UNC womens soccer coach Anson Dorrance signs extension through 2028: What it means for the progra

May 26, 2024

North Carolina signed women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance to a five-year contract extension that runs through the 2028 season, the school announced Monday. Here’s what you need to know:

Dorrance is the winningest coach in women’s college soccer history, compiling a 921-86-46 in 44 seasons with the program.
The National Soccer Hall of Famer has led the Tar Heels to 22 national titles and coached 19 different players to National Player of the Year honors. He also guided the U.S. women’s national team to a World Cup title in 1991.
UNC went 20-5-1 last season and fell to UCLA in overtime in the national title game.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Just how good a coach is Dorrance?

To stick around at a place for 44 seasons (and counting), you have to be doing something right, or really, multiple somethings. Dorrance definitely qualifies, though. All the 72-year-old has done is turn North Carolina into the gold standard for women’s college soccer success, to the tune of 22 national championships — including one before the founding of the NCAA, for further context on his longevity — and 19 different stars winning National Player of the Year honors, including legends like Mia Hamm and Cindy Parlow. In total? Dorrance has won more games (921) than any other coach in women’s college soccer history, and it’s not like those stats are frontloaded, either; the Tar Heels won a share of their 25th regular-season ACC title last year, in addition to making the conference and national championship games. It’s a simply and utterly unreal stretch of sustained success. — Marks

What Dorrance’s extension means for Tar Heels

Dorrance’s extension comes at a similar time as several other UNC coaches — all of whom signed like-structured deals from athletic director Bubba Cunningham — but his is especially interesting. Dorrance isn’t just the best women’s coach in program or NCAA history; he’s the only coach UNC women’s soccer has ever had, dating back to his helping found the program in the 1980s.

But at 72 years old and with some semblance of slippage in recent seasons — the program hasn’t won the national championship since 2012, easily the longest “dry spell” of Dorrance’s tenure — it’s only natural to wonder if Dorrance was getting closer to calling it a career. Having lost in overtime of last season’s national title shows that the Tar Heels are definitely still relevant and contending, but parity across the sport has led to less dominance of late than earlier in Dorrance’s tenure.

Still, this extension will carry Dorrance through his age-77 season, and it’s hard to imagine anyone — even someone as wholly dedicated and absorbed as Dorrance is — coaching past then. It’s feasible, of course, and maybe Dorrance wants an even 50 years running the program, but this feels like something of a natural wind down for the Hall of Famer. — Marks

What they’re saying

“Anson Dorrance is a legendary leader not only of our women’s soccer program, but also within our Department and University,” UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said in a release Monday. “He is a teacher and mentor who has long been committed to excellence, innovation and to creating the next generation of leaders in and outside of sports. He is a champion, and we are pleased that we will continue to be able to cheer his teams to more championships in the years to come.”

(Photo: Andy Mead / ISI Photos / Getty Images)

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