Martyn Keen
Martyn Keen
Title: Goalkeepers Coach
Email: mkeen@sjcme.edu
Year: 4th Season

Martyn Keen is a native of North Wales in the United Kingdom, where he enjoyed success playing in the Welsh Football League system before turning out for and earning his bachelor’s in Education Studies from Staffordshire University in England.

He moved to the United States in 1993, where he settled in Cape Elizabeth and resumed both his teaching and coaching careers. He has coached extensively throughout the region at all levels and has been a full time employee of Seacoast United Soccer Club since 2010. His primary role at Seacoast currently is as the Director of Goalkeeping.

Keen has a regionally unrivalled reputation for producing top quality goalkeepers with more than 100 of his players making it to the collegiate ranks. This includes 26 at the Division 1 level including at some esteemed programs such as Duke, Virginia, Stanford, Boston College and Northeastern. Indeed, current Saint Joseph’s Head Coach Will Pike was one of Keen’s D1 protégées, playing at Mount St Mary’s for two years before transferring to SJC in 2008.

Martyn has his master’s degree in Sports Science and he has been professionally certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Council for Exercise and the Health Education & Training Institute. As his players can readily confirm, Keen has a passion for health, fitness and wellness and he regularly challenges them to strive for excellence when he leads them in their workouts. 

Keen can draw on some great life lessons to bring experience to the coaching staff at St Joe's. Twice he has survived devastating life threatening incidents, most recently following a battle with Stage lll Esophageal cancer in 2016. “I believe I grew more as a man during those experiences than at any other phase of my life,” says Keen. “Now, I regularly reflect on those times to stay positive, to motivate and to inspire others. As a coach of young people those are great things to be able to call upon.”

“I am extremely excited to work with Will and his staff at St. Joe’s, the program is in a great place and now our challenge is to maintain and then build on these strong foundations. I am grateful and thankful for the opportunity.”