CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Anson Dorrance, whose 21 NCAA championships are essentially the most by a head coach in any Division I sport in faculty historical past, is retiring after 45 seasons directing the ladies’s soccer program at North Carolina.
The Tar Heels mentioned Dorrance knowledgeable athletic director Bubba Cunningham of his plans Friday and informed the group Sunday, 4 days earlier than its season opener at Denver.
Dorrance additionally overlapped as each the lads’s and ladies’s coach early in his profession, however his biggest success was with the ladies.
Affiliate head coach Damon Nahas will function interim girls’s coach this season. Cunningham plans to conduct a seek for a brand new coach.
“As many of you know I modeled our program after Dean Smith’s basketball program, and retiring at this time is a credit to his thinking, as well,” Dorrance mentioned in a press release. “He would re-evaluate his tenure, not after the season, but after he had time to re-charge his batteries prior to the next season. When he didn’t, he retired.”
Dorrance mentioned he was excited heading into the season, however got here to the conclusion he didn’t have the power to provide 100% to the job.
Dorrance, 73, is likely one of the most profitable coaches in faculty athletics.
The Tar Heels’ first and solely girls’s soccer head coach, Dorrance led UNC to a 934-88-53 file over 45 seasons (1979-2023). He additionally was males’s coach from 1977 to ’88, successful 172 video games and guiding UNC to an ACC title and NCAA Remaining 4 berth in 1987.
“Anson is an all-time soccer, coaching and Tar Heel legend,” Cunningham mentioned. “The numbers and accomplishments are staggering and will be hard for any coach or program to replicate or exceed. His impact on the development and growth of women’s sports across the country and around the world has been profound.”
North Carolina girls’s soccer has gained 22 nationwide championships (AIAW in 1981 and 21 NCAA titles) and performed in six different nationwide championship video games.
The 934 wins, 21 NCAA titles and 147 NCAA match wins are all essentially the most in girls’s soccer historical past. The Tar Heels enter the 2024 season having been ranked 513 consecutive weeks.
“It is no exaggeration to say Anson Dorrance is one of the greatest collegiate coaches of all time, in any sport,” UNC chancellor Lee Roberts mentioned. “He has trained many of the best players in the history of U.S. women’s soccer and has led our program through decades of unparalleled success.”
Dorrance’s profession was blemished when former Tar Heels gamers Melissa Jennings and Debbie Keller, a nationwide participant of the 12 months, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in August 1998. They claimed Dorrance created an uncomfortable setting by asking gamers about their sexual exercise.
Dorrance denied harassing his gamers, however in an apology letter despatched he acknowledged taking part in banter of a “jesting or teasing nature” with teams of gamers. The case was finally settled in 2008.
A seven-time nationwide coach of the 12 months, Dorrance is a member of the Nationwide Soccer Corridor of Fame. He’s the profession Division I chief for NCAA championships by a coach in any sport. Al Scates (UCLA males’s volleyball) and John McDonnell (Arkansas males’s indoor observe and subject) are tied for second with 19.
North Carolina girls’s soccer has gained extra NCAA championships than some other girls’s group. Stanford girls’s tennis is second with 20. UNC’s 21 NCAA championships are tied for the fifth most by any program in Division I historical past.
Dorrance led the Tar Heels to 5 excellent seasons (unbeaten and untied) and 6 different seasons with no losses and three or fewer ties. He coached 19 gamers who gained nationwide participant of the 12 months awards, together with three-time honoree Cindy Parlow (Cone), the present president of U.S. Soccer, and Mia Hamm, who was named the ACC’s Best Feminine Athlete within the league’s first 50 years.
I owe a lot to @dorrance_anson , @uncwomenssoccer and @UNC for making me into the participant and particular person I’m immediately. Congrats on a legendary profession Anson! Benefit from the stroll. https://t.co/BbzJLnb1Wx
— Mia Hamm (@MiaHamm) August 11, 2024
Dorrance was the top coach of the U.S. nationwide group from 1986 to ’94, main it to the title within the inaugural Ladies’s World Cup in China in 1991.
