[6] In 1993, Mount St. Mary's University hired Mettrick as an assistant to the men's soccer team.
[7] In 2000, Loyola College in Maryland hired Mettrick as its head soccer coach, replacing the veteran Bill Sento, who had been at the helm for two decades.
In 2000, he took advantage of a team that was largely intact from the 1999 season, adding only Scottish central defender Niall Lepper to the starting lineup, and led Loyola to its first national ranking since 1997.
Despite a slow start in 2001 after a loss and a tie in a season-opening tournament in California, Loyola went onto a 19-game unbeaten streak before losing to Saint Louis in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division I Tournament, relying primarily on the strength of its defense led by Lepper and three-time regional All-America goalkeeper Reb Beatty.
Further complicating matters was the loss of Beatty and Lepper – Loyola's two best players – due to graduation.
[9] Under pressure to turn things around, Mettrick took the best pieces of his 2006 team and added several new recruits, leading to an incredible change of fortune.
[10] The Greyhounds reached the NCAA College Cup for a school Division I record third-straight season[11] in 2009.