalkeepers coach.

Riello comes to Rhode Island from Southern New Hampshire, where he spent the 2022 season. While there, he trained the goalkeepers and helped Southern New Hampshire reach the semifinals of the Northeast 10 Championship in his lone year.

"I'm delighted to welcome Giovani to our men's soccer staff," Elliott said. "His passion for the game is evident and he has had a tremendous amount of experience at many different levels of the college game.  I look forward to his positive impact on our program."

From May of 2020 through June of 2022, Riello coached at New England College, where he was part of the 2020-21 United Soccer Coaches Regional Staff of the Year. In 2021, the team won the New England Collegiate Conference title and qualified for the Division III NCAA Championship. While at NEC, Riello was responsible for designing and running daily training sessions, purchasing equipment and apparel, alumni planning and fundraising, monitoring academics and social media. For the final three months he was at NEC, Riello was the program's interim head coach.

Since June of 2020, Riello has been involved with multiple Olympic Development Programs throughout New England. He has served as the head coach for the U-17 in New Hampshire. In addition, he was an assistant coach and goalkeepers coach for the boys and girls teams at Putnam Science in Putnam, Conn. from May 2019 until May 2020.

In 2018, Riello coached at Post University and helped develop five all-conference selections, including the CACC Player of the Year as well as the conference tournament's All-Tournament goalkeeper. That season, Post won the CACC title and reached the NCAA Championship.

Riello played collegiately at the University of New Hampshire (2013-14) and Post University (2016-17). At New Hampshire, he started six matches as a freshman and had a 4-2 record with three shutouts. While at Post, Riello started 17 matches and had six shutouts.