University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Women's Track

Dorrance, a 1974 Tar Heel alumnus, debuted as the Carolina mens soccer coach in September of 1977 and then added duties as head coach and founder of the UNC womens program in September of 1979. A former U.S. Womens National Team head coach and current University of North Carolina head womens soccer coach, Anson Dorrance was named the 2016 winner of the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award from United States Soccer on January 29, 2016. As U.S. Soccers highest honor, the Werner Fricker Builder Award is given to an individual or group of individuals who have dedicated at least 20 years of service to the sport, working to establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States. The award recognizes those who have developed programs that will outlast their own involvement in the sport. When Dorrance was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008, it marked one more milestone moment in the career of a man whose coaching prowess became legendary at a young age.  Because Dorrance has not yet retired from his coaching career, he was only eligible for election to the Hall of Fame on the Builders of the Game ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility. Like fine wine with age the coaching career of Anson Dorrance only gets better. It was just a year ago in 2015 when Tar Heel soccer stayed in the international news as nine University of North Carolina standouts competed in the FIFA Womens World Cup.  Six former UNC players helped the U.S. win its first title since 1999, including starters Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.  Tar Heel Lucy Bronze led England to its best ever World Cup finish as it gained a bronze medal. Winning Championships In 2012, Dorrance led the Tar Heels against one of the best College Cup fields in history as North Carolina won its 22nd overall national title and its 21st NCAA crown.  When UNC won the NCAA crown in 2009, Dorrance became the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 championships coaching a single sport. Head coach of the Carolina womens soccer program since its inception in 1979, Dorrance has built and guided a well-oiled winning machine.  Under his direction, the Tar Heels have collected national and conference championships at a stupendous rate, compiled an overall record staggering in its numerical verity, established records likely never to be approached and procured the esteem befitting a dynasty. At an institution familiar with such incomparable achievement, especially with regard to its storied basketball program, it might be possible to think that Dorrances accomplishments could somehow fade to the background.  But what he has done at UNC is simply impossible to ignore. Thus, when an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of the Best Coaches of the Past Quarter Century on July 28, 2004 coincidentally headed at the No. 1 spot by the late legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith it came as no big surprise that another deserving Tar Heel mentor made the list.  That Dorrance was one of only two coaches in the prestigious collection to coach an Olympic sport on the collegiate level speaks even louder about his recognized greatness. More recently, Beckett Entertainment released a magazine in which it named the Top 30 Sports Dynasties of all-time.  UNCs womens soccer program success from 1982-2000 was rated the sixth best dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, the 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA mens basketball, the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and the 1953-60 Montreal Canadiens.  Of the Top 30 programs named only four involved collegiate programs. As Dorrance prepares to begin his 38th season as the head coach at Carolina in the fall of 2016, some folks must be wondering if there is anything left to be accomplished.  Chances are excellent that Dorrance will find something. Praise From Coach Smith It is said that greatness recognizes fellow greatness.   Perhaps there is no better example of that than the quote Dean Smith gave Football News Magazine in 1997.  Smith was asked by Football News about Carolinas preseason No. 1 ranking in football and what it was like for some sport other than basketball to be ranked No. 1. Coach Smiths reply  This is a womens soccer school.  Were just trying to keep up with them.  Coach Smiths clever retort was his way of giving Dorrance his due. From the person who was then the winningest head coach of all-time in one sport to the winningest head coach of all-time in another sport, the comment struck Dorrance as the ultimate honor.  As Dorrance has said, So much of what we have tried to do in our program is modeled after what Dean Smith accomplished.  To have our program compared favorably to his by the man himself was enormously humbling. Similarly, Dorrances immense loyalty to Carolina mirrors the loyalty Smith possessed for his adopted school.  In 1994, when Dorrance decided not to continue his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team, the choice perplexed many. Some thought he relinquished the honor in order to avoid the pressure that comes with being the leader of what was then the defending World Cup championship squad.  But Dorrances decision had everything to do with allegiance to his alma mater. The glory that came with coaching the U.S. to the championship in the first-ever Womens World Cup in 1991 was not enough to pull Dorrance away from his true professional love working full-time with the Tar Heels.  He wanted to increase the level of excellence that soccer fans had come to expect from the record-shattering program he had molded from scratch.  To do that Dorrance knew he would have to dedicate all of his coaching energy to the University.  With more elite-level players emerging from high school and club teams than ever before, the playing field in the college game was leveling out; Dorrance knew that for UNC to remain at the top, he would have to throw himself into the process with renewed vigor. College programs like ours require a lot of work, says Dorrance.  At that point in time we had been surviving by just doing the minimum amount of work. We certainly couldnt continue to be successful by doing just the minimum.  We needed the extra time to stay competitive in an increasingly tough college game. A prime example of what Dorrance meant about a leveling playing field is the fact UNC has captured only seven of the past 18 NCAA championships from 1998-2015 when compared to the era from 1981 through 1997 when Carolina dominated the competition, winning 15 of 17 collegiate titles.   Simply Staggering Numbers It is difficult to comprehend Dorrance taking Carolinas womens program to any greater heights than what it has already achieved.  Yet, for a program consumed with striving for excellence, a national championship every season remains the goal, pure and simple. It is this relentless attitude that has helped the Tar Heels win a mind-blowing 22 of the 35 national championships that have been decided in the history of collegiate womens soccer.  Only two other schools in the country have won as many as two titles Portland in 2002 and 2005 and Notre Dame in 1995, 2004 and 2010.  Eight other schools have won one each George Mason (1985), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001), USC (2007), Stanford (2011), UCLA (2013), Florida State (2014) and Penn State (2015). Carolina has also captured 20 of the 28 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships since the sport was given title status by the league in 1988.  Carolinas all-time record in ACC Tournament play is 59-5-4 and the first loss did not come until 2011.  UNCalso won the initial 1987 ACCtitle when it was held in a round-robin format at the end of the regular season to determine the champion.  All told, the Tar Heels are 792-63-32 in the 37-year history of the program, a winning percentage of .911. When Carolina decided to make womens soccer a varsity sport in 1979, Dorrance became a two-sport head coach as he was already in his third year coaching the mens team at Carolina.  Dorrances brilliance at coaching women manifested itself almost immediately as it took just three years before the Tar Heels won a national championship, capturing the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title. Beginning with that championship, the Tar Heels have won 62.9 percent of the titles ever decided in the sport. Carolina went on to claim three national titles in a row after the NCAA began sponsorship of the sport in the fall of 1982. UNCnetted NCAA championship game wins in 1982 over UCF, in 1983 over George Mason and in 1984 over Connecticut.  The Tar Heels made it to the NCAA title game in 1985, but lost to George Mason 2-0 on the Patriots home field the first of only 10 losses in NCAATournament play for Carolina to go along with 120 wins and three ties. That loss to George Mason, remarkably, was the last time the Tar Heels lost any game in the decade of the 1980s.  Beginning with the season opener in 1986 and continuing into the 1990 season, Dorrances Tar Heels won 97 games and tied six matches over a stretch of 103 contests.  In 1986, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the finals at Fairfax, Va.  A year later, the Tar Heels downed Massachusetts 1-0 on the Minutewomens home field in the title game.  The 1988 campaign saw the Tar Heels defeat NC State 4-1 in the title game in Chapel Hill.  A year later, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the championship contest at Raleigh, N.C. During this era, the ACC also began championship competition with UNC winning the inaugural title in 1987 in a round robin format.  NC State claimed the 1988 title on a penalty kick shootout against the Tar Heels but Carolina regained the title in 1989 and has won all but seven conference tournament championships since then. Connecticut snapped a 103-match UNC unbeaten streak that had started in 1986 by defeating the Tar Heels 3-2 in overtime at Storrs, Conn. on September 22, 1990.  The Tar Heels rebounded from that lone defeat to win their fifth straight NCAA crown in 1990, avenging the only blemish on their season by beating the Huskies in the final game 6-0 in Chapel Hill. National Team Duties Along the way, Dorrances love of a challenge prompted him to take the coaching job for the U.S. Womens National Team just a year into its existence in 1986.  In a short time, Dorrance took the National Team to the vertex of the worlds most popular sport.  On November 30, 1991, Dorrance led the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Norway to claim the initial World Cup championship.  The win came just six days after assistant coach Bill Palladino, acting as interim head coach, led UNCto a 3-1 NCAA title game win over Wisconsin for Carolinas sixth NCAA title in a row. Dorrance was the architect of the World Cup triumph, a win tinged with a Carolina Blue hue.  Not only was Dorrance coaching the U.S. team, but nine of the 18 players competed collegiately at North Carolina and his assistant coach was former UNC player Lauren Gregg. The next year, Dorrance assembled what many soccer observers have labeled the best college soccer team in history.  That edition of the Tar Heels finished the season undefeated (25-0), claimed the ACC championship for the fourth straight year and won the NCAA title for the seventh consecutive time.  Carolinas 9-1 NCAA championship game victory over Duke was as thorough as the final score would lead one to believe and was a nonpareil way for the Heels to finish the year. In 1993, UNC won the NCAA championship with an unsullied record of 23-0.  The Tar Heels whitewashed George Mason 6-0 before what was then a collegiate womens soccer record crowd of 5,721 fans at Fetzer Field.  Mia Hamm capped her brilliant career at Carolina that day and went on to win unanimous national player of the year honors for the second year in a row. 92 Wins in a Row Amongst all the coaching jobs that Dorrance has done during his career, the one that culminated in the 1994 NCAA championship may be the most impressive.  Dorrance was able to rally the Tar Heels after arch-rival Duke ended a 101-game unbeaten streak by beating Carolina 3-2 on October 19, 1994.  The loss came 17 days after Notre Dame had snapped a 92-game Carolina winning streak by playing the Heels to a scoreless tie. UNC ran the table after the loss to Duke and NCAA Tournament wins over NC State, Duke, Connecticut and Notre Dame added a 13th national title to Dorrances coaching resume.  Tar Heel midfielder Tisha Venturini was selected as the 1994 National Player of the Year, marking the seventh straight season in which the national player of the year came from the ranks of Carolina players. The 1994 season presaged a sea change in the college game.  With the proliferation of available talent and the vast increase in the number of college programs, parity was quickly becoming a part of the womens game.  While the Tar Heels still led the way in terms of consistent excellence, one of the big news stories of 1995 was the fact Carolina failed to win the national title in womens soccer for the first time in 10 years.  The Tar Heels, seeded No. 1 in the NCAA bracket with a 25-0 mark, were upset by Notre Dame 1-0 in the 1995 NCAA semifinals. Relinquishing the title to Notre Dame in 1995 only fueled the teams competitive fire the next season.  Dorrance took a team that returned nine starters and molded it into another victorious unit by seasons end.  In the ninth game of the season, Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 2-1 in overtime and became the first college team to beat UNCin successive meetings.  Carolina regrouped and the Tar Heels whipped William & Mary, James Madison and Florida in the opening three rounds of the NCAA tourney before defeating Santa Clara 2-1 on its home field in the semifinals.  Two days later UNC proved it was still at the acme of womens college soccer, beating defending champion Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime to claim the 1996 crown. A Dynamite Defense in 1997 Dorrance turned in another magnificent coaching job as the Tar Heels wound up in the winners circle again in 1997.  Honored by Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times as the national coach of the year, Dorrance spearheaded a Carolina campaign that resulted in a 27-0-1 record.  The 27 victories were an NCAA record and UNC tied its own NCAA record by shutting out 22 opponents during the campaign. After seeing the 1998 NCAA title elude the Tar Heels, Carolina fans were able to find solace in the performance of the U.S. team which competed in the 1999 Womens World Cup.  The 20-person roster featured eight Tar Heel players Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Tracy Noonan, Lorrie Fair and Tiffany Roberts and UNCalumna Lauren Gregg as a U.S. assistant coach.  The Tar Heel-laden composition of the World Cup Team, which reclaimed the championship it had relinquished in 1995, once again stood as a testament to the indelible contributions Dorrance has made to U.S. soccer. Back-To-Back National Championships Basking in the glow of a World Cup title featuring so many ties to the program, Carolinas collegiate dominance seemed to be in doubt when just eight games into the 1999 season the Tar Heels sported a 6-2 record.  The two losses were the most in a season since 1985.  But Dorrance led Carolina to 18 wins in a row and another NCAA championship.  Lorrie Fair earned national player of the year accolades, but in many regards the 1999 team was a squad without star presence, just incredible unity of purpose. A year later, the 2000 Carolina team suffered the programs most losses in a season in 20 years but again won ACC and NCAA titles.  Three times in six NCAA Tournament games, Carolina trailed its opponent 1-0 midway through the second half.  All three times, the Tar Heels came from behind to win 2-1 in regulation time en route to another national title. After a two-year hiatus from the awards stand, UNC reclaimed the NCAA title in 2003 with its most dominant team in a decade.  Carolina became the first team since the Tar Heels of 1993 to go undefeated and untied, finishing with a perfect 27-0 mark while winning its 15th straight ACC title and its 18th national championship.  Led by co-national players of the year Lindsay Tarpley and Catherine Reddick, Carolina outscored its opponents 132-11, including an amazing 32-0 margin in six NCAA Tournament matches. Another Quartet of National Titles In 2006, Dorrance turned in one of the best coaching jobs of his career in piloting UNC to its 19th national championship.  He was the unanimous choice as the national coach of the year after leading Carolina to a 27-1 balance sheet.  The Tar Heels accomplished these heroics while starting six freshmen for most of the season.  In fact, seven freshmen took the field for the start of the second half of UNCs 2-1 NCAA championship game win over Notre Dame.   In 2008, UNCcaptured its 20th national championship with a team that started 4-1-1 but went 21-0-1 in its final 22 matches.  Led by national player of the year Casey Nogueira, who led the nation in scoring with 25 goals, Carolina defeated two unbeaten teams in the College Cup, downing UCLA 1-0 and Notre Dame 2-1, to win the NCAA title.  Nogueira scored two second-half goals to rally UNC past the Fighting Irish in the final game. A year later, the Tar Heels turned in one of the best defensive efforts in school history en route to a 21st national crown.  Senior defender Whitney Engen was a National Player of the Year honoree and the defensive MVP of the ACC and she led a team that allowed only 12 goals and posted 19 shutouts. Carolina allowed only two goals in the final 11 games of the season as the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament hardware over Florida State 3-0 and the NCAA Tournament title over Stanford 1-0. Carolina won the most unlikely of its 22 national crowns in 2012 after finishing the regular season with a mundane 10-5-2 ledger.  But the Heels caught fire in the post-season, winning three overtime games and downing regional No. 1 seeds in each of the last three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  Crystal Dunn was the consensus National Player of the Year and the winner of the ACCs Top Female athlete accolade for 2012-13 while Amber Brooks took home player of the season accolades from Top Drawer Soccer. Dorrances Start In Coaching Ironically, Dorrances career plans did not originally include coaching a womens team.  He began his coaching career at Carolina as the designated head coach for the mens team in 1976 during Marvin Allens last year as head coach.  He took over as mens coach the following year and served for 12 years in that role, posting a 172-65-21 record.  His team won the ACC Tournament championship in 1987.  He took the Tar Heels to the 1987 NCAA College Cup semifinals and the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.  Dorrances .708 winning percentage is second amongst Carolinas mens soccer coaches all-time and his 172 wins rank third in school history behind Elmar Bolowich, whom Dorrance brought to Carolina as an assistant mens coach in 1987, and Dr. Marvin Allen, the founder of the program in 1947, and the man who coached Dorrance at Carolina. Since being named the womens head coach in 1979, Carolina has a 777-58-31 record under Dorrance and only nine times in 36 years have the Tar Heels lost more than two games in a single season.  The Tar Heels 21 NCAA crowns are more than any other womens NCAA Division I sports program in the history (Stanford womens tennis is second with 17), and the 22 national championships overall are more than any single sports program in ACC history, mens or womens. A Host of National Players of the Year Over the years, 19 different Tar Heels have been named national players of the year under Dorrances direction April Heinrichs in 1984 and 1986, Shannon Higgins in 1988 and 1989, Kristine Lilly in 1990 and 1991, Mia Hamm in 1992 and 1993, Tisha Venturini in 1994, Debbie Keller in 1995 and 1996, Staci Wilson in 1995, Cindy Parlow in 1996, 1997 and 1998, Robin Confer in 1997, Lorrie Fair in 1999, Meredith Florance in 2000, Lindsay Tarpley in 2003, Catherine Reddick in 2003, Heather OReilly in 2006, Yael Averbuch in 2006, Casey Nogueira in 2008, Whitney Engen in 2009 and Crystal Dunn and Amber Brooks in 2012. Coach of the Year Honors Galore Dorrance has been named national coach of the year for coaching both women and men.  He earned womens national honors in 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 and he was named mens national coach of the year in 1987. Dorrance has been named the Southeast Region coach of the year in 1989, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008.  In 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, he was named the ACC Womens Soccer Coach of the Year. In 1996, Dorrance received the highest honor possible from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America when he won the Walt Chyzowych Award for lifetime coaching achievement.  In 2007, he won the Bill Jeffrey Award from the NSCAA for raising intercollegiate soccer to new heights through his long-term dedication to the game.  In 2011, the NSCAA accorded him its prestigious NSCAA Honor Award. Honors from His Peers Dorrance was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988, Carolinas highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another cherished honor when the athletic department designated him a Priceless Gem.  This honor is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. In 1995, Dorrances program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, Dynasty.  The movie focused in particular on the Tar Heels amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994, and it included in-depth interviews with both current and former Tar Heel players.  Another documentary about the UNCprogram, Winning Isnt Everything, was released in DVD format following the 2007 season. In the fall of 2003, Sports Illustrated On Campus magazine named UNCs womens soccer program as the greatest college dynasty of all-time. Dorrance has also coauthored two books.  He combined with Tim Nash to write Training Soccer Champions in 1996.  It sold out in its first printing and did equally well in its second press run.  Dorrance also co-authored the award-winning The Vision of a Champion with Gloria Averbuch.  It was published in 2003 and almost immediately went to second and third printings.  In 2006, The Man Watching by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers debuted to smashing reviews and amazing sales success. Following the U.S. victory in the Womens World Cup in 1991, Dorrance received an Honorary All-America Award, one of the most prestigious of its kind, from the NSCAA. In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer during the previous two decades.  Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer.  Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only womens coach tapped. In 2002, Dorrance was selected for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, joining his mentor, Dr. Marvin Allen, who was in the initial class inducted into the Hall.  More accolades were bestowed on Dorrance with his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, 2005 and to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008. Dorrance In His College Years A 1974 University of North Carolina graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy, Dorrance originally enrolled at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent one semester studying and playing soccer. He then transferred to Carolina to play for Marvin Allen. Dorrances natural gifts on the pitch led to his selection to the All-ACC Team three times as an undergraduate and he won All-South Regionhonors in 1973.  He was named in 2002 as one of the Top 50 mens soccer players in ACC history.  He was also one of the top intramural sports performers on the Carolina campus during his days as an undergraduate. Dorrance has an A level coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He was a charter member of the NCAA Womens Soccer Committee and he also served as the womens chairman of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America.  He is the former chairman of the NCAA Mens and Womens Soccer Rules Committee and one of the few coaches in the country to qualify as a national staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.  He formerly was involved in training coaches and awarding coaching licenses as part of the NSCAA Coaching Academy.  In the summer of 2003, he was named to the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrances summer soccer camps for women are the most popular in the nation.  The camps sell out well in advance.  Dorrance has even hosted a version of the famous camp in England. The Dorrance Family Albert Anson Dorrance, IV, was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and he is married to MLiss Gary Dorrance.  The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in August 2016. MLiss Dorrance is a former professional ballet dancer who teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, which she cofounded in 1980. When MLiss is not watching soccer games on the weekends she is rehearsing her choreography for Chapel Hill Dance Theatre productions. The Dorrances have three grown children. Michelle, a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, is an internationally renowned multi-award winning rhythm tap dancer residing in New York City where she is on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and director/founder of Dorrance Dance/NY.  Dorrance Dance was presented in the fall of 2014 by Carolina Performing Arts at Memorial Hall as part of their 10th anniversary season.  Dorrance Dance returns to the Carolina Performing Arts series in Chapel Hill in September 2016. Natalie Dorrance Harris, a UNCgraduate, is a part-time librarian and helps administrate the North Carolina Girls Soccer Camp team camps, amongst the most popular youth camps in America.  She and attorney husband David Harris, a University of North Carolinalaw school graduate, are the proud parents of Finley Dorrance Harris.  The Dorrance familys first grandchild was born in April 2009. Donovan Dorrance, a 2013 UNC graduate with a B.A. in philosophy, is currently working for his sister Michelle as an assistant to the director, media controller and musician of Dorrance Dance/NY. Dorrances soccer origins stem from his youth when he lived overseas.  He resided in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland while growing up.  His family moved all around the world following his fathers assignments as an international businessman.  Additional members of the Dorrance clan residing in Chapel Hill include his brother Pete, a co-owner of six prominent Triangle area restaurants, and Petes wife Dolly Hunter, a former UNC head field hockey and softball coach.  Carolinas biggest soccer fan, Anson Dorrances mother Peggy, passed away at the age of 87 in October 2014 and has been sorely missed in the Fetzer Field stands over the past two Carolina womens soccer campaigns. DORRANCE DATA Head Coach Anson Dorrance is now in his 38th season as the Tar Heels head mentor.  His teams have an all-time record of 792-63-32 (.911).  Under Anson Dorrance, UNChas won 22 national championships, including 21 NCAA crowns and one AIAWtitle, 21 regular-season ACC titles and 20 ACCTournament championships.  During his tenure, Dorrances teams are 185-24-7 in ACCregular-season games, 59-5-4 in ACCTournament matches and 121-11-3 in NCAATournament games.  UNC is 339-26-11 in home games in its history and 453-37-21 in games played on the road and at neutral sites.  Under Dorrance, UNC has won 91.1 percent of its games overall, 87.3 percent of its ACC regular-season games, 89.7 percent of its ACC Tournament games, 90.7 percent of its NCAA Tournament games, 91.6 percent of its home games and 90.7 percent of its road and neutral site games. In the programs 37-year history, totaling 887 games, Carolina has shut out opponents 555 times and has been held scoreless in just 46 games. Carolinas National Team Coaching Connections Anson Dorrance, 73, was the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team from 1986-94.  He was the head coach of the 1991 World Cup Team which won the gold medal. Lauren Gregg, 83, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1987-99.  She was an assistant coach at the 1991 World Cup (gold), 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold) and 1999 World Cup (gold). April Heinrichs, 87, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1995-2000 and the head coach from 2000-05.  She served on staffs for the 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold), 1999 World Cup (gold), 2000 Olympics (silver), 2003 World Cup (bronze) and 2004 Olympics (gold). Bill Palladino, 72, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 2002-03.  He served on the staff which won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Cup. Marcia McDermott, 87, was an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team.  She served on the staff which won the silver medal at the 2011 World Cup and captured gold at the 2012 Olympics. Carolinas Influences On The Game Current and former UNCplayers have been staples on World Cup rosters as both players and coaches.  The 1991 U.S. World Cup roster featured nine players and two coaches; the 1995 U.S. World Cup roster featured seven players and two coaches; the 1999 U.S. World Cup roster featured eight players and one coach; the 2003 U.S. World Cup roster featured six players and two coaches; the 2007 U.S. World Cup roster featured five players as well as one former player being on the Canadian roster; the 2011 U.S. World Cup roster featured two U.S. players and one coach and there was one player on the Canadian roster.  In the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup, six former Tar Heels played on the U.S. Team which won gold while other Tar Heels competed for England, Canada and New Zealand. Olympic Team rosters have also been filled with Tar Heel coaches and players.  The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team included seven players and two coaches; the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team included six players and two coaches; the 2004 U.S. team included six players and two coaches; in the 2008 Olympic Games four players competed on the U.S. squad and one player was on the Canadian roster; in 2012, two Tar Heels competed for the U.S. and one for Canada; while in 2016, five former Tar Heels played for the U.S. and one for New Zealand. 55 Carolina players have earned caps with the United States National Team since its founding in 1985. North Carolina featured the largest alumnae class of players drafted by teams for the inaugural season of Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009 with 13. Four Tar Heels played on WPS champion Sky Blue FC in 2009.  In 2010, four Tar Heels were taken in the top eight picks of the WPS draft and seven players were chosen overall.  In the 2010 season, UNC was represented by 17 players in WPS.  In the 2011 season, UNC was represented by 15 players in WPS.  In 2011, three Tar Heels Yael Averbuch, Whitney Engen and Ashlyn Harris were members of the WPS champion Western New York Flash. The National Womens Soccer League opened play in 2013 with 13 former Tar Heels on squads.  In addition, three former UNC players competed professionally in Sweden with one each in Germany, England and France.  Cindy Parlow, 98, coached Portland Thorns FC to the inaugural NWSL title in 2013.  Several Tar Heels were key players on that team. The top two picks in the 2014 NWSL draft were Tar Heels Crystal Dunn and Kealia Ohai.  All six seniors on the 2013 team signed professional contracts five with the NWSL and one in Sweden.  Nineteen Tar Heels were on opening day 2014 NWSL rosters.  Satara Murray signed a contract to play with Liverpool LFC following the conclusion of her senior year in 2014. In 2016, a total of 16 former Tar Heels were on opening day rosters in the National Womens Soccer League.  In the 2016 NWSL Draft, UNC had four players taken - Katie Bowen, Alexa Newfield, Paige Nielsen and Summer Green - the most of any university in the nation. Anson Dorrance enters his 40th year of service to the University of North Carolina soccer programs in the fall of 2016.  Dorrance, a 1974 Tar Heel alumnus, debuted as the Carolina mens soccer coach in September of 1977 and then added duties as head coach and founder of the UNC womens program in September of 1979. A former U.S. Womens National Team head coach and current University of North Carolina head womens soccer coach, Anson Dorrance was named the 2016 winner of the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award from United States Soccer on January 29, 2016. As U.S. Soccers highest honor, the Werner Fricker Builder Award is given to an individual or group of individuals who have dedicated at least 20 years of service to the sport, working to establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States. The award recognizes those who have developed programs that will outlast their own involvement in the sport. When Dorrance was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008, it marked one more milestone moment in the career of a man whose coaching prowess became legendary at a young age.  Because Dorrance has not yet retired from his coaching career, he was only eligible for election to the Hall of Fame on the Builders of the Game ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility. Like fine wine with age the coaching career of Anson Dorrance only gets better. It was just a year ago in 2015 when Tar Heel soccer stayed in the international news as nine University of North Carolina standouts competed in the FIFA Womens World Cup.  Six former UNC players helped the U.S. win its first title since 1999, including starters Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.  Tar Heel Lucy Bronze led England to its best ever World Cup finish as it gained a bronze medal. Winning Championships In 2012, Dorrance led the Tar Heels against one of the best College Cup fields in history as North Carolina won its 22nd overall national title and its 21st NCAA crown.  When UNC won the NCAA crown in 2009, Dorrance became the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 championships coaching a single sport. Head coach of the Carolina womens soccer program since its inception in 1979, Dorrance has built and guided a well-oiled winning machine.  Under his direction, the Tar Heels have collected national and conference championships at a stupendous rate, compiled an overall record staggering in its numerical verity, established records likely never to be approached and procured the esteem befitting a dynasty. At an institution familiar with such incomparable achievement, especially with regard to its storied basketball program, it might be possible to think that Dorrances accomplishments could somehow fade to the background.  But what he has done at UNC is simply impossible to ignore. Thus, when an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of the Best Coaches of the Past Quarter Century on July 28, 2004 coincidentally headed at the No. 1 spot by the late legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith it came as no big surprise that another deserving Tar Heel mentor made the list.  That Dorrance was one of only two coaches in the prestigious collection to coach an Olympic sport on the collegiate level speaks even louder about his recognized greatness. More recently, Beckett Entertainment released a magazine in which it named the Top 30 Sports Dynasties of all-time.  UNCs womens soccer program success from 1982-2000 was rated the sixth best dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, the 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA mens basketball, the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and the 1953-60 Montreal Canadiens.  Of the Top 30 programs named only four involved collegiate programs. As Dorrance prepares to begin his 38th season as the head coach at Carolina in the fall of 2016, some folks must be wondering if there is anything left to be accomplished.  Chances are excellent that Dorrance will find something. Praise From Coach Smith It is said that greatness recognizes fellow greatness.   Perhaps there is no better example of that than the quote Dean Smith gave Football News Magazine in 1997.  Smith was asked by Football News about Carolinas preseason No. 1 ranking in football and what it was like for some sport other than basketball to be ranked No. 1. Coach Smiths reply  This is a womens soccer school.  Were just trying to keep up with them.  Coach Smiths clever retort was his way of giving Dorrance his due. From the person who was then the winningest head coach of all-time in one sport to the winningest head coach of all-time in another sport, the comment struck Dorrance as the ultimate honor.  As Dorrance has said, So much of what we have tried to do in our program is modeled after what Dean Smith accomplished.  To have our program compared favorably to his by the man himself was enormously humbling. Similarly, Dorrances immense loyalty to Carolina mirrors the loyalty Smith possessed for his adopted school.  In 1994, when Dorrance decided not to continue his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team, the choice perplexed many. Some thought he relinquished the honor in order to avoid the pressure that comes with being the leader of what was then the defending World Cup championship squad.  But Dorrances decision had everything to do with allegiance to his alma mater. The glory that came with coaching the U.S. to the championship in the first-ever Womens World Cup in 1991 was not enough to pull Dorrance away from his true professional love working full-time with the Tar Heels.  He wanted to increase the level of excellence that soccer fans had come to expect from the record-shattering program he had molded from scratch.  To do that Dorrance knew he would have to dedicate all of his coaching energy to the University.  With more elite-level players emerging from high school and club teams than ever before, the playing field in the college game was leveling out; Dorrance knew that for UNC to remain at the top, he would have to throw himself into the process with renewed vigor. College programs like ours require a lot of work, says Dorrance.  At that point in time we had been surviving by just doing the minimum amount of work. We certainly couldnt continue to be successful by doing just the minimum.  We needed the extra time to stay competitive in an increasingly tough college game. A prime example of what Dorrance meant about a leveling playing field is the fact UNC has captured only seven of the past 18 NCAA championships from 1998-2015 when compared to the era from 1981 through 1997 when Carolina dominated the competition, winning 15 of 17 collegiate titles.   Simply Staggering Numbers It is difficult to comprehend Dorrance taking Carolinas womens program to any greater heights than what it has already achieved.  Yet, for a program consumed with striving for excellence, a national championship every season remains the goal, pure and simple. It is this relentless attitude that has helped the Tar Heels win a mind-blowing 22 of the 35 national championships that have been decided in the history of collegiate womens soccer.  Only two other schools in the country have won as many as two titles Portland in 2002 and 2005 and Notre Dame in 1995, 2004 and 2010.  Eight other schools have won one each George Mason (1985), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001), USC (2007), Stanford (2011), UCLA (2013), Florida State (2014) and Penn State (2015). Carolina has also captured 20 of the 28 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships since the sport was given title status by the league in 1988.  Carolinas all-time record in ACC Tournament play is 59-5-4 and the first loss did not come until 2011.  UNCalso won the initial 1987 ACCtitle when it was held in a round-robin format at the end of the regular season to determine the champion.  All told, the Tar Heels are 792-63-32 in the 37-year history of the program, a winning percentage of .911. When Carolina decided to make womens soccer a varsity sport in 1979, Dorrance became a two-sport head coach as he was already in his third year coaching the mens team at Carolina.  Dorrances brilliance at coaching women manifested itself almost immediately as it took just three years before the Tar Heels won a national championship, capturing the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title. Beginning with that championship, the Tar Heels have won 62.9 percent of the titles ever decided in the sport. Carolina went on to claim three national titles in a row after the NCAA began sponsorship of the sport in the fall of 1982. UNCnetted NCAA championship game wins in 1982 over UCF, in 1983 over George Mason and in 1984 over Connecticut.  The Tar Heels made it to the NCAA title game in 1985, but lost to George Mason 2-0 on the Patriots home field the first of only 10 losses in NCAATournament play for Carolina to go along with 120 wins and three ties. That loss to George Mason, remarkably, was the last time the Tar Heels lost any game in the decade of the 1980s.  Beginning with the season opener in 1986 and continuing into the 1990 season, Dorrances Tar Heels won 97 games and tied six matches over a stretch of 103 contests.  In 1986, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the finals at Fairfax, Va.  A year later, the Tar Heels downed Massachusetts 1-0 on the Minutewomens home field in the title game.  The 1988 campaign saw the Tar Heels defeat NC State 4-1 in the title game in Chapel Hill.  A year later, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the championship contest at Raleigh, N.C. During this era, the ACC also began championship competition with UNC winning the inaugural title in 1987 in a round robin format.  NC State claimed the 1988 title on a penalty kick shootout against the Tar Heels but Carolina regained the title in 1989 and has won all but seven conference tournament championships since then. Connecticut snapped a 103-match UNC unbeaten streak that had started in 1986 by defeating the Tar Heels 3-2 in overtime at Storrs, Conn. on September 22, 1990.  The Tar Heels rebounded from that lone defeat to win their fifth straight NCAA crown in 1990, avenging the only blemish on their season by beating the Huskies in the final game 6-0 in Chapel Hill. National Team Duties Along the way, Dorrances love of a challenge prompted him to take the coaching job for the U.S. Womens National Team just a year into its existence in 1986.  In a short time, Dorrance took the National Team to the vertex of the worlds most popular sport.  On November 30, 1991, Dorrance led the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Norway to claim the initial World Cup championship.  The win came just six days after assistant coach Bill Palladino, acting as interim head coach, led UNCto a 3-1 NCAA title game win over Wisconsin for Carolinas sixth NCAA title in a row. Dorrance was the architect of the World Cup triumph, a win tinged with a Carolina Blue hue.  Not only was Dorrance coaching the U.S. team, but nine of the 18 players competed collegiately at North Carolina and his assistant coach was former UNC player Lauren Gregg. The next year, Dorrance assembled what many soccer observers have labeled the best college soccer team in history.  That edition of the Tar Heels finished the season undefeated (25-0), claimed the ACC championship for the fourth straight year and won the NCAA title for the seventh consecutive time.  Carolinas 9-1 NCAA championship game victory over Duke was as thorough as the final score would lead one to believe and was a nonpareil way for the Heels to finish the year. In 1993, UNC won the NCAA championship with an unsullied record of 23-0.  The Tar Heels whitewashed George Mason 6-0 before what was then a collegiate womens soccer record crowd of 5,721 fans at Fetzer Field.  Mia Hamm capped her brilliant career at Carolina that day and went on to win unanimous national player of the year honors for the second year in a row. 92 Wins in a Row Amongst all the coaching jobs that Dorrance has done during his career, the one that culminated in the 1994 NCAA championship may be the most impressive.  Dorrance was able to rally the Tar Heels after arch-rival Duke ended a 101-game unbeaten streak by beating Carolina 3-2 on October 19, 1994.  The loss came 17 days after Notre Dame had snapped a 92-game Carolina winning streak by playing the Heels to a scoreless tie. UNC ran the table after the loss to Duke and NCAA Tournament wins over NC State, Duke, Connecticut and Notre Dame added a 13th national title to Dorrances coaching resume.  Tar Heel midfielder Tisha Venturini was selected as the 1994 National Player of the Year, marking the seventh straight season in which the national player of the year came from the ranks of Carolina players. The 1994 season presaged a sea change in the college game.  With the proliferation of available talent and the vast increase in the number of college programs, parity was quickly becoming a part of the womens game.  While the Tar Heels still led the way in terms of consistent excellence, one of the big news stories of 1995 was the fact Carolina failed to win the national title in womens soccer for the first time in 10 years.  The Tar Heels, seeded No. 1 in the NCAA bracket with a 25-0 mark, were upset by Notre Dame 1-0 in the 1995 NCAA semifinals. Relinquishing the title to Notre Dame in 1995 only fueled the teams competitive fire the next season.  Dorrance took a team that returned nine starters and molded it into another victorious unit by seasons end.  In the ninth game of the season, Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 2-1 in overtime and became the first college team to beat UNCin successive meetings.  Carolina regrouped and the Tar Heels whipped William & Mary, James Madison and Florida in the opening three rounds of the NCAA tourney before defeating Santa Clara 2-1 on its home field in the semifinals.  Two days later UNC proved it was still at the acme of womens college soccer, beating defending champion Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime to claim the 1996 crown. A Dynamite Defense in 1997 Dorrance turned in another magnificent coaching job as the Tar Heels wound up in the winners circle again in 1997.  Honored by Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times as the national coach of the year, Dorrance spearheaded a Carolina campaign that resulted in a 27-0-1 record.  The 27 victories were an NCAA record and UNC tied its own NCAA record by shutting out 22 opponents during the campaign. After seeing the 1998 NCAA title elude the Tar Heels, Carolina fans were able to find solace in the performance of the U.S. team which competed in the 1999 Womens World Cup.  The 20-person roster featured eight Tar Heel players Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Tracy Noonan, Lorrie Fair and Tiffany Roberts and UNCalumna Lauren Gregg as a U.S. assistant coach.  The Tar Heel-laden composition of the World Cup Team, which reclaimed the championship it had relinquished in 1995, once again stood as a testament to the indelible contributions Dorrance has made to U.S. soccer. Back-To-Back National Championships Basking in the glow of a World Cup title featuring so many ties to the program, Carolinas collegiate dominance seemed to be in doubt when just eight games into the 1999 season the Tar Heels sported a 6-2 record.  The two losses were the most in a season since 1985.  But Dorrance led Carolina to 18 wins in a row and another NCAA championship.  Lorrie Fair earned national player of the year accolades, but in many regards the 1999 team was a squad without star presence, just incredible unity of purpose. A year later, the 2000 Carolina team suffered the programs most losses in a season in 20 years but again won ACC and NCAA titles.  Three times in six NCAA Tournament games, Carolina trailed its opponent 1-0 midway through the second half.  All three times, the Tar Heels came from behind to win 2-1 in regulation time en route to another national title. After a two-year hiatus from the awards stand, UNC reclaimed the NCAA title in 2003 with its most dominant team in a decade.  Carolina became the first team since the Tar Heels of 1993 to go undefeated and untied, finishing with a perfect 27-0 mark while winning its 15th straight ACC title and its 18th national championship.  Led by co-national players of the year Lindsay Tarpley and Catherine Reddick, Carolina outscored its opponents 132-11, including an amazing 32-0 margin in six NCAA Tournament matches. Another Quartet of National Titles In 2006, Dorrance turned in one of the best coaching jobs of his career in piloting UNC to its 19th national championship.  He was the unanimous choice as the national coach of the year after leading Carolina to a 27-1 balance sheet.  The Tar Heels accomplished these heroics while starting six freshmen for most of the season.  In fact, seven freshmen took the field for the start of the second half of UNCs 2-1 NCAA championship game win over Notre Dame.   In 2008, UNCcaptured its 20th national championship with a team that started 4-1-1 but went 21-0-1 in its final 22 matches.  Led by national player of the year Casey Nogueira, who led the nation in scoring with 25 goals, Carolina defeated two unbeaten teams in the College Cup, downing UCLA 1-0 and Notre Dame 2-1, to win the NCAA title.  Nogueira scored two second-half goals to rally UNC past the Fighting Irish in the final game. A year later, the Tar Heels turned in one of the best defensive efforts in school history en route to a 21st national crown.  Senior defender Whitney Engen was a National Player of the Year honoree and the defensive MVP of the ACC and she led a team that allowed only 12 goals and posted 19 shutouts. Carolina allowed only two goals in the final 11 games of the season as the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament hardware over Florida State 3-0 and the NCAA Tournament title over Stanford 1-0. Carolina won the most unlikely of its 22 national crowns in 2012 after finishing the regular season with a mundane 10-5-2 ledger.  But the Heels caught fire in the post-season, winning three overtime games and downing regional No. 1 seeds in each of the last three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  Crystal Dunn was the consensus National Player of the Year and the winner of the ACCs Top Female athlete accolade for 2012-13 while Amber Brooks took home player of the season accolades from Top Drawer Soccer. Dorrances Start In Coaching Ironically, Dorrances career plans did not originally include coaching a womens team.  He began his coaching career at Carolina as the designated head coach for the mens team in 1976 during Marvin Allens last year as head coach.  He took over as mens coach the following year and served for 12 years in that role, posting a 172-65-21 record.  His team won the ACC Tournament championship in 1987.  He took the Tar Heels to the 1987 NCAA College Cup semifinals and the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.  Dorrances .708 winning percentage is second amongst Carolinas mens soccer coaches all-time and his 172 wins rank third in school history behind Elmar Bolowich, whom Dorrance brought to Carolina as an assistant mens coach in 1987, and Dr. Marvin Allen, the founder of the program in 1947, and the man who coached Dorrance at Carolina. Since being named the womens head coach in 1979, Carolina has a 777-58-31 record under Dorrance and only nine times in 36 years have the Tar Heels lost more than two games in a single season.  The Tar Heels 21 NCAA crowns are more than any other womens NCAA Division I sports program in the history (Stanford womens tennis is second with 17), and the 22 national championships overall are more than any single sports program in ACC history, mens or womens. A Host of National Players of the Year Over the years, 19 different Tar Heels have been named national players of the year under Dorrances direction April Heinrichs in 1984 and 1986, Shannon Higgins in 1988 and 1989, Kristine Lilly in 1990 and 1991, Mia Hamm in 1992 and 1993, Tisha Venturini in 1994, Debbie Keller in 1995 and 1996, Staci Wilson in 1995, Cindy Parlow in 1996, 1997 and 1998, Robin Confer in 1997, Lorrie Fair in 1999, Meredith Florance in 2000, Lindsay Tarpley in 2003, Catherine Reddick in 2003, Heather OReilly in 2006, Yael Averbuch in 2006, Casey Nogueira in 2008, Whitney Engen in 2009 and Crystal Dunn and Amber Brooks in 2012. Coach of the Year Honors Galore Dorrance has been named national coach of the year for coaching both women and men.  He earned womens national honors in 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 and he was named mens national coach of the year in 1987. Dorrance has been named the Southeast Region coach of the year in 1989, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008.  In 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, he was named the ACC Womens Soccer Coach of the Year. In 1996, Dorrance received the highest honor possible from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America when he won the Walt Chyzowych Award for lifetime coaching achievement.  In 2007, he won the Bill Jeffrey Award from the NSCAA for raising intercollegiate soccer to new heights through his long-term dedication to the game.  In 2011, the NSCAA accorded him its prestigious NSCAA Honor Award. Honors from His Peers Dorrance was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988, Carolinas highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another cherished honor when the athletic department designated him a Priceless Gem.  This honor is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. In 1995, Dorrances program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, Dynasty.  The movie focused in particular on the Tar Heels amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994, and it included in-depth interviews with both current and former Tar Heel players.  Another documentary about the UNCprogram, Winning Isnt Everything, was released in DVD format following the 2007 season. In the fall of 2003, Sports Illustrated On Campus magazine named UNCs womens soccer program as the greatest college dynasty of all-time. Dorrance has also coauthored two books.  He combined with Tim Nash to write Training Soccer Champions in 1996.  It sold out in its first printing and did equally well in its second press run.  Dorrance also co-authored the award-winning The Vision of a Champion with Gloria Averbuch.  It was published in 2003 and almost immediately went to second and third printings.  In 2006, The Man Watching by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers debuted to smashing reviews and amazing sales success. Following the U.S. victory in the Womens World Cup in 1991, Dorrance received an Honorary All-America Award, one of the most prestigious of its kind, from the NSCAA. In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer during the previous two decades.  Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer.  Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only womens coach tapped. In 2002, Dorrance was selected for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, joining his mentor, Dr. Marvin Allen, who was in the initial class inducted into the Hall.  More accolades were bestowed on Dorrance with his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, 2005 and to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008. Dorrance In His College Years A 1974 University of North Carolina graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy, Dorrance originally enrolled at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent one semester studying and playing soccer. He then transferred to Carolina to play for Marvin Allen. Dorrances natural gifts on the pitch led to his selection to the All-ACC Team three times as an undergraduate and he won All-South Regionhonors in 1973.  He was named in 2002 as one of the Top 50 mens soccer players in ACC history.  He was also one of the top intramural sports performers on the Carolina campus during his days as an undergraduate. Dorrance has an A level coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He was a charter member of the NCAA Womens Soccer Committee and he also served as the womens chairman of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America.  He is the former chairman of the NCAA Mens and Womens Soccer Rules Committee and one of the few coaches in the country to qualify as a national staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.  He formerly was involved in training coaches and awarding coaching licenses as part of the NSCAA Coaching Academy.  In the summer of 2003, he was named to the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrances summer soccer camps for women are the most popular in the nation.  The camps sell out well in advance.  Dorrance has even hosted a version of the famous camp in England. The Dorrance Family Albert Anson Dorrance, IV, was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and he is married to MLiss Gary Dorrance.  The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in August 2016. MLiss Dorrance is a former professional ballet dancer who teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, which she cofounded in 1980. When MLiss is not watching soccer games on the weekends she is rehearsing her choreography for Chapel Hill Dance Theatre productions. The Dorrances have three grown children. Michelle, a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, is an internationally renowned multi-award winning rhythm tap dancer residing in New York City where she is on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and director/founder of Dorrance Dance/NY.  Dorrance Dance was presented in the fall of 2014 by Carolina Performing Arts at Memorial Hall as part of their 10th anniversary season.  Dorrance Dance returns to the Carolina Performing Arts series in Chapel Hill in September 2016. Natalie Dorrance Harris, a UNCgraduate, is a part-time librarian and helps administrate the North Carolina Girls Soccer Camp team camps, amongst the most popular youth camps in America.  She and attorney husband David Harris, a University of North Carolinalaw school graduate, are the proud parents of Finley Dorrance Harris.  The Dorrance familys first grandchild was born in April 2009. Donovan Dorrance, a 2013 UNC graduate with a B.A. in philosophy, is currently working for his sister Michelle as an assistant to the director, media controller and musician of Dorrance Dance/NY. Dorrances soccer origins stem from his youth when he lived overseas.  He resided in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland while growing up.  His family moved all around the world following his fathers assignments as an international businessman.  Additional members of the Dorrance clan residing in Chapel Hill include his brother Pete, a co-owner of six prominent Triangle area restaurants, and Petes wife Dolly Hunter, a former UNC head field hockey and softball coach.  Carolinas biggest soccer fan, Anson Dorrances mother Peggy, passed away at the age of 87 in October 2014 and has been sorely missed in the Fetzer Field stands over the past two Carolina womens soccer campaigns. DORRANCE DATA Head Coach Anson Dorrance is now in his 38th season as the Tar Heels head mentor.  His teams have an all-time record of 792-63-32 (.911).  Under Anson Dorrance, UNChas won 22 national championships, including 21 NCAA crowns and one AIAWtitle, 21 regular-season ACC titles and 20 ACCTournament championships.  During his tenure, Dorrances teams are 185-24-7 in ACCregular-season games, 59-5-4 in ACCTournament matches and 121-11-3 in NCAATournament games.  UNC is 339-26-11 in home games in its history and 453-37-21 in games played on the road and at neutral sites.  Under Dorrance, UNC has won 91.1 percent of its games overall, 87.3 percent of its ACC regular-season games, 89.7 percent of its ACC Tournament games, 90.7 percent of its NCAA Tournament games, 91.6 percent of its home games and 90.7 percent of its road and neutral site games. In the programs 37-year history, totaling 887 games, Carolina has shut out opponents 555 times and has been held scoreless in just 46 games. Carolinas National Team Coaching Connections Anson Dorrance, 73, was the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team from 1986-94.  He was the head coach of the 1991 World Cup Team which won the gold medal. Lauren Gregg, 83, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1987-99.  She was an assistant coach at the 1991 World Cup (gold), 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold) and 1999 World Cup (gold). April Heinrichs, 87, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1995-2000 and the head coach from 2000-05.  She served on staffs for the 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold), 1999 World Cup (gold), 2000 Olympics (silver), 2003 World Cup (bronze) and 2004 Olympics (gold). Bill Palladino, 72, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 2002-03.  He served on the staff which won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Cup. Marcia McDermott, 87, was an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team.  She served on the staff which won the silver medal at the 2011 World Cup and captured gold at the 2012 Olympics. Carolinas Influences On The Game Current and former UNCplayers have been staples on World Cup rosters as both players and coaches.  The 1991 U.S. World Cup roster featured nine players and two coaches; the 1995 U.S. World Cup roster featured seven players and two coaches; the 1999 U.S. World Cup roster featured eight players and one coach; the 2003 U.S. World Cup roster featured six players and two coaches; the 2007 U.S. World Cup roster featured five players as well as one former player being on the Canadian roster; the 2011 U.S. World Cup roster featured two U.S. players and one coach and there was one player on the Canadian roster.  In the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup, six former Tar Heels played on the U.S. Team which won gold while other Tar Heels competed for England, Canada and New Zealand. Olympic Team rosters have also been filled with Tar Heel coaches and players.  The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team included seven players and two coaches; the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team included six players and two coaches; the 2004 U.S. team included six players and two coaches; in the 2008 Olympic Games four players competed on the U.S. squad and one player was on the Canadian roster; in 2012, two Tar Heels competed for the U.S. and one for Canada; while in 2016, five former Tar Heels played for the U.S. and one for New Zealand. 55 Carolina players have earned caps with the United States National Team since its founding in 1985. North Carolina featured the largest alumnae class of players drafted by teams for the inaugural season of Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009 with 13. Four Tar Heels played on WPS champion Sky Blue FC in 2009.  In 2010, four Tar Heels were taken in the top eight picks of the WPS draft and seven players were chosen overall.  In the 2010 season, UNC was represented by 17 players in WPS.  In the 2011 season, UNC was represented by 15 players in WPS.  In 2011, three Tar Heels Yael Averbuch, Whitney Engen and Ashlyn Harris were members of the WPS champion Western New York Flash. The National Womens Soccer League opened play in 2013 with 13 former Tar Heels on squads.  In addition, three former UNC players competed professionally in Sweden with one each in Germany, England and France.  Cindy Parlow, 98, coached Portland Thorns FC to the inaugural NWSL title in 2013.  Several Tar Heels were key players on that team. The top two picks in the 2014 NWSL draft were Tar Heels Crystal Dunn and Kealia Ohai.  All six seniors on the 2013 team signed professional contracts five with the NWSL and one in Sweden.  Nineteen Tar Heels were on opening day 2014 NWSL rosters.  Satara Murray signed a contract to play with Liverpool LFC following the conclusion of her senior year in 2014. In 2016, a total of 16 former Tar Heels were on opening day rosters in the National Womens Soccer League.  In the 2016 NWSL Draft, UNC had four players taken - Katie Bowen, Alexa Newfield, Paige Nielsen and Summer Green - the most of any university in the nation. Anson Dorrance enters his 40th year of service to the University of North Carolina soccer programs in the fall of 2016.  Dorrance, a 1974 Tar Heel alumnus, debuted as the Carolina mens soccer coach in September of 1977 and then added duties as head coach and founder of the UNC womens program in September of 1979. A former U.S. Womens National Team head coach and current University of North Carolina head womens soccer coach, Anson Dorrance was named the 2016 winner of the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award from United States Soccer on January 29, 2016. As U.S. Soccers highest honor, the Werner Fricker Builder Award is given to an individual or group of individuals who have dedicated at least 20 years of service to the sport, working to establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States. The award recognizes those who have developed programs that will outlast their own involvement in the sport. When Dorrance was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008, it marked one more milestone moment in the career of a man whose coaching prowess became legendary at a young age.  Because Dorrance has not yet retired from his coaching career, he was only eligible for election to the Hall of Fame on the Builders of the Game ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility. Like fine wine with age the coaching career of Anson Dorrance only gets better. It was just a year ago in 2015 when Tar Heel soccer stayed in the international news as nine University of North Carolina standouts competed in the FIFA Womens World Cup.  Six former UNC players helped the U.S. win its first title since 1999, including starters Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.  Tar Heel Lucy Bronze led England to its best ever World Cup finish as it gained a bronze medal. Winning Championships In 2012, Dorrance led the Tar Heels against one of the best College Cup fields in history as North Carolina won its 22nd overall national title and its 21st NCAA crown.  When UNC won the NCAA crown in 2009, Dorrance became the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 championships coaching a single sport. Head coach of the Carolina womens soccer program since its inception in 1979, Dorrance has built and guided a well-oiled winning machine.  Under his direction, the Tar Heels have collected national and conference championships at a stupendous rate, compiled an overall record staggering in its numerical verity, established records likely never to be approached and procured the esteem befitting a dynasty. At an institution familiar with such incomparable achievement, especially with regard to its storied basketball program, it might be possible to think that Dorrances accomplishments could somehow fade to the background.  But what he has done at UNC is simply impossible to ignore. Thus, when an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of the Best Coaches of the Past Quarter Century on July 28, 2004 coincidentally headed at the No. 1 spot by the late legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith it came as no big surprise that another deserving Tar Heel mentor made the list.  That Dorrance was one of only two coaches in the prestigious collection to coach an Olympic sport on the collegiate level speaks even louder about his recognized greatness. More recently, Beckett Entertainment released a magazine in which it named the Top 30 Sports Dynasties of all-time.  UNCs womens soccer program success from 1982-2000 was rated the sixth best dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, the 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA mens basketball, the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and the 1953-60 Montreal Canadiens.  Of the Top 30 programs named only four involved collegiate programs. As Dorrance prepares to begin his 38th season as the head coach at Carolina in the fall of 2016, some folks must be wondering if there is anything left to be accomplished.  Chances are excellent that Dorrance will find something. Praise From Coach Smith It is said that greatness recognizes fellow greatness.   Perhaps there is no better example of that than the quote Dean Smith gave Football News Magazine in 1997.  Smith was asked by Football News about Carolinas preseason No. 1 ranking in football and what it was like for some sport other than basketball to be ranked No. 1. Coach Smiths reply  This is a womens soccer school.  Were just trying to keep up with them.  Coach Smiths clever retort was his way of giving Dorrance his due. From the person who was then the winningest head coach of all-time in one sport to the winningest head coach of all-time in another sport, the comment struck Dorrance as the ultimate honor.  As Dorrance has said, So much of what we have tried to do in our program is modeled after what Dean Smith accomplished.  To have our program compared favorably to his by the man himself was enormously humbling. Similarly, Dorrances immense loyalty to Carolina mirrors the loyalty Smith possessed for his adopted school.  In 1994, when Dorrance decided not to continue his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team, the choice perplexed many. Some thought he relinquished the honor in order to avoid the pressure that comes with being the leader of what was then the defending World Cup championship squad.  But Dorrances decision had everything to do with allegiance to his alma mater. The glory that came with coaching the U.S. to the championship in the first-ever Womens World Cup in 1991 was not enough to pull Dorrance away from his true professional love working full-time with the Tar Heels.  He wanted to increase the level of excellence that soccer fans had come to expect from the record-shattering program he had molded from scratch.  To do that Dorrance knew he would have to dedicate all of his coaching energy to the University.  With more elite-level players emerging from high school and club teams than ever before, the playing field in the college game was leveling out; Dorrance knew that for UNC to remain at the top, he would have to throw himself into the process with renewed vigor. College programs like ours require a lot of work, says Dorrance.  At that point in time we had been surviving by just doing the minimum amount of work. We certainly couldnt continue to be successful by doing just the minimum.  We needed the extra time to stay competitive in an increasingly tough college game. A prime example of what Dorrance meant about a leveling playing field is the fact UNC has captured only seven of the past 18 NCAA championships from 1998-2015 when compared to the era from 1981 through 1997 when Carolina dominated the competition, winning 15 of 17 collegiate titles.   Simply Staggering Numbers It is difficult to comprehend Dorrance taking Carolinas womens program to any greater heights than what it has already achieved.  Yet, for a program consumed with striving for excellence, a national championship every season remains the goal, pure and simple. It is this relentless attitude that has helped the Tar Heels win a mind-blowing 22 of the 35 national championships that have been decided in the history of collegiate womens soccer.  Only two other schools in the country have won as many as two titles Portland in 2002 and 2005 and Notre Dame in 1995, 2004 and 2010.  Eight other schools have won one each George Mason (1985), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001), USC (2007), Stanford (2011), UCLA (2013), Florida State (2014) and Penn State (2015). Carolina has also captured 20 of the 28 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships since the sport was given title status by the league in 1988.  Carolinas all-time record in ACC Tournament play is 59-5-4 and the first loss did not come until 2011.  UNCalso won the initial 1987 ACCtitle when it was held in a round-robin format at the end of the regular season to determine the champion.  All told, the Tar Heels are 792-63-32 in the 37-year history of the program, a winning percentage of .911. When Carolina decided to make womens soccer a varsity sport in 1979, Dorrance became a two-sport head coach as he was already in his third year coaching the mens team at Carolina.  Dorrances brilliance at coaching women manifested itself almost immediately as it took just three years before the Tar Heels won a national championship, capturing the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title. Beginning with that championship, the Tar Heels have won 62.9 percent of the titles ever decided in the sport. Carolina went on to claim three national titles in a row after the NCAA began sponsorship of the sport in the fall of 1982. UNCnetted NCAA championship game wins in 1982 over UCF, in 1983 over George Mason and in 1984 over Connecticut.  The Tar Heels made it to the NCAA title game in 1985, but lost to George Mason 2-0 on the Patriots home field the first of only 10 losses in NCAATournament play for Carolina to go along with 120 wins and three ties. That loss to George Mason, remarkably, was the last time the Tar Heels lost any game in the decade of the 1980s.  Beginning with the season opener in 1986 and continuing into the 1990 season, Dorrances Tar Heels won 97 games and tied six matches over a stretch of 103 contests.  In 1986, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the finals at Fairfax, Va.  A year later, the Tar Heels downed Massachusetts 1-0 on the Minutewomens home field in the title game.  The 1988 campaign saw the Tar Heels defeat NC State 4-1 in the title game in Chapel Hill.  A year later, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the championship contest at Raleigh, N.C. During this era, the ACC also began championship competition with UNC winning the inaugural title in 1987 in a round robin format.  NC State claimed the 1988 title on a penalty kick shootout against the Tar Heels but Carolina regained the title in 1989 and has won all but seven conference tournament championships since then. Connecticut snapped a 103-match UNC unbeaten streak that had started in 1986 by defeating the Tar Heels 3-2 in overtime at Storrs, Conn. on September 22, 1990.  The Tar Heels rebounded from that lone defeat to win their fifth straight NCAA crown in 1990, avenging the only blemish on their season by beating the Huskies in the final game 6-0 in Chapel Hill. National Team Duties Along the way, Dorrances love of a challenge prompted him to take the coaching job for the U.S. Womens National Team just a year into its existence in 1986.  In a short time, Dorrance took the National Team to the vertex of the worlds most popular sport.  On November 30, 1991, Dorrance led the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Norway to claim the initial World Cup championship.  The win came just six days after assistant coach Bill Palladino, acting as interim head coach, led UNCto a 3-1 NCAA title game win over Wisconsin for Carolinas sixth NCAA title in a row. Dorrance was the architect of the World Cup triumph, a win tinged with a Carolina Blue hue.  Not only was Dorrance coaching the U.S. team, but nine of the 18 players competed collegiately at North Carolina and his assistant coach was former UNC player Lauren Gregg. The next year, Dorrance assembled what many soccer observers have labeled the best college soccer team in history.  That edition of the Tar Heels finished the season undefeated (25-0), claimed the ACC championship for the fourth straight year and won the NCAA title for the seventh consecutive time.  Carolinas 9-1 NCAA championship game victory over Duke was as thorough as the final score would lead one to believe and was a nonpareil way for the Heels to finish the year. In 1993, UNC won the NCAA championship with an unsullied record of 23-0.  The Tar Heels whitewashed George Mason 6-0 before what was then a collegiate womens soccer record crowd of 5,721 fans at Fetzer Field.  Mia Hamm capped her brilliant career at Carolina that day and went on to win unanimous national player of the year honors for the second year in a row. 92 Wins in a Row Amongst all the coaching jobs that Dorrance has done during his career, the one that culminated in the 1994 NCAA championship may be the most impressive.  Dorrance was able to rally the Tar Heels after arch-rival Duke ended a 101-game unbeaten streak by beating Carolina 3-2 on October 19, 1994.  The loss came 17 days after Notre Dame had snapped a 92-game Carolina winning streak by playing the Heels to a scoreless tie. UNC ran the table after the loss to Duke and NCAA Tournament wins over NC State, Duke, Connecticut and Notre Dame added a 13th national title to Dorrances coaching resume.  Tar Heel midfielder Tisha Venturini was selected as the 1994 National Player of the Year, marking the seventh straight season in which the national player of the year came from the ranks of Carolina players. The 1994 season presaged a sea change in the college game.  With the proliferation of available talent and the vast increase in the number of college programs, parity was quickly becoming a part of the womens game.  While the Tar Heels still led the way in terms of consistent excellence, one of the big news stories of 1995 was the fact Carolina failed to win the national title in womens soccer for the first time in 10 years.  The Tar Heels, seeded No. 1 in the NCAA bracket with a 25-0 mark, were upset by Notre Dame 1-0 in the 1995 NCAA semifinals. Relinquishing the title to Notre Dame in 1995 only fueled the teams competitive fire the next season.  Dorrance took a team that returned nine starters and molded it into another victorious unit by seasons end.  In the ninth game of the season, Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 2-1 in overtime and became the first college team to beat UNCin successive meetings.  Carolina regrouped and the Tar Heels whipped William & Mary, James Madison and Florida in the opening three rounds of the NCAA tourney before defeating Santa Clara 2-1 on its home field in the semifinals.  Two days later UNC proved it was still at the acme of womens college soccer, beating defending champion Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime to claim the 1996 crown. A Dynamite Defense in 1997 Dorrance turned in another magnificent coaching job as the Tar Heels wound up in the winners circle again in 1997.  Honored by Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times as the national coach of the year, Dorrance spearheaded a Carolina campaign that resulted in a 27-0-1 record.  The 27 victories were an NCAA record and UNC tied its own NCAA record by shutting out 22 opponents during the campaign. After seeing the 1998 NCAA title elude the Tar Heels, Carolina fans were able to find solace in the performance of the U.S. team which competed in the 1999 Womens World Cup.  The 20-person roster featured eight Tar Heel players Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Tracy Noonan, Lorrie Fair and Tiffany Roberts and UNCalumna Lauren Gregg as a U.S. assistant coach.  The Tar Heel-laden composition of the World Cup Team, which reclaimed the championship it had relinquished in 1995, once again stood as a testament to the indelible contributions Dorrance has made to U.S. soccer. Back-To-Back National Championships Basking in the glow of a World Cup title featuring so many ties to the program, Carolinas collegiate dominance seemed to be in doubt when just eight games into the 1999 season the Tar Heels sported a 6-2 record.  The two losses were the most in a season since 1985.  But Dorrance led Carolina to 18 wins in a row and another NCAA championship.  Lorrie Fair earned national player of the year accolades, but in many regards the 1999 team was a squad without star presence, just incredible unity of purpose. A year later, the 2000 Carolina team suffered the programs most losses in a season in 20 years but again won ACC and NCAA titles.  Three times in six NCAA Tournament games, Carolina trailed its opponent 1-0 midway through the second half.  All three times, the Tar Heels came from behind to win 2-1 in regulation time en route to another national title. After a two-year hiatus from the awards stand, UNC reclaimed the NCAA title in 2003 with its most dominant team in a decade.  Carolina became the first team since the Tar Heels of 1993 to go undefeated and untied, finishing with a perfect 27-0 mark while winning its 15th straight ACC title and its 18th national championship.  Led by co-national players of the year Lindsay Tarpley and Catherine Reddick, Carolina outscored its opponents 132-11, including an amazing 32-0 margin in six NCAA Tournament matches. Another Quartet of National Titles In 2006, Dorrance turned in one of the best coaching jobs of his career in piloting UNC to its 19th national championship.  He was the unanimous choice as the national coach of the year after leading Carolina to a 27-1 balance sheet.  The Tar Heels accomplished these heroics while starting six freshmen for most of the season.  In fact, seven freshmen took the field for the start of the second half of UNCs 2-1 NCAA championship game win over Notre Dame.   In 2008, UNCcaptured its 20th national championship with a team that started 4-1-1 but went 21-0-1 in its final 22 matches.  Led by national player of the year Casey Nogueira, who led the nation in scoring with 25 goals, Carolina defeated two unbeaten teams in the College Cup, downing UCLA 1-0 and Notre Dame 2-1, to win the NCAA title.  Nogueira scored two second-half goals to rally UNC past the Fighting Irish in the final game. A year later, the Tar Heels turned in one of the best defensive efforts in school history en route to a 21st national crown.  Senior defender Whitney Engen was a National Player of the Year honoree and the defensive MVP of the ACC and she led a team that allowed only 12 goals and posted 19 shutouts. Carolina allowed only two goals in the final 11 games of the season as the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament hardware over Florida State 3-0 and the NCAA Tournament title over Stanford 1-0. Carolina won the most unlikely of its 22 national crowns in 2012 after finishing the regular season with a mundane 10-5-2 ledger.  But the Heels caught fire in the post-season, winning three overtime games and downing regional No. 1 seeds in each of the last three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  Crystal Dunn was the consensus National Player of the Year and the winner of the ACCs Top Female athlete accolade for 2012-13 while Amber Brooks took home player of the season accolades from Top Drawer Soccer. Dorrances Start In Coaching Ironically, Dorrances career plans did not originally include coaching a womens team.  He began his coaching career at Carolina as the designated head coach for the mens team in 1976 during Marvin Allens last year as head coach.  He took over as mens coach the following year and served for 12 years in that role, posting a 172-65-21 record.  His team won the ACC Tournament championship in 1987.  He took the Tar Heels to the 1987 NCAA College Cup semifinals and the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.  Dorrances .708 winning percentage is second amongst Carolinas mens soccer coaches all-time and his 172 wins rank third in school history behind Elmar Bolowich, whom Dorrance brought to Carolina as an assistant mens coach in 1987, and Dr. Marvin Allen, the founder of the program in 1947, and the man who coached Dorrance at Carolina. Since being named the womens head coach in 1979, Carolina has a 777-58-31 record under Dorrance and only nine times in 36 years have the Tar Heels lost more than two games in a single season.  The Tar Heels 21 NCAA crowns are more than any other womens NCAA Division I sports program in the history (Stanford womens tennis is second with 17), and the 22 national championships overall are more than any single sports program in ACC history, mens or womens. A Host of National Players of the Year Over the years, 19 different Tar Heels have been named national players of the year under Dorrances direction April Heinrichs in 1984 and 1986, Shannon Higgins in 1988 and 1989, Kristine Lilly in 1990 and 1991, Mia Hamm in 1992 and 1993, Tisha Venturini in 1994, Debbie Keller in 1995 and 1996, Staci Wilson in 1995, Cindy Parlow in 1996, 1997 and 1998, Robin Confer in 1997, Lorrie Fair in 1999, Meredith Florance in 2000, Lindsay Tarpley in 2003, Catherine Reddick in 2003, Heather OReilly in 2006, Yael Averbuch in 2006, Casey Nogueira in 2008, Whitney Engen in 2009 and Crystal Dunn and Amber Brooks in 2012. Coach of the Year Honors Galore Dorrance has been named national coach of the year for coaching both women and men.  He earned womens national honors in 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 and he was named mens national coach of the year in 1987. Dorrance has been named the Southeast Region coach of the year in 1989, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008.  In 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, he was named the ACC Womens Soccer Coach of the Year. In 1996, Dorrance received the highest honor possible from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America when he won the Walt Chyzowych Award for lifetime coaching achievement.  In 2007, he won the Bill Jeffrey Award from the NSCAA for raising intercollegiate soccer to new heights through his long-term dedication to the game.  In 2011, the NSCAA accorded him its prestigious NSCAA Honor Award. Honors from His Peers Dorrance was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988, Carolinas highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another cherished honor when the athletic department designated him a Priceless Gem.  This honor is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. In 1995, Dorrances program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, Dynasty.  The movie focused in particular on the Tar Heels amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994, and it included in-depth interviews with both current and former Tar Heel players.  Another documentary about the UNCprogram, Winning Isnt Everything, was released in DVD format following the 2007 season. In the fall of 2003, Sports Illustrated On Campus magazine named UNCs womens soccer program as the greatest college dynasty of all-time. Dorrance has also coauthored two books.  He combined with Tim Nash to write Training Soccer Champions in 1996.  It sold out in its first printing and did equally well in its second press run.  Dorrance also co-authored the award-winning The Vision of a Champion with Gloria Averbuch.  It was published in 2003 and almost immediately went to second and third printings.  In 2006, The Man Watching by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers debuted to smashing reviews and amazing sales success. Following the U.S. victory in the Womens World Cup in 1991, Dorrance received an Honorary All-America Award, one of the most prestigious of its kind, from the NSCAA. In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer during the previous two decades.  Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer.  Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only womens coach tapped. In 2002, Dorrance was selected for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, joining his mentor, Dr. Marvin Allen, who was in the initial class inducted into the Hall.  More accolades were bestowed on Dorrance with his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, 2005 and to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008. Dorrance In His College Years A 1974 University of North Carolina graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy, Dorrance originally enrolled at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent one semester studying and playing soccer. He then transferred to Carolina to play for Marvin Allen. Dorrances natural gifts on the pitch led to his selection to the All-ACC Team three times as an undergraduate and he won All-South Regionhonors in 1973.  He was named in 2002 as one of the Top 50 mens soccer players in ACC history.  He was also one of the top intramural sports performers on the Carolina campus during his days as an undergraduate. Dorrance has an A level coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He was a charter member of the NCAA Womens Soccer Committee and he also served as the womens chairman of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America.  He is the former chairman of the NCAA Mens and Womens Soccer Rules Committee and one of the few coaches in the country to qualify as a national staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.  He formerly was involved in training coaches and awarding coaching licenses as part of the NSCAA Coaching Academy.  In the summer of 2003, he was named to the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrances summer soccer camps for women are the most popular in the nation.  The camps sell out well in advance.  Dorrance has even hosted a version of the famous camp in England. The Dorrance Family Albert Anson Dorrance, IV, was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and he is married to MLiss Gary Dorrance.  The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in August 2016. MLiss Dorrance is a former professional ballet dancer who teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, which she cofounded in 1980. When MLiss is not watching soccer games on the weekends she is rehearsing her choreography for Chapel Hill Dance Theatre productions. The Dorrances have three grown children. Michelle, a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, is an internationally renowned multi-award winning rhythm tap dancer residing in New York City where she is on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and director/founder of Dorrance Dance/NY.  Dorrance Dance was presented in the fall of 2014 by Carolina Performing Arts at Memorial Hall as part of their 10th anniversary season.  Dorrance Dance returns to the Carolina Performing Arts series in Chapel Hill in September 2016. Natalie Dorrance Harris, a UNCgraduate, is a part-time librarian and helps administrate the North Carolina Girls Soccer Camp team camps, amongst the most popular youth camps in America.  She and attorney husband David Harris, a University of North Carolinalaw school graduate, are the proud parents of Finley Dorrance Harris.  The Dorrance familys first grandchild was born in April 2009. Donovan Dorrance, a 2013 UNC graduate with a B.A. in philosophy, is currently working for his sister Michelle as an assistant to the director, media controller and musician of Dorrance Dance/NY. Dorrances soccer origins stem from his youth when he lived overseas.  He resided in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland while growing up.  His family moved all around the world following his fathers assignments as an international businessman.  Additional members of the Dorrance clan residing in Chapel Hill include his brother Pete, a co-owner of six prominent Triangle area restaurants, and Petes wife Dolly Hunter, a former UNC head field hockey and softball coach.  Carolinas biggest soccer fan, Anson Dorrances mother Peggy, passed away at the age of 87 in October 2014 and has been sorely missed in the Fetzer Field stands over the past two Carolina womens soccer campaigns. DORRANCE DATA Head Coach Anson Dorrance is now in his 38th season as the Tar Heels head mentor.  His teams have an all-time record of 792-63-32 (.911).  Under Anson Dorrance, UNChas won 22 national championships, including 21 NCAA crowns and one AIAWtitle, 21 regular-season ACC titles and 20 ACCTournament championships.  During his tenure, Dorrances teams are 185-24-7 in ACCregular-season games, 59-5-4 in ACCTournament matches and 121-11-3 in NCAATournament games.  UNC is 339-26-11 in home games in its history and 453-37-21 in games played on the road and at neutral sites.  Under Dorrance, UNC has won 91.1 percent of its games overall, 87.3 percent of its ACC regular-season games, 89.7 percent of its ACC Tournament games, 90.7 percent of its NCAA Tournament games, 91.6 percent of its home games and 90.7 percent of its road and neutral site games. In the programs 37-year history, totaling 887 games, Carolina has shut out opponents 555 times and has been held scoreless in just 46 games. Carolinas National Team Coaching Connections Anson Dorrance, 73, was the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team from 1986-94.  He was the head coach of the 1991 World Cup Team which won the gold medal. Lauren Gregg, 83, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1987-99.  She was an assistant coach at the 1991 World Cup (gold), 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold) and 1999 World Cup (gold). April Heinrichs, 87, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1995-2000 and the head coach from 2000-05.  She served on staffs for the 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold), 1999 World Cup (gold), 2000 Olympics (silver), 2003 World Cup (bronze) and 2004 Olympics (gold). Bill Palladino, 72, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 2002-03.  He served on the staff which won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Cup. Marcia McDermott, 87, was an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team.  She served on the staff which won the silver medal at the 2011 World Cup and captured gold at the 2012 Olympics. Carolinas Influences On The Game Current and former UNCplayers have been staples on World Cup rosters as both players and coaches.  The 1991 U.S. World Cup roster featured nine players and two coaches; the 1995 U.S. World Cup roster featured seven players and two coaches; the 1999 U.S. World Cup roster featured eight players and one coach; the 2003 U.S. World Cup roster featured six players and two coaches; the 2007 U.S. World Cup roster featured five players as well as one former player being on the Canadian roster; the 2011 U.S. World Cup roster featured two U.S. players and one coach and there was one player on the Canadian roster.  In the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup, six former Tar Heels played on the U.S. Team which won gold while other Tar Heels competed for England, Canada and New Zealand. Olympic Team rosters have also been filled with Tar Heel coaches and players.  The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team included seven players and two coaches; the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team included six players and two coaches; the 2004 U.S. team included six players and two coaches; in the 2008 Olympic Games four players competed on the U.S. squad and one player was on the Canadian roster; in 2012, two Tar Heels competed for the U.S. and one for Canada; while in 2016, five former Tar Heels played for the U.S. and one for New Zealand. 55 Carolina players have earned caps with the United States National Team since its founding in 1985. North Carolina featured the largest alumnae class of players drafted by teams for the inaugural season of Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009 with 13. Four Tar Heels played on WPS champion Sky Blue FC in 2009.  In 2010, four Tar Heels were taken in the top eight picks of the WPS draft and seven players were chosen overall.  In the 2010 season, UNC was represented by 17 players in WPS.  In the 2011 season, UNC was represented by 15 players in WPS.  In 2011, three Tar Heels Yael Averbuch, Whitney Engen and Ashlyn Harris were members of the WPS champion Western New York Flash. The National Womens Soccer League opened play in 2013 with 13 former Tar Heels on squads.  In addition, three former UNC players competed professionally in Sweden with one each in Germany, England and France.  Cindy Parlow, 98, coached Portland Thorns FC to the inaugural NWSL title in 2013.  Several Tar Heels were key players on that team. The top two picks in the 2014 NWSL draft were Tar Heels Crystal Dunn and Kealia Ohai.  All six seniors on the 2013 team signed professional contracts five with the NWSL and one in Sweden.  Nineteen Tar Heels were on opening day 2014 NWSL rosters.  Satara Murray signed a contract to play with Liverpool LFC following the conclusion of her senior year in 2014. In 2016, a total of 16 former Tar Heels were on opening day rosters in the National Womens Soccer League.  In the 2016 NWSL Draft, UNC had four players taken - Katie Bowen, Alexa Newfield, Paige Nielsen and Summer Green - the most of any university in the nation. Anson Dorrance enters his 40th year of service to the University of North Carolina soccer programs in the fall of 2016.  Dorrance, a 1974 Tar Heel alumnus, debuted as the Carolina mens soccer coach in September of 1977 and then added duties as head coach and founder of the UNC womens program in September of 1979. A former U.S. Womens National Team head coach and current University of North Carolina head womens soccer coach, Anson Dorrance was named the 2016 winner of the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award from United States Soccer on January 29, 2016. As U.S. Soccers highest honor, the Werner Fricker Builder Award is given to an individual or group of individuals who have dedicated at least 20 years of service to the sport, working to establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States. The award recognizes those who have developed programs that will outlast their own involvement in the sport. When Dorrance was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008, it marked one more milestone moment in the career of a man whose coaching prowess became legendary at a young age.  Because Dorrance has not yet retired from his coaching career, he was only eligible for election to the Hall of Fame on the Builders of the Game ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility. Like fine wine with age the coaching career of Anson Dorrance only gets better. It was just a year ago in 2015 when Tar Heel soccer stayed in the international news as nine University of North Carolina standouts competed in the FIFA Womens World Cup.  Six former UNC players helped the U.S. win its first title since 1999, including starters Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.  Tar Heel Lucy Bronze led England to its best ever World Cup finish as it gained a bronze medal. Winning Championships In 2012, Dorrance led the Tar Heels against one of the best College Cup fields in history as North Carolina won its 22nd overall national title and its 21st NCAA crown.  When UNC won the NCAA crown in 2009, Dorrance became the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 championships coaching a single sport. Head coach of the Carolina womens soccer program since its inception in 1979, Dorrance has built and guided a well-oiled winning machine.  Under his direction, the Tar Heels have collected national and conference championships at a stupendous rate, compiled an overall record staggering in its numerical verity, established records likely never to be approached and procured the esteem befitting a dynasty. At an institution familiar with such incomparable achievement, especially with regard to its storied basketball program, it might be possible to think that Dorrances accomplishments could somehow fade to the background.  But what he has done at UNC is simply impossible to ignore. Thus, when an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of the Best Coaches of the Past Quarter Century on July 28, 2004 coincidentally headed at the No. 1 spot by the late legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith it came as no big surprise that another deserving Tar Heel mentor made the list.  That Dorrance was one of only two coaches in the prestigious collection to coach an Olympic sport on the collegiate level speaks even louder about his recognized greatness. More recently, Beckett Entertainment released a magazine in which it named the Top 30 Sports Dynasties of all-time.  UNCs womens soccer program success from 1982-2000 was rated the sixth best dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, the 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA mens basketball, the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and the 1953-60 Montreal Canadiens.  Of the Top 30 programs named only four involved collegiate programs. As Dorrance prepares to begin his 38th season as the head coach at Carolina in the fall of 2016, some folks must be wondering if there is anything left to be accomplished.  Chances are excellent that Dorrance will find something. Praise From Coach Smith It is said that greatness recognizes fellow greatness.   Perhaps there is no better example of that than the quote Dean Smith gave Football News Magazine in 1997.  Smith was asked by Football News about Carolinas preseason No. 1 ranking in football and what it was like for some sport other than basketball to be ranked No. 1. Coach Smiths reply  This is a womens soccer school.  Were just trying to keep up with them.  Coach Smiths clever retort was his way of giving Dorrance his due. From the person who was then the winningest head coach of all-time in one sport to the winningest head coach of all-time in another sport, the comment struck Dorrance as the ultimate honor.  As Dorrance has said, So much of what we have tried to do in our program is modeled after what Dean Smith accomplished.  To have our program compared favorably to his by the man himself was enormously humbling. Similarly, Dorrances immense loyalty to Carolina mirrors the loyalty Smith possessed for his adopted school.  In 1994, when Dorrance decided not to continue his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team, the choice perplexed many. Some thought he relinquished the honor in order to avoid the pressure that comes with being the leader of what was then the defending World Cup championship squad.  But Dorrances decision had everything to do with allegiance to his alma mater. The glory that came with coaching the U.S. to the championship in the first-ever Womens World Cup in 1991 was not enough to pull Dorrance away from his true professional love working full-time with the Tar Heels.  He wanted to increase the level of excellence that soccer fans had come to expect from the record-shattering program he had molded from scratch.  To do that Dorrance knew he would have to dedicate all of his coaching energy to the University.  With more elite-level players emerging from high school and club teams than ever before, the playing field in the college game was leveling out; Dorrance knew that for UNC to remain at the top, he would have to throw himself into the process with renewed vigor. College programs like ours require a lot of work, says Dorrance.  At that point in time we had been surviving by just doing the minimum amount of work. We certainly couldnt continue to be successful by doing just the minimum.  We needed the extra time to stay competitive in an increasingly tough college game. A prime example of what Dorrance meant about a leveling playing field is the fact UNC has captured only seven of the past 18 NCAA championships from 1998-2015 when compared to the era from 1981 through 1997 when Carolina dominated the competition, winning 15 of 17 collegiate titles.   Simply Staggering Numbers It is difficult to comprehend Dorrance taking Carolinas womens program to any greater heights than what it has already achieved.  Yet, for a program consumed with striving for excellence, a national championship every season remains the goal, pure and simple. It is this relentless attitude that has helped the Tar Heels win a mind-blowing 22 of the 35 national championships that have been decided in the history of collegiate womens soccer.  Only two other schools in the country have won as many as two titles Portland in 2002 and 2005 and Notre Dame in 1995, 2004 and 2010.  Eight other schools have won one each George Mason (1985), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001), USC (2007), Stanford (2011), UCLA (2013), Florida State (2014) and Penn State (2015). Carolina has also captured 20 of the 28 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships since the sport was given title status by the league in 1988.  Carolinas all-time record in ACC Tournament play is 59-5-4 and the first loss did not come until 2011.  UNCalso won the initial 1987 ACCtitle when it was held in a round-robin format at the end of the regular season to determine the champion.  All told, the Tar Heels are 792-63-32 in the 37-year history of the program, a winning percentage of .911. When Carolina decided to make womens soccer a varsity sport in 1979, Dorrance became a two-sport head coach as he was already in his third year coaching the mens team at Carolina.  Dorrances brilliance at coaching women manifested itself almost immediately as it took just three years before the Tar Heels won a national championship, capturing the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title. Beginning with that championship, the Tar Heels have won 62.9 percent of the titles ever decided in the sport. Carolina went on to claim three national titles in a row after the NCAA began sponsorship of the sport in the fall of 1982. UNCnetted NCAA championship game wins in 1982 over UCF, in 1983 over George Mason and in 1984 over Connecticut.  The Tar Heels made it to the NCAA title game in 1985, but lost to George Mason 2-0 on the Patriots home field the first of only 10 losses in NCAATournament play for Carolina to go along with 120 wins and three ties. That loss to George Mason, remarkably, was the last time the Tar Heels lost any game in the decade of the 1980s.  Beginning with the season opener in 1986 and continuing into the 1990 season, Dorrances Tar Heels won 97 games and tied six matches over a stretch of 103 contests.  In 1986, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the finals at Fairfax, Va.  A year later, the Tar Heels downed Massachusetts 1-0 on the Minutewomens home field in the title game.  The 1988 campaign saw the Tar Heels defeat NC State 4-1 in the title game in Chapel Hill.  A year later, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the championship contest at Raleigh, N.C. During this era, the ACC also began championship competition with UNC winning the inaugural title in 1987 in a round robin format.  NC State claimed the 1988 title on a penalty kick shootout against the Tar Heels but Carolina regained the title in 1989 and has won all but seven conference tournament championships since then. Connecticut snapped a 103-match UNC unbeaten streak that had started in 1986 by defeating the Tar Heels 3-2 in overtime at Storrs, Conn. on September 22, 1990.  The Tar Heels rebounded from that lone defeat to win their fifth straight NCAA crown in 1990, avenging the only blemish on their season by beating the Huskies in the final game 6-0 in Chapel Hill. National Team Duties Along the way, Dorrances love of a challenge prompted him to take the coaching job for the U.S. Womens National Team just a year into its existence in 1986.  In a short time, Dorrance took the National Team to the vertex of the worlds most popular sport.  On November 30, 1991, Dorrance led the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Norway to claim the initial World Cup championship.  The win came just six days after assistant coach Bill Palladino, acting as interim head coach, led UNCto a 3-1 NCAA title game win over Wisconsin for Carolinas sixth NCAA title in a row. Dorrance was the architect of the World Cup triumph, a win tinged with a Carolina Blue hue.  Not only was Dorrance coaching the U.S. team, but nine of the 18 players competed collegiately at North Carolina and his assistant coach was former UNC player Lauren Gregg. The next year, Dorrance assembled what many soccer observers have labeled the best college soccer team in history.  That edition of the Tar Heels finished the season undefeated (25-0), claimed the ACC championship for the fourth straight year and won the NCAA title for the seventh consecutive time.  Carolinas 9-1 NCAA championship game victory over Duke was as thorough as the final score would lead one to believe and was a nonpareil way for the Heels to finish the year. In 1993, UNC won the NCAA championship with an unsullied record of 23-0.  The Tar Heels whitewashed George Mason 6-0 before what was then a collegiate womens soccer record crowd of 5,721 fans at Fetzer Field.  Mia Hamm capped her brilliant career at Carolina that day and went on to win unanimous national player of the year honors for the second year in a row. 92 Wins in a Row Amongst all the coaching jobs that Dorrance has done during his career, the one that culminated in the 1994 NCAA championship may be the most impressive.  Dorrance was able to rally the Tar Heels after arch-rival Duke ended a 101-game unbeaten streak by beating Carolina 3-2 on October 19, 1994.  The loss came 17 days after Notre Dame had snapped a 92-game Carolina winning streak by playing the Heels to a scoreless tie. UNC ran the table after the loss to Duke and NCAA Tournament wins over NC State, Duke, Connecticut and Notre Dame added a 13th national title to Dorrances coaching resume.  Tar Heel midfielder Tisha Venturini was selected as the 1994 National Player of the Year, marking the seventh straight season in which the national player of the year came from the ranks of Carolina players. The 1994 season presaged a sea change in the college game.  With the proliferation of available talent and the vast increase in the number of college programs, parity was quickly becoming a part of the womens game.  While the Tar Heels still led the way in terms of consistent excellence, one of the big news stories of 1995 was the fact Carolina failed to win the national title in womens soccer for the first time in 10 years.  The Tar Heels, seeded No. 1 in the NCAA bracket with a 25-0 mark, were upset by Notre Dame 1-0 in the 1995 NCAA semifinals. Relinquishing the title to Notre Dame in 1995 only fueled the teams competitive fire the next season.  Dorrance took a team that returned nine starters and molded it into another victorious unit by seasons end.  In the ninth game of the season, Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 2-1 in overtime and became the first college team to beat UNCin successive meetings.  Carolina regrouped and the Tar Heels whipped William & Mary, James Madison and Florida in the opening three rounds of the NCAA tourney before defeating Santa Clara 2-1 on its home field in the semifinals.  Two days later UNC proved it was still at the acme of womens college soccer, beating defending champion Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime to claim the 1996 crown. A Dynamite Defense in 1997 Dorrance turned in another magnificent coaching job as the Tar Heels wound up in the winners circle again in 1997.  Honored by Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times as the national coach of the year, Dorrance spearheaded a Carolina campaign that resulted in a 27-0-1 record.  The 27 victories were an NCAA record and UNC tied its own NCAA record by shutting out 22 opponents during the campaign. After seeing the 1998 NCAA title elude the Tar Heels, Carolina fans were able to find solace in the performance of the U.S. team which competed in the 1999 Womens World Cup.  The 20-person roster featured eight Tar Heel players Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Tracy Noonan, Lorrie Fair and Tiffany Roberts and UNCalumna Lauren Gregg as a U.S. assistant coach.  The Tar Heel-laden composition of the World Cup Team, which reclaimed the championship it had relinquished in 1995, once again stood as a testament to the indelible contributions Dorrance has made to U.S. soccer. Back-To-Back National Championships Basking in the glow of a World Cup title featuring so many ties to the program, Carolinas collegiate dominance seemed to be in doubt when just eight games into the 1999 season the Tar Heels sported a 6-2 record.  The two losses were the most in a season since 1985.  But Dorrance led Carolina to 18 wins in a row and another NCAA championship.  Lorrie Fair earned national player of the year accolades, but in many regards the 1999 team was a squad without star presence, just incredible unity of purpose. A year later, the 2000 Carolina team suffered the programs most losses in a season in 20 years but again won ACC and NCAA titles.  Three times in six NCAA Tournament games, Carolina trailed its opponent 1-0 midway through the second half.  All three times, the Tar Heels came from behind to win 2-1 in regulation time en route to another national title. After a two-year hiatus from the awards stand, UNC reclaimed the NCAA title in 2003 with its most dominant team in a decade.  Carolina became the first team since the Tar Heels of 1993 to go undefeated and untied, finishing with a perfect 27-0 mark while winning its 15th straight ACC title and its 18th national championship.  Led by co-national players of the year Lindsay Tarpley and Catherine Reddick, Carolina outscored its opponents 132-11, including an amazing 32-0 margin in six NCAA Tournament matches. Another Quartet of National Titles In 2006, Dorrance turned in one of the best coaching jobs of his career in piloting UNC to its 19th national championship.  He was the unanimous choice as the national coach of the year after leading Carolina to a 27-1 balance sheet.  The Tar Heels accomplished these heroics while starting six freshmen for most of the season.  In fact, seven freshmen took the field for the start of the second half of UNCs 2-1 NCAA championship game win over Notre Dame.   In 2008, UNCcaptured its 20th national championship with a team that started 4-1-1 but went 21-0-1 in its final 22 matches.  Led by national player of the year Casey Nogueira, who led the nation in scoring with 25 goals, Carolina defeated two unbeaten teams in the College Cup, downing UCLA 1-0 and Notre Dame 2-1, to win the NCAA title.  Nogueira scored two second-half goals to rally UNC past the Fighting Irish in the final game. A year later, the Tar Heels turned in one of the best defensive efforts in school history en route to a 21st national crown.  Senior defender Whitney Engen was a National Player of the Year honoree and the defensive MVP of the ACC and she led a team that allowed only 12 goals and posted 19 shutouts. Carolina allowed only two goals in the final 11 games of the season as the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament hardware over Florida State 3-0 and the NCAA Tournament title over Stanford 1-0. Carolina won the most unlikely of its 22 national crowns in 2012 after finishing the regular season with a mundane 10-5-2 ledger.  But the Heels caught fire in the post-season, winning three overtime games and downing regional No. 1 seeds in each of the last three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  Crystal Dunn was the consensus National Player of the Year and the winner of the ACCs Top Female athlete accolade for 2012-13 while Amber Brooks took home player of the season accolades from Top Drawer Soccer. Dorrances Start In Coaching Ironically, Dorrances career plans did not originally include coaching a womens team.  He began his coaching career at Carolina as the designated head coach for the mens team in 1976 during Marvin Allens last year as head coach.  He took over as mens coach the following year and served for 12 years in that role, posting a 172-65-21 record.  His team won the ACC Tournament championship in 1987.  He took the Tar Heels to the 1987 NCAA College Cup semifinals and the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.  Dorrances .708 winning percentage is second amongst Carolinas mens soccer coaches all-time and his 172 wins rank third in school history behind Elmar Bolowich, whom Dorrance brought to Carolina as an assistant mens coach in 1987, and Dr. Marvin Allen, the founder of the program in 1947, and the man who coached Dorrance at Carolina. Since being named the womens head coach in 1979, Carolina has a 777-58-31 record under Dorrance and only nine times in 36 years have the Tar Heels lost more than two games in a single season.  The Tar Heels 21 NCAA crowns are more than any other womens NCAA Division I sports program in the history (Stanford womens tennis is second with 17), and the 22 national championships overall are more than any single sports program in ACC history, mens or womens. A Host of National Players of the Year Over the years, 19 different Tar Heels have been named national players of the year under Dorrances direction April Heinrichs in 1984 and 1986, Shannon Higgins in 1988 and 1989, Kristine Lilly in 1990 and 1991, Mia Hamm in 1992 and 1993, Tisha Venturini in 1994, Debbie Keller in 1995 and 1996, Staci Wilson in 1995, Cindy Parlow in 1996, 1997 and 1998, Robin Confer in 1997, Lorrie Fair in 1999, Meredith Florance in 2000, Lindsay Tarpley in 2003, Catherine Reddick in 2003, Heather OReilly in 2006, Yael Averbuch in 2006, Casey Nogueira in 2008, Whitney Engen in 2009 and Crystal Dunn and Amber Brooks in 2012. Coach of the Year Honors Galore Dorrance has been named national coach of the year for coaching both women and men.  He earned womens national honors in 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 and he was named mens national coach of the year in 1987. Dorrance has been named the Southeast Region coach of the year in 1989, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008.  In 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, he was named the ACC Womens Soccer Coach of the Year. In 1996, Dorrance received the highest honor possible from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America when he won the Walt Chyzowych Award for lifetime coaching achievement.  In 2007, he won the Bill Jeffrey Award from the NSCAA for raising intercollegiate soccer to new heights through his long-term dedication to the game.  In 2011, the NSCAA accorded him its prestigious NSCAA Honor Award. Honors from His Peers Dorrance was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988, Carolinas highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another cherished honor when the athletic department designated him a Priceless Gem.  This honor is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. In 1995, Dorrances program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, Dynasty.  The movie focused in particular on the Tar Heels amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994, and it included in-depth interviews with both current and former Tar Heel players.  Another documentary about the UNCprogram, Winning Isnt Everything, was released in DVD format following the 2007 season. In the fall of 2003, Sports Illustrated On Campus magazine named UNCs womens soccer program as the greatest college dynasty of all-time. Dorrance has also coauthored two books.  He combined with Tim Nash to write Training Soccer Champions in 1996.  It sold out in its first printing and did equally well in its second press run.  Dorrance also co-authored the award-winning The Vision of a Champion with Gloria Averbuch.  It was published in 2003 and almost immediately went to second and third printings.  In 2006, The Man Watching by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers debuted to smashing reviews and amazing sales success. Following the U.S. victory in the Womens World Cup in 1991, Dorrance received an Honorary All-America Award, one of the most prestigious of its kind, from the NSCAA. In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer during the previous two decades.  Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer.  Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only womens coach tapped. In 2002, Dorrance was selected for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, joining his mentor, Dr. Marvin Allen, who was in the initial class inducted into the Hall.  More accolades were bestowed on Dorrance with his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, 2005 and to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008. Dorrance In His College Years A 1974 University of North Carolina graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy, Dorrance originally enrolled at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent one semester studying and playing soccer. He then transferred to Carolina to play for Marvin Allen. Dorrances natural gifts on the pitch led to his selection to the All-ACC Team three times as an undergraduate and he won All-South Regionhonors in 1973.  He was named in 2002 as one of the Top 50 mens soccer players in ACC history.  He was also one of the top intramural sports performers on the Carolina campus during his days as an undergraduate. Dorrance has an A level coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He was a charter member of the NCAA Womens Soccer Committee and he also served as the womens chairman of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America.  He is the former chairman of the NCAA Mens and Womens Soccer Rules Committee and one of the few coaches in the country to qualify as a national staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.  He formerly was involved in training coaches and awarding coaching licenses as part of the NSCAA Coaching Academy.  In the summer of 2003, he was named to the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrances summer soccer camps for women are the most popular in the nation.  The camps sell out well in advance.  Dorrance has even hosted a version of the famous camp in England. The Dorrance Family Albert Anson Dorrance, IV, was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and he is married to MLiss Gary Dorrance.  The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in August 2016. MLiss Dorrance is a former professional ballet dancer who teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, which she cofounded in 1980. When MLiss is not watching soccer games on the weekends she is rehearsing her choreography for Chapel Hill Dance Theatre productions. The Dorrances have three grown children. Michelle, a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, is an internationally renowned multi-award winning rhythm tap dancer residing in New York City where she is on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and director/founder of Dorrance Dance/NY.  Dorrance Dance was presented in the fall of 2014 by Carolina Performing Arts at Memorial Hall as part of their 10th anniversary season.  Dorrance Dance returns to the Carolina Performing Arts series in Chapel Hill in September 2016. Natalie Dorrance Harris, a UNCgraduate, is a part-time librarian and helps administrate the North Carolina Girls Soccer Camp team camps, amongst the most popular youth camps in America.  She and attorney husband David Harris, a University of North Carolinalaw school graduate, are the proud parents of Finley Dorrance Harris.  The Dorrance familys first grandchild was born in April 2009. Donovan Dorrance, a 2013 UNC graduate with a B.A. in philosophy, is currently working for his sister Michelle as an assistant to the director, media controller and musician of Dorrance Dance/NY. Dorrances soccer origins stem from his youth when he lived overseas.  He resided in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland while growing up.  His family moved all around the world following his fathers assignments as an international businessman.  Additional members of the Dorrance clan residing in Chapel Hill include his brother Pete, a co-owner of six prominent Triangle area restaurants, and Petes wife Dolly Hunter, a former UNC head field hockey and softball coach.  Carolinas biggest soccer fan, Anson Dorrances mother Peggy, passed away at the age of 87 in October 2014 and has been sorely missed in the Fetzer Field stands over the past two Carolina womens soccer campaigns. DORRANCE DATA Head Coach Anson Dorrance is now in his 38th season as the Tar Heels head mentor.  His teams have an all-time record of 792-63-32 (.911).  Under Anson Dorrance, UNChas won 22 national championships, including 21 NCAA crowns and one AIAWtitle, 21 regular-season ACC titles and 20 ACCTournament championships.  During his tenure, Dorrances teams are 185-24-7 in ACCregular-season games, 59-5-4 in ACCTournament matches and 121-11-3 in NCAATournament games.  UNC is 339-26-11 in home games in its history and 453-37-21 in games played on the road and at neutral sites.  Under Dorrance, UNC has won 91.1 percent of its games overall, 87.3 percent of its ACC regular-season games, 89.7 percent of its ACC Tournament games, 90.7 percent of its NCAA Tournament games, 91.6 percent of its home games and 90.7 percent of its road and neutral site games. In the programs 37-year history, totaling 887 games, Carolina has shut out opponents 555 times and has been held scoreless in just 46 games. Carolinas National Team Coaching Connections Anson Dorrance, 73, was the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team from 1986-94.  He was the head coach of the 1991 World Cup Team which won the gold medal. Lauren Gregg, 83, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1987-99.  She was an assistant coach at the 1991 World Cup (gold), 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold) and 1999 World Cup (gold). April Heinrichs, 87, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1995-2000 and the head coach from 2000-05.  She served on staffs for the 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold), 1999 World Cup (gold), 2000 Olympics (silver), 2003 World Cup (bronze) and 2004 Olympics (gold). Bill Palladino, 72, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 2002-03.  He served on the staff which won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Cup. Marcia McDermott, 87, was an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team.  She served on the staff which won the silver medal at the 2011 World Cup and captured gold at the 2012 Olympics. Carolinas Influences On The Game Current and former UNCplayers have been staples on World Cup rosters as both players and coaches.  The 1991 U.S. World Cup roster featured nine players and two coaches; the 1995 U.S. World Cup roster featured seven players and two coaches; the 1999 U.S. World Cup roster featured eight players and one coach; the 2003 U.S. World Cup roster featured six players and two coaches; the 2007 U.S. World Cup roster featured five players as well as one former player being on the Canadian roster; the 2011 U.S. World Cup roster featured two U.S. players and one coach and there was one player on the Canadian roster.  In the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup, six former Tar Heels played on the U.S. Team which won gold while other Tar Heels competed for England, Canada and New Zealand. Olympic Team rosters have also been filled with Tar Heel coaches and players.  The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team included seven players and two coaches; the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team included six players and two coaches; the 2004 U.S. team included six players and two coaches; in the 2008 Olympic Games four players competed on the U.S. squad and one player was on the Canadian roster; in 2012, two Tar Heels competed for the U.S. and one for Canada; while in 2016, five former Tar Heels played for the U.S. and one for New Zealand. 55 Carolina players have earned caps with the United States National Team since its founding in 1985. North Carolina featured the largest alumnae class of players drafted by teams for the inaugural season of Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009 with 13. Four Tar Heels played on WPS champion Sky Blue FC in 2009.  In 2010, four Tar Heels were taken in the top eight picks of the WPS draft and seven players were chosen overall.  In the 2010 season, UNC was represented by 17 players in WPS.  In the 2011 season, UNC was represented by 15 players in WPS.  In 2011, three Tar Heels Yael Averbuch, Whitney Engen and Ashlyn Harris were members of the WPS champion Western New York Flash. The National Womens Soccer League opened play in 2013 with 13 former Tar Heels on squads.  In addition, three former UNC players competed professionally in Sweden with one each in Germany, England and France.  Cindy Parlow, 98, coached Portland Thorns FC to the inaugural NWSL title in 2013.  Several Tar Heels were key players on that team. The top two picks in the 2014 NWSL draft were Tar Heels Crystal Dunn and Kealia Ohai.  All six seniors on the 2013 team signed professional contracts five with the NWSL and one in Sweden.  Nineteen Tar Heels were on opening day 2014 NWSL rosters.  Satara Murray signed a contract to play with Liverpool LFC following the conclusion of her senior year in 2014. In 2016, a total of 16 former Tar Heels were on opening day rosters in the National Womens Soccer League.  In the 2016 NWSL Draft, UNC had four players taken - Katie Bowen, Alexa Newfield, Paige Nielsen and Summer Green - the most of any university in the nation. Anson Dorrance enters his 40th year of service to the University of North Carolina soccer programs in the fall of 2016.  Dorrance, a 1974 Tar Heel alumnus, debuted as the Carolina mens soccer coach in September of 1977 and then added duties as head coach and founder of the UNC womens program in September of 1979. A former U.S. Womens National Team head coach and current University of North Carolina head womens soccer coach, Anson Dorrance was named the 2016 winner of the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award from United States Soccer on January 29, 2016. As U.S. Soccers highest honor, the Werner Fricker Builder Award is given to an individual or group of individuals who have dedicated at least 20 years of service to the sport, working to establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States. The award recognizes those who have developed programs that will outlast their own involvement in the sport. When Dorrance was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008, it marked one more milestone moment in the career of a man whose coaching prowess became legendary at a young age.  Because Dorrance has not yet retired from his coaching career, he was only eligible for election to the Hall of Fame on the Builders of the Game ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility. Like fine wine with age the coaching career of Anson Dorrance only gets better. It was just a year ago in 2015 when Tar Heel soccer stayed in the international news as nine University of North Carolina standouts competed in the FIFA Womens World Cup.  Six former UNC players helped the U.S. win its first title since 1999, including starters Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.  Tar Heel Lucy Bronze led England to its best ever World Cup finish as it gained a bronze medal. Winning Championships In 2012, Dorrance led the Tar Heels against one of the best College Cup fields in history as North Carolina won its 22nd overall national title and its 21st NCAA crown.  When UNC won the NCAA crown in 2009, Dorrance became the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 championships coaching a single sport. Head coach of the Carolina womens soccer program since its inception in 1979, Dorrance has built and guided a well-oiled winning machine.  Under his direction, the Tar Heels have collected national and conference championships at a stupendous rate, compiled an overall record staggering in its numerical verity, established records likely never to be approached and procured the esteem befitting a dynasty. At an institution familiar with such incomparable achievement, especially with regard to its storied basketball program, it might be possible to think that Dorrances accomplishments could somehow fade to the background.  But what he has done at UNC is simply impossible to ignore. Thus, when an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of the Best Coaches of the Past Quarter Century on July 28, 2004 coincidentally headed at the No. 1 spot by the late legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith it came as no big surprise that another deserving Tar Heel mentor made the list.  That Dorrance was one of only two coaches in the prestigious collection to coach an Olympic sport on the collegiate level speaks even louder about his recognized greatness. More recently, Beckett Entertainment released a magazine in which it named the Top 30 Sports Dynasties of all-time.  UNCs womens soccer program success from 1982-2000 was rated the sixth best dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, the 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA mens basketball, the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and the 1953-60 Montreal Canadiens.  Of the Top 30 programs named only four involved collegiate programs. As Dorrance prepares to begin his 38th season as the head coach at Carolina in the fall of 2016, some folks must be wondering if there is anything left to be accomplished.  Chances are excellent that Dorrance will find something. Praise From Coach Smith It is said that greatness recognizes fellow greatness.   Perhaps there is no better example of that than the quote Dean Smith gave Football News Magazine in 1997.  Smith was asked by Football News about Carolinas preseason No. 1 ranking in football and what it was like for some sport other than basketball to be ranked No. 1. Coach Smiths reply  This is a womens soccer school.  Were just trying to keep up with them.  Coach Smiths clever retort was his way of giving Dorrance his due. From the person who was then the winningest head coach of all-time in one sport to the winningest head coach of all-time in another sport, the comment struck Dorrance as the ultimate honor.  As Dorrance has said, So much of what we have tried to do in our program is modeled after what Dean Smith accomplished.  To have our program compared favorably to his by the man himself was enormously humbling. Similarly, Dorrances immense loyalty to Carolina mirrors the loyalty Smith possessed for his adopted school.  In 1994, when Dorrance decided not to continue his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team, the choice perplexed many. Some thought he relinquished the honor in order to avoid the pressure that comes with being the leader of what was then the defending World Cup championship squad.  But Dorrances decision had everything to do with allegiance to his alma mater. The glory that came with coaching the U.S. to the championship in the first-ever Womens World Cup in 1991 was not enough to pull Dorrance away from his true professional love working full-time with the Tar Heels.  He wanted to increase the level of excellence that soccer fans had come to expect from the record-shattering program he had molded from scratch.  To do that Dorrance knew he would have to dedicate all of his coaching energy to the University.  With more elite-level players emerging from high school and club teams than ever before, the playing field in the college game was leveling out; Dorrance knew that for UNC to remain at the top, he would have to throw himself into the process with renewed vigor. College programs like ours require a lot of work, says Dorrance.  At that point in time we had been surviving by just doing the minimum amount of work. We certainly couldnt continue to be successful by doing just the minimum.  We needed the extra time to stay competitive in an increasingly tough college game. A prime example of what Dorrance meant about a leveling playing field is the fact UNC has captured only seven of the past 18 NCAA championships from 1998-2015 when compared to the era from 1981 through 1997 when Carolina dominated the competition, winning 15 of 17 collegiate titles.   Simply Staggering Numbers It is difficult to comprehend Dorrance taking Carolinas womens program to any greater heights than what it has already achieved.  Yet, for a program consumed with striving for excellence, a national championship every season remains the goal, pure and simple. It is this relentless attitude that has helped the Tar Heels win a mind-blowing 22 of the 35 national championships that have been decided in the history of collegiate womens soccer.  Only two other schools in the country have won as many as two titles Portland in 2002 and 2005 and Notre Dame in 1995, 2004 and 2010.  Eight other schools have won one each George Mason (1985), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001), USC (2007), Stanford (2011), UCLA (2013), Florida State (2014) and Penn State (2015). Carolina has also captured 20 of the 28 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships since the sport was given title status by the league in 1988.  Carolinas all-time record in ACC Tournament play is 59-5-4 and the first loss did not come until 2011.  UNCalso won the initial 1987 ACCtitle when it was held in a round-robin format at the end of the regular season to determine the champion.  All told, the Tar Heels are 792-63-32 in the 37-year history of the program, a winning percentage of .911. When Carolina decided to make womens soccer a varsity sport in 1979, Dorrance became a two-sport head coach as he was already in his third year coaching the mens team at Carolina.  Dorrances brilliance at coaching women manifested itself almost immediately as it took just three years before the Tar Heels won a national championship, capturing the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title. Beginning with that championship, the Tar Heels have won 62.9 percent of the titles ever decided in the sport. Carolina went on to claim three national titles in a row after the NCAA began sponsorship of the sport in the fall of 1982. UNCnetted NCAA championship game wins in 1982 over UCF, in 1983 over George Mason and in 1984 over Connecticut.  The Tar Heels made it to the NCAA title game in 1985, but lost to George Mason 2-0 on the Patriots home field the first of only 10 losses in NCAATournament play for Carolina to go along with 120 wins and three ties. That loss to George Mason, remarkably, was the last time the Tar Heels lost any game in the decade of the 1980s.  Beginning with the season opener in 1986 and continuing into the 1990 season, Dorrances Tar Heels won 97 games and tied six matches over a stretch of 103 contests.  In 1986, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the finals at Fairfax, Va.  A year later, the Tar Heels downed Massachusetts 1-0 on the Minutewomens home field in the title game.  The 1988 campaign saw the Tar Heels defeat NC State 4-1 in the title game in Chapel Hill.  A year later, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the championship contest at Raleigh, N.C. During this era, the ACC also began championship competition with UNC winning the inaugural title in 1987 in a round robin format.  NC State claimed the 1988 title on a penalty kick shootout against the Tar Heels but Carolina regained the title in 1989 and has won all but seven conference tournament championships since then. Connecticut snapped a 103-match UNC unbeaten streak that had started in 1986 by defeating the Tar Heels 3-2 in overtime at Storrs, Conn. on September 22, 1990.  The Tar Heels rebounded from that lone defeat to win their fifth straight NCAA crown in 1990, avenging the only blemish on their season by beating the Huskies in the final game 6-0 in Chapel Hill. National Team Duties Along the way, Dorrances love of a challenge prompted him to take the coaching job for the U.S. Womens National Team just a year into its existence in 1986.  In a short time, Dorrance took the National Team to the vertex of the worlds most popular sport.  On November 30, 1991, Dorrance led the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Norway to claim the initial World Cup championship.  The win came just six days after assistant coach Bill Palladino, acting as interim head coach, led UNCto a 3-1 NCAA title game win over Wisconsin for Carolinas sixth NCAA title in a row. Dorrance was the architect of the World Cup triumph, a win tinged with a Carolina Blue hue.  Not only was Dorrance coaching the U.S. team, but nine of the 18 players competed collegiately at North Carolina and his assistant coach was former UNC player Lauren Gregg. The next year, Dorrance assembled what many soccer observers have labeled the best college soccer team in history.  That edition of the Tar Heels finished the season undefeated (25-0), claimed the ACC championship for the fourth straight year and won the NCAA title for the seventh consecutive time.  Carolinas 9-1 NCAA championship game victory over Duke was as thorough as the final score would lead one to believe and was a nonpareil way for the Heels to finish the year. In 1993, UNC won the NCAA championship with an unsullied record of 23-0.  The Tar Heels whitewashed George Mason 6-0 before what was then a collegiate womens soccer record crowd of 5,721 fans at Fetzer Field.  Mia Hamm capped her brilliant career at Carolina that day and went on to win unanimous national player of the year honors for the second year in a row. 92 Wins in a Row Amongst all the coaching jobs that Dorrance has done during his career, the one that culminated in the 1994 NCAA championship may be the most impressive.  Dorrance was able to rally the Tar Heels after arch-rival Duke ended a 101-game unbeaten streak by beating Carolina 3-2 on October 19, 1994.  The loss came 17 days after Notre Dame had snapped a 92-game Carolina winning streak by playing the Heels to a scoreless tie. UNC ran the table after the loss to Duke and NCAA Tournament wins over NC State, Duke, Connecticut and Notre Dame added a 13th national title to Dorrances coaching resume.  Tar Heel midfielder Tisha Venturini was selected as the 1994 National Player of the Year, marking the seventh straight season in which the national player of the year came from the ranks of Carolina players. The 1994 season presaged a sea change in the college game.  With the proliferation of available talent and the vast increase in the number of college programs, parity was quickly becoming a part of the womens game.  While the Tar Heels still led the way in terms of consistent excellence, one of the big news stories of 1995 was the fact Carolina failed to win the national title in womens soccer for the first time in 10 years.  The Tar Heels, seeded No. 1 in the NCAA bracket with a 25-0 mark, were upset by Notre Dame 1-0 in the 1995 NCAA semifinals. Relinquishing the title to Notre Dame in 1995 only fueled the teams competitive fire the next season.  Dorrance took a team that returned nine starters and molded it into another victorious unit by seasons end.  In the ninth game of the season, Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 2-1 in overtime and became the first college team to beat UNCin successive meetings.  Carolina regrouped and the Tar Heels whipped William & Mary, James Madison and Florida in the opening three rounds of the NCAA tourney before defeating Santa Clara 2-1 on its home field in the semifinals.  Two days later UNC proved it was still at the acme of womens college soccer, beating defending champion Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime to claim the 1996 crown. A Dynamite Defense in 1997 Dorrance turned in another magnificent coaching job as the Tar Heels wound up in the winners circle again in 1997.  Honored by Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times as the national coach of the year, Dorrance spearheaded a Carolina campaign that resulted in a 27-0-1 record.  The 27 victories were an NCAA record and UNC tied its own NCAA record by shutting out 22 opponents during the campaign. After seeing the 1998 NCAA title elude the Tar Heels, Carolina fans were able to find solace in the performance of the U.S. team which competed in the 1999 Womens World Cup.  The 20-person roster featured eight Tar Heel players Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Tracy Noonan, Lorrie Fair and Tiffany Roberts and UNCalumna Lauren Gregg as a U.S. assistant coach.  The Tar Heel-laden composition of the World Cup Team, which reclaimed the championship it had relinquished in 1995, once again stood as a testament to the indelible contributions Dorrance has made to U.S. soccer. Back-To-Back National Championships Basking in the glow of a World Cup title featuring so many ties to the program, Carolinas collegiate dominance seemed to be in doubt when just eight games into the 1999 season the Tar Heels sported a 6-2 record.  The two losses were the most in a season since 1985.  But Dorrance led Carolina to 18 wins in a row and another NCAA championship.  Lorrie Fair earned national player of the year accolades, but in many regards the 1999 team was a squad without star presence, just incredible unity of purpose. A year later, the 2000 Carolina team suffered the programs most losses in a season in 20 years but again won ACC and NCAA titles.  Three times in six NCAA Tournament games, Carolina trailed its opponent 1-0 midway through the second half.  All three times, the Tar Heels came from behind to win 2-1 in regulation time en route to another national title. After a two-year hiatus from the awards stand, UNC reclaimed the NCAA title in 2003 with its most dominant team in a decade.  Carolina became the first team since the Tar Heels of 1993 to go undefeated and untied, finishing with a perfect 27-0 mark while winning its 15th straight ACC title and its 18th national championship.  Led by co-national players of the year Lindsay Tarpley and Catherine Reddick, Carolina outscored its opponents 132-11, including an amazing 32-0 margin in six NCAA Tournament matches. Another Quartet of National Titles In 2006, Dorrance turned in one of the best coaching jobs of his career in piloting UNC to its 19th national championship.  He was the unanimous choice as the national coach of the year after leading Carolina to a 27-1 balance sheet.  The Tar Heels accomplished these heroics while starting six freshmen for most of the season.  In fact, seven freshmen took the field for the start of the second half of UNCs 2-1 NCAA championship game win over Notre Dame.   In 2008, UNCcaptured its 20th national championship with a team that started 4-1-1 but went 21-0-1 in its final 22 matches.  Led by national player of the year Casey Nogueira, who led the nation in scoring with 25 goals, Carolina defeated two unbeaten teams in the College Cup, downing UCLA 1-0 and Notre Dame 2-1, to win the NCAA title.  Nogueira scored two second-half goals to rally UNC past the Fighting Irish in the final game. A year later, the Tar Heels turned in one of the best defensive efforts in school history en route to a 21st national crown.  Senior defender Whitney Engen was a National Player of the Year honoree and the defensive MVP of the ACC and she led a team that allowed only 12 goals and posted 19 shutouts. Carolina allowed only two goals in the final 11 games of the season as the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament hardware over Florida State 3-0 and the NCAA Tournament title over Stanford 1-0. Carolina won the most unlikely of its 22 national crowns in 2012 after finishing the regular season with a mundane 10-5-2 ledger.  But the Heels caught fire in the post-season, winning three overtime games and downing regional No. 1 seeds in each of the last three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  Crystal Dunn was the consensus National Player of the Year and the winner of the ACCs Top Female athlete accolade for 2012-13 while Amber Brooks took home player of the season accolades from Top Drawer Soccer. Dorrances Start In Coaching Ironically, Dorrances career plans did not originally include coaching a womens team.  He began his coaching career at Carolina as the designated head coach for the mens team in 1976 during Marvin Allens last year as head coach.  He took over as mens coach the following year and served for 12 years in that role, posting a 172-65-21 record.  His team won the ACC Tournament championship in 1987.  He took the Tar Heels to the 1987 NCAA College Cup semifinals and the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.  Dorrances .708 winning percentage is second amongst Carolinas mens soccer coaches all-time and his 172 wins rank third in school history behind Elmar Bolowich, whom Dorrance brought to Carolina as an assistant mens coach in 1987, and Dr. Marvin Allen, the founder of the program in 1947, and the man who coached Dorrance at Carolina. Since being named the womens head coach in 1979, Carolina has a 777-58-31 record under Dorrance and only nine times in 36 years have the Tar Heels lost more than two games in a single season.  The Tar Heels 21 NCAA crowns are more than any other womens NCAA Division I sports program in the history (Stanford womens tennis is second with 17), and the 22 national championships overall are more than any single sports program in ACC history, mens or womens. A Host of National Players of the Year Over the years, 19 different Tar Heels have been named national players of the year under Dorrances direction April Heinrichs in 1984 and 1986, Shannon Higgins in 1988 and 1989, Kristine Lilly in 1990 and 1991, Mia Hamm in 1992 and 1993, Tisha Venturini in 1994, Debbie Keller in 1995 and 1996, Staci Wilson in 1995, Cindy Parlow in 1996, 1997 and 1998, Robin Confer in 1997, Lorrie Fair in 1999, Meredith Florance in 2000, Lindsay Tarpley in 2003, Catherine Reddick in 2003, Heather OReilly in 2006, Yael Averbuch in 2006, Casey Nogueira in 2008, Whitney Engen in 2009 and Crystal Dunn and Amber Brooks in 2012. Coach of the Year Honors Galore Dorrance has been named national coach of the year for coaching both women and men.  He earned womens national honors in 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 and he was named mens national coach of the year in 1987. Dorrance has been named the Southeast Region coach of the year in 1989, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008.  In 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, he was named the ACC Womens Soccer Coach of the Year. In 1996, Dorrance received the highest honor possible from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America when he won the Walt Chyzowych Award for lifetime coaching achievement.  In 2007, he won the Bill Jeffrey Award from the NSCAA for raising intercollegiate soccer to new heights through his long-term dedication to the game.  In 2011, the NSCAA accorded him its prestigious NSCAA Honor Award. Honors from His Peers Dorrance was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988, Carolinas highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another cherished honor when the athletic department designated him a Priceless Gem.  This honor is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. In 1995, Dorrances program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, Dynasty.  The movie focused in particular on the Tar Heels amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994, and it included in-depth interviews with both current and former Tar Heel players.  Another documentary about the UNCprogram, Winning Isnt Everything, was released in DVD format following the 2007 season. In the fall of 2003, Sports Illustrated On Campus magazine named UNCs womens soccer program as the greatest college dynasty of all-time. Dorrance has also coauthored two books.  He combined with Tim Nash to write Training Soccer Champions in 1996.  It sold out in its first printing and did equally well in its second press run.  Dorrance also co-authored the award-winning The Vision of a Champion with Gloria Averbuch.  It was published in 2003 and almost immediately went to second and third printings.  In 2006, The Man Watching by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers debuted to smashing reviews and amazing sales success. Following the U.S. victory in the Womens World Cup in 1991, Dorrance received an Honorary All-America Award, one of the most prestigious of its kind, from the NSCAA. In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer during the previous two decades.  Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer.  Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only womens coach tapped. In 2002, Dorrance was selected for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, joining his mentor, Dr. Marvin Allen, who was in the initial class inducted into the Hall.  More accolades were bestowed on Dorrance with his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, 2005 and to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008. Dorrance In His College Years A 1974 University of North Carolina graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy, Dorrance originally enrolled at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent one semester studying and playing soccer. He then transferred to Carolina to play for Marvin Allen. Dorrances natural gifts on the pitch led to his selection to the All-ACC Team three times as an undergraduate and he won All-South Regionhonors in 1973.  He was named in 2002 as one of the Top 50 mens soccer players in ACC history.  He was also one of the top intramural sports performers on the Carolina campus during his days as an undergraduate. Dorrance has an A level coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He was a charter member of the NCAA Womens Soccer Committee and he also served as the womens chairman of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America.  He is the former chairman of the NCAA Mens and Womens Soccer Rules Committee and one of the few coaches in the country to qualify as a national staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.  He formerly was involved in training coaches and awarding coaching licenses as part of the NSCAA Coaching Academy.  In the summer of 2003, he was named to the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrances summer soccer camps for women are the most popular in the nation.  The camps sell out well in advance.  Dorrance has even hosted a version of the famous camp in England. The Dorrance Family Albert Anson Dorrance, IV, was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and he is married to MLiss Gary Dorrance.  The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in August 2016. MLiss Dorrance is a former professional ballet dancer who teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, which she cofounded in 1980. When MLiss is not watching soccer games on the weekends she is rehearsing her choreography for Chapel Hill Dance Theatre productions. The Dorrances have three grown children. Michelle, a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, is an internationally renowned multi-award winning rhythm tap dancer residing in New York City where she is on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and director/founder of Dorrance Dance/NY.  Dorrance Dance was presented in the fall of 2014 by Carolina Performing Arts at Memorial Hall as part of their 10th anniversary season.  Dorrance Dance returns to the Carolina Performing Arts series in Chapel Hill in September 2016. Natalie Dorrance Harris, a UNCgraduate, is a part-time librarian and helps administrate the North Carolina Girls Soccer Camp team camps, amongst the most popular youth camps in America.  She and attorney husband David Harris, a University of North Carolinalaw school graduate, are the proud parents of Finley Dorrance Harris.  The Dorrance familys first grandchild was born in April 2009. Donovan Dorrance, a 2013 UNC graduate with a B.A. in philosophy, is currently working for his sister Michelle as an assistant to the director, media controller and musician of Dorrance Dance/NY. Dorrances soccer origins stem from his youth when he lived overseas.  He resided in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland while growing up.  His family moved all around the world following his fathers assignments as an international businessman.  Additional members of the Dorrance clan residing in Chapel Hill include his brother Pete, a co-owner of six prominent Triangle area restaurants, and Petes wife Dolly Hunter, a former UNC head field hockey and softball coach.  Carolinas biggest soccer fan, Anson Dorrances mother Peggy, passed away at the age of 87 in October 2014 and has been sorely missed in the Fetzer Field stands over the past two Carolina womens soccer campaigns. DORRANCE DATA Head Coach Anson Dorrance is now in his 38th season as the Tar Heels head mentor.  His teams have an all-time record of 792-63-32 (.911).  Under Anson Dorrance, UNChas won 22 national championships, including 21 NCAA crowns and one AIAWtitle, 21 regular-season ACC titles and 20 ACCTournament championships.  During his tenure, Dorrances teams are 185-24-7 in ACCregular-season games, 59-5-4 in ACCTournament matches and 121-11-3 in NCAATournament games.  UNC is 339-26-11 in home games in its history and 453-37-21 in games played on the road and at neutral sites.  Under Dorrance, UNC has won 91.1 percent of its games overall, 87.3 percent of its ACC regular-season games, 89.7 percent of its ACC Tournament games, 90.7 percent of its NCAA Tournament games, 91.6 percent of its home games and 90.7 percent of its road and neutral site games. In the programs 37-year history, totaling 887 games, Carolina has shut out opponents 555 times and has been held scoreless in just 46 games. Carolinas National Team Coaching Connections Anson Dorrance, 73, was the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team from 1986-94.  He was the head coach of the 1991 World Cup Team which won the gold medal. Lauren Gregg, 83, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1987-99.  She was an assistant coach at the 1991 World Cup (gold), 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold) and 1999 World Cup (gold). April Heinrichs, 87, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1995-2000 and the head coach from 2000-05.  She served on staffs for the 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold), 1999 World Cup (gold), 2000 Olympics (silver), 2003 World Cup (bronze) and 2004 Olympics (gold). Bill Palladino, 72, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 2002-03.  He served on the staff which won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Cup. Marcia McDermott, 87, was an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team.  She served on the staff which won the silver medal at the 2011 World Cup and captured gold at the 2012 Olympics. Carolinas Influences On The Game Current and former UNCplayers have been staples on World Cup rosters as both players and coaches.  The 1991 U.S. World Cup roster featured nine players and two coaches; the 1995 U.S. World Cup roster featured seven players and two coaches; the 1999 U.S. World Cup roster featured eight players and one coach; the 2003 U.S. World Cup roster featured six players and two coaches; the 2007 U.S. World Cup roster featured five players as well as one former player being on the Canadian roster; the 2011 U.S. World Cup roster featured two U.S. players and one coach and there was one player on the Canadian roster.  In the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup, six former Tar Heels played on the U.S. Team which won gold while other Tar Heels competed for England, Canada and New Zealand. Olympic Team rosters have also been filled with Tar Heel coaches and players.  The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team included seven players and two coaches; the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team included six players and two coaches; the 2004 U.S. team included six players and two coaches; in the 2008 Olympic Games four players competed on the U.S. squad and one player was on the Canadian roster; in 2012, two Tar Heels competed for the U.S. and one for Canada; while in 2016, five former Tar Heels played for the U.S. and one for New Zealand. 55 Carolina players have earned caps with the United States National Team since its founding in 1985. North Carolina featured the largest alumnae class of players drafted by teams for the inaugural season of Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009 with 13. Four Tar Heels played on WPS champion Sky Blue FC in 2009.  In 2010, four Tar Heels were taken in the top eight picks of the WPS draft and seven players were chosen overall.  In the 2010 season, UNC was represented by 17 players in WPS.  In the 2011 season, UNC was represented by 15 players in WPS.  In 2011, three Tar Heels Yael Averbuch, Whitney Engen and Ashlyn Harris were members of the WPS champion Western New York Flash. The National Womens Soccer League opened play in 2013 with 13 former Tar Heels on squads.  In addition, three former UNC players competed professionally in Sweden with one each in Germany, England and France.  Cindy Parlow, 98, coached Portland Thorns FC to the inaugural NWSL title in 2013.  Several Tar Heels were key players on that team. The top two picks in the 2014 NWSL draft were Tar Heels Crystal Dunn and Kealia Ohai.  All six seniors on the 2013 team signed professional contracts five with the NWSL and one in Sweden.  Nineteen Tar Heels were on opening day 2014 NWSL rosters.  Satara Murray signed a contract to play with Liverpool LFC following the conclusion of her senior year in 2014. In 2016, a total of 16 former Tar Heels were on opening day rosters in the National Womens Soccer League.  In the 2016 NWSL Draft, UNC had four players taken - Katie Bowen, Alexa Newfield, Paige Nielsen and Summer Green - the most of any university in the nation. Anson Dorrance enters his 40th year of service to the University of North Carolina soccer programs in the fall of 2016.  Dorrance, a 1974 Tar Heel alumnus, debuted as the Carolina mens soccer coach in September of 1977 and then added duties as head coach and founder of the UNC womens program in September of 1979. A former U.S. Womens National Team head coach and current University of North Carolina head womens soccer coach, Anson Dorrance was named the 2016 winner of the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award from United States Soccer on January 29, 2016. As U.S. Soccers highest honor, the Werner Fricker Builder Award is given to an individual or group of individuals who have dedicated at least 20 years of service to the sport, working to establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States. The award recognizes those who have developed programs that will outlast their own involvement in the sport. When Dorrance was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008, it marked one more milestone moment in the career of a man whose coaching prowess became legendary at a young age.  Because Dorrance has not yet retired from his coaching career, he was only eligible for election to the Hall of Fame on the Builders of the Game ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility. Like fine wine with age the coaching career of Anson Dorrance only gets better. It was just a year ago in 2015 when Tar Heel soccer stayed in the international news as nine University of North Carolina standouts competed in the FIFA Womens World Cup.  Six former UNC players helped the U.S. win its first title since 1999, including starters Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.  Tar Heel Lucy Bronze led England to its best ever World Cup finish as it gained a bronze medal. Winning Championships In 2012, Dorrance led the Tar Heels against one of the best College Cup fields in history as North Carolina won its 22nd overall national title and its 21st NCAA crown.  When UNC won the NCAA crown in 2009, Dorrance became the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 championships coaching a single sport. Head coach of the Carolina womens soccer program since its inception in 1979, Dorrance has built and guided a well-oiled winning machine.  Under his direction, the Tar Heels have collected national and conference championships at a stupendous rate, compiled an overall record staggering in its numerical verity, established records likely never to be approached and procured the esteem befitting a dynasty. At an institution familiar with such incomparable achievement, especially with regard to its storied basketball program, it might be possible to think that Dorrances accomplishments could somehow fade to the background.  But what he has done at UNC is simply impossible to ignore. Thus, when an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of the Best Coaches of the Past Quarter Century on July 28, 2004 coincidentally headed at the No. 1 spot by the late legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith it came as no big surprise that another deserving Tar Heel mentor made the list.  That Dorrance was one of only two coaches in the prestigious collection to coach an Olympic sport on the collegiate level speaks even louder about his recognized greatness. More recently, Beckett Entertainment released a magazine in which it named the Top 30 Sports Dynasties of all-time.  UNCs womens soccer program success from 1982-2000 was rated the sixth best dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, the 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA mens basketball, the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and the 1953-60 Montreal Canadiens.  Of the Top 30 programs named only four involved collegiate programs. As Dorrance prepares to begin his 38th season as the head coach at Carolina in the fall of 2016, some folks must be wondering if there is anything left to be accomplished.  Chances are excellent that Dorrance will find something. Praise From Coach Smith It is said that greatness recognizes fellow greatness.   Perhaps there is no better example of that than the quote Dean Smith gave Football News Magazine in 1997.  Smith was asked by Football News about Carolinas preseason No. 1 ranking in football and what it was like for some sport other than basketball to be ranked No. 1. Coach Smiths reply  This is a womens soccer school.  Were just trying to keep up with them.  Coach Smiths clever retort was his way of giving Dorrance his due. From the person who was then the winningest head coach of all-time in one sport to the winningest head coach of all-time in another sport, the comment struck Dorrance as the ultimate honor.  As Dorrance has said, So much of what we have tried to do in our program is modeled after what Dean Smith accomplished.  To have our program compared favorably to his by the man himself was enormously humbling. Similarly, Dorrances immense loyalty to Carolina mirrors the loyalty Smith possessed for his adopted school.  In 1994, when Dorrance decided not to continue his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team, the choice perplexed many. Some thought he relinquished the honor in order to avoid the pressure that comes with being the leader of what was then the defending World Cup championship squad.  But Dorrances decision had everything to do with allegiance to his alma mater. The glory that came with coaching the U.S. to the championship in the first-ever Womens World Cup in 1991 was not enough to pull Dorrance away from his true professional love working full-time with the Tar Heels.  He wanted to increase the level of excellence that soccer fans had come to expect from the record-shattering program he had molded from scratch.  To do that Dorrance knew he would have to dedicate all of his coaching energy to the University.  With more elite-level players emerging from high school and club teams than ever before, the playing field in the college game was leveling out; Dorrance knew that for UNC to remain at the top, he would have to throw himself into the process with renewed vigor. College programs like ours require a lot of work, says Dorrance.  At that point in time we had been surviving by just doing the minimum amount of work. We certainly couldnt continue to be successful by doing just the minimum.  We needed the extra time to stay competitive in an increasingly tough college game. A prime example of what Dorrance meant about a leveling playing field is the fact UNC has captured only seven of the past 18 NCAA championships from 1998-2015 when compared to the era from 1981 through 1997 when Carolina dominated the competition, winning 15 of 17 collegiate titles.   Simply Staggering Numbers It is difficult to comprehend Dorrance taking Carolinas womens program to any greater heights than what it has already achieved.  Yet, for a program consumed with striving for excellence, a national championship every season remains the goal, pure and simple. It is this relentless attitude that has helped the Tar Heels win a mind-blowing 22 of the 35 national championships that have been decided in the history of collegiate womens soccer.  Only two other schools in the country have won as many as two titles Portland in 2002 and 2005 and Notre Dame in 1995, 2004 and 2010.  Eight other schools have won one each George Mason (1985), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001), USC (2007), Stanford (2011), UCLA (2013), Florida State (2014) and Penn State (2015). Carolina has also captured 20 of the 28 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships since the sport was given title status by the league in 1988.  Carolinas all-time record in ACC Tournament play is 59-5-4 and the first loss did not come until 2011.  UNCalso won the initial 1987 ACCtitle when it was held in a round-robin format at the end of the regular season to determine the champion.  All told, the Tar Heels are 792-63-32 in the 37-year history of the program, a winning percentage of .911. When Carolina decided to make womens soccer a varsity sport in 1979, Dorrance became a two-sport head coach as he was already in his third year coaching the mens team at Carolina.  Dorrances brilliance at coaching women manifested itself almost immediately as it took just three years before the Tar Heels won a national championship, capturing the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title. Beginning with that championship, the Tar Heels have won 62.9 percent of the titles ever decided in the sport. Carolina went on to claim three national titles in a row after the NCAA began sponsorship of the sport in the fall of 1982. UNCnetted NCAA championship game wins in 1982 over UCF, in 1983 over George Mason and in 1984 over Connecticut.  The Tar Heels made it to the NCAA title game in 1985, but lost to George Mason 2-0 on the Patriots home field the first of only 10 losses in NCAATournament play for Carolina to go along with 120 wins and three ties. That loss to George Mason, remarkably, was the last time the Tar Heels lost any game in the decade of the 1980s.  Beginning with the season opener in 1986 and continuing into the 1990 season, Dorrances Tar Heels won 97 games and tied six matches over a stretch of 103 contests.  In 1986, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the finals at Fairfax, Va.  A year later, the Tar Heels downed Massachusetts 1-0 on the Minutewomens home field in the title game.  The 1988 campaign saw the Tar Heels defeat NC State 4-1 in the title game in Chapel Hill.  A year later, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the championship contest at Raleigh, N.C. During this era, the ACC also began championship competition with UNC winning the inaugural title in 1987 in a round robin format.  NC State claimed the 1988 title on a penalty kick shootout against the Tar Heels but Carolina regained the title in 1989 and has won all but seven conference tournament championships since then. Connecticut snapped a 103-match UNC unbeaten streak that had started in 1986 by defeating the Tar Heels 3-2 in overtime at Storrs, Conn. on September 22, 1990.  The Tar Heels rebounded from that lone defeat to win their fifth straight NCAA crown in 1990, avenging the only blemish on their season by beating the Huskies in the final game 6-0 in Chapel Hill. National Team Duties Along the way, Dorrances love of a challenge prompted him to take the coaching job for the U.S. Womens National Team just a year into its existence in 1986.  In a short time, Dorrance took the National Team to the vertex of the worlds most popular sport.  On November 30, 1991, Dorrance led the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Norway to claim the initial World Cup championship.  The win came just six days after assistant coach Bill Palladino, acting as interim head coach, led UNCto a 3-1 NCAA title game win over Wisconsin for Carolinas sixth NCAA title in a row. Dorrance was the architect of the World Cup triumph, a win tinged with a Carolina Blue hue.  Not only was Dorrance coaching the U.S. team, but nine of the 18 players competed collegiately at North Carolina and his assistant coach was former UNC player Lauren Gregg. The next year, Dorrance assembled what many soccer observers have labeled the best college soccer team in history.  That edition of the Tar Heels finished the season undefeated (25-0), claimed the ACC championship for the fourth straight year and won the NCAA title for the seventh consecutive time.  Carolinas 9-1 NCAA championship game victory over Duke was as thorough as the final score would lead one to believe and was a nonpareil way for the Heels to finish the year. In 1993, UNC won the NCAA championship with an unsullied record of 23-0.  The Tar Heels whitewashed George Mason 6-0 before what was then a collegiate womens soccer record crowd of 5,721 fans at Fetzer Field.  Mia Hamm capped her brilliant career at Carolina that day and went on to win unanimous national player of the year honors for the second year in a row. 92 Wins in a Row Amongst all the coaching jobs that Dorrance has done during his career, the one that culminated in the 1994 NCAA championship may be the most impressive.  Dorrance was able to rally the Tar Heels after arch-rival Duke ended a 101-game unbeaten streak by beating Carolina 3-2 on October 19, 1994.  The loss came 17 days after Notre Dame had snapped a 92-game Carolina winning streak by playing the Heels to a scoreless tie. UNC ran the table after the loss to Duke and NCAA Tournament wins over NC State, Duke, Connecticut and Notre Dame added a 13th national title to Dorrances coaching resume.  Tar Heel midfielder Tisha Venturini was selected as the 1994 National Player of the Year, marking the seventh straight season in which the national player of the year came from the ranks of Carolina players. The 1994 season presaged a sea change in the college game.  With the proliferation of available talent and the vast increase in the number of college programs, parity was quickly becoming a part of the womens game.  While the Tar Heels still led the way in terms of consistent excellence, one of the big news stories of 1995 was the fact Carolina failed to win the national title in womens soccer for the first time in 10 years.  The Tar Heels, seeded No. 1 in the NCAA bracket with a 25-0 mark, were upset by Notre Dame 1-0 in the 1995 NCAA semifinals. Relinquishing the title to Notre Dame in 1995 only fueled the teams competitive fire the next season.  Dorrance took a team that returned nine starters and molded it into another victorious unit by seasons end.  In the ninth game of the season, Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 2-1 in overtime and became the first college team to beat UNCin successive meetings.  Carolina regrouped and the Tar Heels whipped William & Mary, James Madison and Florida in the opening three rounds of the NCAA tourney before defeating Santa Clara 2-1 on its home field in the semifinals.  Two days later UNC proved it was still at the acme of womens college soccer, beating defending champion Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime to claim the 1996 crown. A Dynamite Defense in 1997 Dorrance turned in another magnificent coaching job as the Tar Heels wound up in the winners circle again in 1997.  Honored by Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times as the national coach of the year, Dorrance spearheaded a Carolina campaign that resulted in a 27-0-1 record.  The 27 victories were an NCAA record and UNC tied its own NCAA record by shutting out 22 opponents during the campaign. After seeing the 1998 NCAA title elude the Tar Heels, Carolina fans were able to find solace in the performance of the U.S. team which competed in the 1999 Womens World Cup.  The 20-person roster featured eight Tar Heel players Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Tracy Noonan, Lorrie Fair and Tiffany Roberts and UNCalumna Lauren Gregg as a U.S. assistant coach.  The Tar Heel-laden composition of the World Cup Team, which reclaimed the championship it had relinquished in 1995, once again stood as a testament to the indelible contributions Dorrance has made to U.S. soccer. Back-To-Back National Championships Basking in the glow of a World Cup title featuring so many ties to the program, Carolinas collegiate dominance seemed to be in doubt when just eight games into the 1999 season the Tar Heels sported a 6-2 record.  The two losses were the most in a season since 1985.  But Dorrance led Carolina to 18 wins in a row and another NCAA championship.  Lorrie Fair earned national player of the year accolades, but in many regards the 1999 team was a squad without star presence, just incredible unity of purpose. A year later, the 2000 Carolina team suffered the programs most losses in a season in 20 years but again won ACC and NCAA titles.  Three times in six NCAA Tournament games, Carolina trailed its opponent 1-0 midway through the second half.  All three times, the Tar Heels came from behind to win 2-1 in regulation time en route to another national title. After a two-year hiatus from the awards stand, UNC reclaimed the NCAA title in 2003 with its most dominant team in a decade.  Carolina became the first team since the Tar Heels of 1993 to go undefeated and untied, finishing with a perfect 27-0 mark while winning its 15th straight ACC title and its 18th national championship.  Led by co-national players of the year Lindsay Tarpley and Catherine Reddick, Carolina outscored its opponents 132-11, including an amazing 32-0 margin in six NCAA Tournament matches. Another Quartet of National Titles In 2006, Dorrance turned in one of the best coaching jobs of his career in piloting UNC to its 19th national championship.  He was the unanimous choice as the national coach of the year after leading Carolina to a 27-1 balance sheet.  The Tar Heels accomplished these heroics while starting six freshmen for most of the season.  In fact, seven freshmen took the field for the start of the second half of UNCs 2-1 NCAA championship game win over Notre Dame.   In 2008, UNCcaptured its 20th national championship with a team that started 4-1-1 but went 21-0-1 in its final 22 matches.  Led by national player of the year Casey Nogueira, who led the nation in scoring with 25 goals, Carolina defeated two unbeaten teams in the College Cup, downing UCLA 1-0 and Notre Dame 2-1, to win the NCAA title.  Nogueira scored two second-half goals to rally UNC past the Fighting Irish in the final game. A year later, the Tar Heels turned in one of the best defensive efforts in school history en route to a 21st national crown.  Senior defender Whitney Engen was a National Player of the Year honoree and the defensive MVP of the ACC and she led a team that allowed only 12 goals and posted 19 shutouts. Carolina allowed only two goals in the final 11 games of the season as the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament hardware over Florida State 3-0 and the NCAA Tournament title over Stanford 1-0. Carolina won the most unlikely of its 22 national crowns in 2012 after finishing the regular season with a mundane 10-5-2 ledger.  But the Heels caught fire in the post-season, winning three overtime games and downing regional No. 1 seeds in each of the last three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  Crystal Dunn was the consensus National Player of the Year and the winner of the ACCs Top Female athlete accolade for 2012-13 while Amber Brooks took home player of the season accolades from Top Drawer Soccer. Dorrances Start In Coaching Ironically, Dorrances career plans did not originally include coaching a womens team.  He began his coaching career at Carolina as the designated head coach for the mens team in 1976 during Marvin Allens last year as head coach.  He took over as mens coach the following year and served for 12 years in that role, posting a 172-65-21 record.  His team won the ACC Tournament championship in 1987.  He took the Tar Heels to the 1987 NCAA College Cup semifinals and the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.  Dorrances .708 winning percentage is second amongst Carolinas mens soccer coaches all-time and his 172 wins rank third in school history behind Elmar Bolowich, whom Dorrance brought to Carolina as an assistant mens coach in 1987, and Dr. Marvin Allen, the founder of the program in 1947, and the man who coached Dorrance at Carolina. Since being named the womens head coach in 1979, Carolina has a 777-58-31 record under Dorrance and only nine times in 36 years have the Tar Heels lost more than two games in a single season.  The Tar Heels 21 NCAA crowns are more than any other womens NCAA Division I sports program in the history (Stanford womens tennis is second with 17), and the 22 national championships overall are more than any single sports program in ACC history, mens or womens. A Host of National Players of the Year Over the years, 19 different Tar Heels have been named national players of the year under Dorrances direction April Heinrichs in 1984 and 1986, Shannon Higgins in 1988 and 1989, Kristine Lilly in 1990 and 1991, Mia Hamm in 1992 and 1993, Tisha Venturini in 1994, Debbie Keller in 1995 and 1996, Staci Wilson in 1995, Cindy Parlow in 1996, 1997 and 1998, Robin Confer in 1997, Lorrie Fair in 1999, Meredith Florance in 2000, Lindsay Tarpley in 2003, Catherine Reddick in 2003, Heather OReilly in 2006, Yael Averbuch in 2006, Casey Nogueira in 2008, Whitney Engen in 2009 and Crystal Dunn and Amber Brooks in 2012. Coach of the Year Honors Galore Dorrance has been named national coach of the year for coaching both women and men.  He earned womens national honors in 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 and he was named mens national coach of the year in 1987. Dorrance has been named the Southeast Region coach of the year in 1989, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008.  In 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, he was named the ACC Womens Soccer Coach of the Year. In 1996, Dorrance received the highest honor possible from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America when he won the Walt Chyzowych Award for lifetime coaching achievement.  In 2007, he won the Bill Jeffrey Award from the NSCAA for raising intercollegiate soccer to new heights through his long-term dedication to the game.  In 2011, the NSCAA accorded him its prestigious NSCAA Honor Award. Honors from His Peers Dorrance was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988, Carolinas highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another cherished honor when the athletic department designated him a Priceless Gem.  This honor is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. In 1995, Dorrances program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, Dynasty.  The movie focused in particular on the Tar Heels amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994, and it included in-depth interviews with both current and former Tar Heel players.  Another documentary about the UNCprogram, Winning Isnt Everything, was released in DVD format following the 2007 season. In the fall of 2003, Sports Illustrated On Campus magazine named UNCs womens soccer program as the greatest college dynasty of all-time. Dorrance has also coauthored two books.  He combined with Tim Nash to write Training Soccer Champions in 1996.  It sold out in its first printing and did equally well in its second press run.  Dorrance also co-authored the award-winning The Vision of a Champion with Gloria Averbuch.  It was published in 2003 and almost immediately went to second and third printings.  In 2006, The Man Watching by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers debuted to smashing reviews and amazing sales success. Following the U.S. victory in the Womens World Cup in 1991, Dorrance received an Honorary All-America Award, one of the most prestigious of its kind, from the NSCAA. In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer during the previous two decades.  Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer.  Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only womens coach tapped. In 2002, Dorrance was selected for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, joining his mentor, Dr. Marvin Allen, who was in the initial class inducted into the Hall.  More accolades were bestowed on Dorrance with his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, 2005 and to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008. Dorrance In His College Years A 1974 University of North Carolina graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy, Dorrance originally enrolled at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent one semester studying and playing soccer. He then transferred to Carolina to play for Marvin Allen. Dorrances natural gifts on the pitch led to his selection to the All-ACC Team three times as an undergraduate and he won All-South Regionhonors in 1973.  He was named in 2002 as one of the Top 50 mens soccer players in ACC history.  He was also one of the top intramural sports performers on the Carolina campus during his days as an undergraduate. Dorrance has an A level coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He was a charter member of the NCAA Womens Soccer Committee and he also served as the womens chairman of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America.  He is the former chairman of the NCAA Mens and Womens Soccer Rules Committee and one of the few coaches in the country to qualify as a national staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.  He formerly was involved in training coaches and awarding coaching licenses as part of the NSCAA Coaching Academy.  In the summer of 2003, he was named to the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrances summer soccer camps for women are the most popular in the nation.  The camps sell out well in advance.  Dorrance has even hosted a version of the famous camp in England. The Dorrance Family Albert Anson Dorrance, IV, was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and he is married to MLiss Gary Dorrance.  The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in August 2016. MLiss Dorrance is a former professional ballet dancer who teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, which she cofounded in 1980. When MLiss is not watching soccer games on the weekends she is rehearsing her choreography for Chapel Hill Dance Theatre productions. The Dorrances have three grown children. Michelle, a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, is an internationally renowned multi-award winning rhythm tap dancer residing in New York City where she is on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and director/founder of Dorrance Dance/NY.  Dorrance Dance was presented in the fall of 2014 by Carolina Performing Arts at Memorial Hall as part of their 10th anniversary season.  Dorrance Dance returns to the Carolina Performing Arts series in Chapel Hill in September 2016. Natalie Dorrance Harris, a UNCgraduate, is a part-time librarian and helps administrate the North Carolina Girls Soccer Camp team camps, amongst the most popular youth camps in America.  She and attorney husband David Harris, a University of North Carolinalaw school graduate, are the proud parents of Finley Dorrance Harris.  The Dorrance familys first grandchild was born in April 2009. Donovan Dorrance, a 2013 UNC graduate with a B.A. in philosophy, is currently working for his sister Michelle as an assistant to the director, media controller and musician of Dorrance Dance/NY. Dorrances soccer origins stem from his youth when he lived overseas.  He resided in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland while growing up.  His family moved all around the world following his fathers assignments as an international businessman.  Additional members of the Dorrance clan residing in Chapel Hill include his brother Pete, a co-owner of six prominent Triangle area restaurants, and Petes wife Dolly Hunter, a former UNC head field hockey and softball coach.  Carolinas biggest soccer fan, Anson Dorrances mother Peggy, passed away at the age of 87 in October 2014 and has been sorely missed in the Fetzer Field stands over the past two Carolina womens soccer campaigns. DORRANCE DATA Head Coach Anson Dorrance is now in his 38th season as the Tar Heels head mentor.  His teams have an all-time record of 792-63-32 (.911).  Under Anson Dorrance, UNChas won 22 national championships, including 21 NCAA crowns and one AIAWtitle, 21 regular-season ACC titles and 20 ACCTournament championships.  During his tenure, Dorrances teams are 185-24-7 in ACCregular-season games, 59-5-4 in ACCTournament matches and 121-11-3 in NCAATournament games.  UNC is 339-26-11 in home games in its history and 453-37-21 in games played on the road and at neutral sites.  Under Dorrance, UNC has won 91.1 percent of its games overall, 87.3 percent of its ACC regular-season games, 89.7 percent of its ACC Tournament games, 90.7 percent of its NCAA Tournament games, 91.6 percent of its home games and 90.7 percent of its road and neutral site games. In the programs 37-year history, totaling 887 games, Carolina has shut out opponents 555 times and has been held scoreless in just 46 games. Carolinas National Team Coaching Connections Anson Dorrance, 73, was the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team from 1986-94.  He was the head coach of the 1991 World Cup Team which won the gold medal. Lauren Gregg, 83, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1987-99.  She was an assistant coach at the 1991 World Cup (gold), 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold) and 1999 World Cup (gold). April Heinrichs, 87, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1995-2000 and the head coach from 2000-05.  She served on staffs for the 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold), 1999 World Cup (gold), 2000 Olympics (silver), 2003 World Cup (bronze) and 2004 Olympics (gold). Bill Palladino, 72, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 2002-03.  He served on the staff which won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Cup. Marcia McDermott, 87, was an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team.  She served on the staff which won the silver medal at the 2011 World Cup and captured gold at the 2012 Olympics. Carolinas Influences On The Game Current and former UNCplayers have been staples on World Cup rosters as both players and coaches.  The 1991 U.S. World Cup roster featured nine players and two coaches; the 1995 U.S. World Cup roster featured seven players and two coaches; the 1999 U.S. World Cup roster featured eight players and one coach; the 2003 U.S. World Cup roster featured six players and two coaches; the 2007 U.S. World Cup roster featured five players as well as one former player being on the Canadian roster; the 2011 U.S. World Cup roster featured two U.S. players and one coach and there was one player on the Canadian roster.  In the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup, six former Tar Heels played on the U.S. Team which won gold while other Tar Heels competed for England, Canada and New Zealand. Olympic Team rosters have also been filled with Tar Heel coaches and players.  The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team included seven players and two coaches; the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team included six players and two coaches; the 2004 U.S. team included six players and two coaches; in the 2008 Olympic Games four players competed on the U.S. squad and one player was on the Canadian roster; in 2012, two Tar Heels competed for the U.S. and one for Canada; while in 2016, five former Tar Heels played for the U.S. and one for New Zealand. 55 Carolina players have earned caps with the United States National Team since its founding in 1985. North Carolina featured the largest alumnae class of players drafted by teams for the inaugural season of Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009 with 13. Four Tar Heels played on WPS champion Sky Blue FC in 2009.  In 2010, four Tar Heels were taken in the top eight picks of the WPS draft and seven players were chosen overall.  In the 2010 season, UNC was represented by 17 players in WPS.  In the 2011 season, UNC was represented by 15 players in WPS.  In 2011, three Tar Heels Yael Averbuch, Whitney Engen and Ashlyn Harris were members of the WPS champion Western New York Flash. The National Womens Soccer League opened play in 2013 with 13 former Tar Heels on squads.  In addition, three former UNC players competed professionally in Sweden with one each in Germany, England and France.  Cindy Parlow, 98, coached Portland Thorns FC to the inaugural NWSL title in 2013.  Several Tar Heels were key players on that team. The top two picks in the 2014 NWSL draft were Tar Heels Crystal Dunn and Kealia Ohai.  All six seniors on the 2013 team signed professional contracts five with the NWSL and one in Sweden.  Nineteen Tar Heels were on opening day 2014 NWSL rosters.  Satara Murray signed a contract to play with Liverpool LFC following the conclusion of her senior year in 2014. In 2016, a total of 16 former Tar Heels were on opening day rosters in the National Womens Soccer League.  In the 2016 NWSL Draft, UNC had four players taken - Katie Bowen, Alexa Newfield, Paige Nielsen and Summer Green - the most of any university in the nation. Anson Dorrance enters his 40th year of service to the University of North Carolina soccer programs in the fall of 2016.  Dorrance, a 1974 Tar Heel alumnus, debuted as the Carolina mens soccer coach in September of 1977 and then added duties as head coach and founder of the UNC womens program in September of 1979. A former U.S. Womens National Team head coach and current University of North Carolina head womens soccer coach, Anson Dorrance was named the 2016 winner of the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award from United States Soccer on January 29, 2016. As U.S. Soccers highest honor, the Werner Fricker Builder Award is given to an individual or group of individuals who have dedicated at least 20 years of service to the sport, working to establish a lasting legacy in the history and structure of soccer in the United States. The award recognizes those who have developed programs that will outlast their own involvement in the sport. When Dorrance was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008, it marked one more milestone moment in the career of a man whose coaching prowess became legendary at a young age.  Because Dorrance has not yet retired from his coaching career, he was only eligible for election to the Hall of Fame on the Builders of the Game ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility. Like fine wine with age the coaching career of Anson Dorrance only gets better. It was just a year ago in 2015 when Tar Heel soccer stayed in the international news as nine University of North Carolina standouts competed in the FIFA Womens World Cup.  Six former UNC players helped the U.S. win its first title since 1999, including starters Meghan Klingenberg and Tobin Heath.  Tar Heel Lucy Bronze led England to its best ever World Cup finish as it gained a bronze medal. Winning Championships In 2012, Dorrance led the Tar Heels against one of the best College Cup fields in history as North Carolina won its 22nd overall national title and its 21st NCAA crown.  When UNC won the NCAA crown in 2009, Dorrance became the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 championships coaching a single sport. Head coach of the Carolina womens soccer program since its inception in 1979, Dorrance has built and guided a well-oiled winning machine.  Under his direction, the Tar Heels have collected national and conference championships at a stupendous rate, compiled an overall record staggering in its numerical verity, established records likely never to be approached and procured the esteem befitting a dynasty. At an institution familiar with such incomparable achievement, especially with regard to its storied basketball program, it might be possible to think that Dorrances accomplishments could somehow fade to the background.  But what he has done at UNC is simply impossible to ignore. Thus, when an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of the Best Coaches of the Past Quarter Century on July 28, 2004 coincidentally headed at the No. 1 spot by the late legendary Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith it came as no big surprise that another deserving Tar Heel mentor made the list.  That Dorrance was one of only two coaches in the prestigious collection to coach an Olympic sport on the collegiate level speaks even louder about his recognized greatness. More recently, Beckett Entertainment released a magazine in which it named the Top 30 Sports Dynasties of all-time.  UNCs womens soccer program success from 1982-2000 was rated the sixth best dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, the 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA mens basketball, the 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and the 1953-60 Montreal Canadiens.  Of the Top 30 programs named only four involved collegiate programs. As Dorrance prepares to begin his 38th season as the head coach at Carolina in the fall of 2016, some folks must be wondering if there is anything left to be accomplished.  Chances are excellent that Dorrance will find something. Praise From Coach Smith It is said that greatness recognizes fellow greatness.   Perhaps there is no better example of that than the quote Dean Smith gave Football News Magazine in 1997.  Smith was asked by Football News about Carolinas preseason No. 1 ranking in football and what it was like for some sport other than basketball to be ranked No. 1. Coach Smiths reply  This is a womens soccer school.  Were just trying to keep up with them.  Coach Smiths clever retort was his way of giving Dorrance his due. From the person who was then the winningest head coach of all-time in one sport to the winningest head coach of all-time in another sport, the comment struck Dorrance as the ultimate honor.  As Dorrance has said, So much of what we have tried to do in our program is modeled after what Dean Smith accomplished.  To have our program compared favorably to his by the man himself was enormously humbling. Similarly, Dorrances immense loyalty to Carolina mirrors the loyalty Smith possessed for his adopted school.  In 1994, when Dorrance decided not to continue his duties as the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team, the choice perplexed many. Some thought he relinquished the honor in order to avoid the pressure that comes with being the leader of what was then the defending World Cup championship squad.  But Dorrances decision had everything to do with allegiance to his alma mater. The glory that came with coaching the U.S. to the championship in the first-ever Womens World Cup in 1991 was not enough to pull Dorrance away from his true professional love working full-time with the Tar Heels.  He wanted to increase the level of excellence that soccer fans had come to expect from the record-shattering program he had molded from scratch.  To do that Dorrance knew he would have to dedicate all of his coaching energy to the University.  With more elite-level players emerging from high school and club teams than ever before, the playing field in the college game was leveling out; Dorrance knew that for UNC to remain at the top, he would have to throw himself into the process with renewed vigor. College programs like ours require a lot of work, says Dorrance.  At that point in time we had been surviving by just doing the minimum amount of work. We certainly couldnt continue to be successful by doing just the minimum.  We needed the extra time to stay competitive in an increasingly tough college game. A prime example of what Dorrance meant about a leveling playing field is the fact UNC has captured only seven of the past 18 NCAA championships from 1998-2015 when compared to the era from 1981 through 1997 when Carolina dominated the competition, winning 15 of 17 collegiate titles.   Simply Staggering Numbers It is difficult to comprehend Dorrance taking Carolinas womens program to any greater heights than what it has already achieved.  Yet, for a program consumed with striving for excellence, a national championship every season remains the goal, pure and simple. It is this relentless attitude that has helped the Tar Heels win a mind-blowing 22 of the 35 national championships that have been decided in the history of collegiate womens soccer.  Only two other schools in the country have won as many as two titles Portland in 2002 and 2005 and Notre Dame in 1995, 2004 and 2010.  Eight other schools have won one each George Mason (1985), Florida (1998), Santa Clara (2001), USC (2007), Stanford (2011), UCLA (2013), Florida State (2014) and Penn State (2015). Carolina has also captured 20 of the 28 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships since the sport was given title status by the league in 1988.  Carolinas all-time record in ACC Tournament play is 59-5-4 and the first loss did not come until 2011.  UNCalso won the initial 1987 ACCtitle when it was held in a round-robin format at the end of the regular season to determine the champion.  All told, the Tar Heels are 792-63-32 in the 37-year history of the program, a winning percentage of .911. When Carolina decided to make womens soccer a varsity sport in 1979, Dorrance became a two-sport head coach as he was already in his third year coaching the mens team at Carolina.  Dorrances brilliance at coaching women manifested itself almost immediately as it took just three years before the Tar Heels won a national championship, capturing the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national title. Beginning with that championship, the Tar Heels have won 62.9 percent of the titles ever decided in the sport. Carolina went on to claim three national titles in a row after the NCAA began sponsorship of the sport in the fall of 1982. UNCnetted NCAA championship game wins in 1982 over UCF, in 1983 over George Mason and in 1984 over Connecticut.  The Tar Heels made it to the NCAA title game in 1985, but lost to George Mason 2-0 on the Patriots home field the first of only 10 losses in NCAATournament play for Carolina to go along with 120 wins and three ties. That loss to George Mason, remarkably, was the last time the Tar Heels lost any game in the decade of the 1980s.  Beginning with the season opener in 1986 and continuing into the 1990 season, Dorrances Tar Heels won 97 games and tied six matches over a stretch of 103 contests.  In 1986, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the finals at Fairfax, Va.  A year later, the Tar Heels downed Massachusetts 1-0 on the Minutewomens home field in the title game.  The 1988 campaign saw the Tar Heels defeat NC State 4-1 in the title game in Chapel Hill.  A year later, Carolina defeated Colorado College 2-0 in the championship contest at Raleigh, N.C. During this era, the ACC also began championship competition with UNC winning the inaugural title in 1987 in a round robin format.  NC State claimed the 1988 title on a penalty kick shootout against the Tar Heels but Carolina regained the title in 1989 and has won all but seven conference tournament championships since then. Connecticut snapped a 103-match UNC unbeaten streak that had started in 1986 by defeating the Tar Heels 3-2 in overtime at Storrs, Conn. on September 22, 1990.  The Tar Heels rebounded from that lone defeat to win their fifth straight NCAA crown in 1990, avenging the only blemish on their season by beating the Huskies in the final game 6-0 in Chapel Hill. National Team Duties Along the way, Dorrances love of a challenge prompted him to take the coaching job for the U.S. Womens National Team just a year into its existence in 1986.  In a short time, Dorrance took the National Team to the vertex of the worlds most popular sport.  On November 30, 1991, Dorrance led the U.S. to a 2-1 win over Norway to claim the initial World Cup championship.  The win came just six days after assistant coach Bill Palladino, acting as interim head coach, led UNCto a 3-1 NCAA title game win over Wisconsin for Carolinas sixth NCAA title in a row. Dorrance was the architect of the World Cup triumph, a win tinged with a Carolina Blue hue.  Not only was Dorrance coaching the U.S. team, but nine of the 18 players competed collegiately at North Carolina and his assistant coach was former UNC player Lauren Gregg. The next year, Dorrance assembled what many soccer observers have labeled the best college soccer team in history.  That edition of the Tar Heels finished the season undefeated (25-0), claimed the ACC championship for the fourth straight year and won the NCAA title for the seventh consecutive time.  Carolinas 9-1 NCAA championship game victory over Duke was as thorough as the final score would lead one to believe and was a nonpareil way for the Heels to finish the year. In 1993, UNC won the NCAA championship with an unsullied record of 23-0.  The Tar Heels whitewashed George Mason 6-0 before what was then a collegiate womens soccer record crowd of 5,721 fans at Fetzer Field.  Mia Hamm capped her brilliant career at Carolina that day and went on to win unanimous national player of the year honors for the second year in a row. 92 Wins in a Row Amongst all the coaching jobs that Dorrance has done during his career, the one that culminated in the 1994 NCAA championship may be the most impressive.  Dorrance was able to rally the Tar Heels after arch-rival Duke ended a 101-game unbeaten streak by beating Carolina 3-2 on October 19, 1994.  The loss came 17 days after Notre Dame had snapped a 92-game Carolina winning streak by playing the Heels to a scoreless tie. UNC ran the table after the loss to Duke and NCAA Tournament wins over NC State, Duke, Connecticut and Notre Dame added a 13th national title to Dorrances coaching resume.  Tar Heel midfielder Tisha Venturini was selected as the 1994 National Player of the Year, marking the seventh straight season in which the national player of the year came from the ranks of Carolina players. The 1994 season presaged a sea change in the college game.  With the proliferation of available talent and the vast increase in the number of college programs, parity was quickly becoming a part of the womens game.  While the Tar Heels still led the way in terms of consistent excellence, one of the big news stories of 1995 was the fact Carolina failed to win the national title in womens soccer for the first time in 10 years.  The Tar Heels, seeded No. 1 in the NCAA bracket with a 25-0 mark, were upset by Notre Dame 1-0 in the 1995 NCAA semifinals. Relinquishing the title to Notre Dame in 1995 only fueled the teams competitive fire the next season.  Dorrance took a team that returned nine starters and molded it into another victorious unit by seasons end.  In the ninth game of the season, Notre Dame defeated the Tar Heels 2-1 in overtime and became the first college team to beat UNCin successive meetings.  Carolina regrouped and the Tar Heels whipped William & Mary, James Madison and Florida in the opening three rounds of the NCAA tourney before defeating Santa Clara 2-1 on its home field in the semifinals.  Two days later UNC proved it was still at the acme of womens college soccer, beating defending champion Notre Dame 1-0 in overtime to claim the 1996 crown. A Dynamite Defense in 1997 Dorrance turned in another magnificent coaching job as the Tar Heels wound up in the winners circle again in 1997.  Honored by Soccer Buzz and Soccer Times as the national coach of the year, Dorrance spearheaded a Carolina campaign that resulted in a 27-0-1 record.  The 27 victories were an NCAA record and UNC tied its own NCAA record by shutting out 22 opponents during the campaign. After seeing the 1998 NCAA title elude the Tar Heels, Carolina fans were able to find solace in the performance of the U.S. team which competed in the 1999 Womens World Cup.  The 20-person roster featured eight Tar Heel players Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Carla Overbeck, Cindy Parlow, Tisha Venturini, Tracy Noonan, Lorrie Fair and Tiffany Roberts and UNCalumna Lauren Gregg as a U.S. assistant coach.  The Tar Heel-laden composition of the World Cup Team, which reclaimed the championship it had relinquished in 1995, once again stood as a testament to the indelible contributions Dorrance has made to U.S. soccer. Back-To-Back National Championships Basking in the glow of a World Cup title featuring so many ties to the program, Carolinas collegiate dominance seemed to be in doubt when just eight games into the 1999 season the Tar Heels sported a 6-2 record.  The two losses were the most in a season since 1985.  But Dorrance led Carolina to 18 wins in a row and another NCAA championship.  Lorrie Fair earned national player of the year accolades, but in many regards the 1999 team was a squad without star presence, just incredible unity of purpose. A year later, the 2000 Carolina team suffered the programs most losses in a season in 20 years but again won ACC and NCAA titles.  Three times in six NCAA Tournament games, Carolina trailed its opponent 1-0 midway through the second half.  All three times, the Tar Heels came from behind to win 2-1 in regulation time en route to another national title. After a two-year hiatus from the awards stand, UNC reclaimed the NCAA title in 2003 with its most dominant team in a decade.  Carolina became the first team since the Tar Heels of 1993 to go undefeated and untied, finishing with a perfect 27-0 mark while winning its 15th straight ACC title and its 18th national championship.  Led by co-national players of the year Lindsay Tarpley and Catherine Reddick, Carolina outscored its opponents 132-11, including an amazing 32-0 margin in six NCAA Tournament matches. Another Quartet of National Titles In 2006, Dorrance turned in one of the best coaching jobs of his career in piloting UNC to its 19th national championship.  He was the unanimous choice as the national coach of the year after leading Carolina to a 27-1 balance sheet.  The Tar Heels accomplished these heroics while starting six freshmen for most of the season.  In fact, seven freshmen took the field for the start of the second half of UNCs 2-1 NCAA championship game win over Notre Dame.   In 2008, UNCcaptured its 20th national championship with a team that started 4-1-1 but went 21-0-1 in its final 22 matches.  Led by national player of the year Casey Nogueira, who led the nation in scoring with 25 goals, Carolina defeated two unbeaten teams in the College Cup, downing UCLA 1-0 and Notre Dame 2-1, to win the NCAA title.  Nogueira scored two second-half goals to rally UNC past the Fighting Irish in the final game. A year later, the Tar Heels turned in one of the best defensive efforts in school history en route to a 21st national crown.  Senior defender Whitney Engen was a National Player of the Year honoree and the defensive MVP of the ACC and she led a team that allowed only 12 goals and posted 19 shutouts. Carolina allowed only two goals in the final 11 games of the season as the Tar Heels won the ACC Tournament hardware over Florida State 3-0 and the NCAA Tournament title over Stanford 1-0. Carolina won the most unlikely of its 22 national crowns in 2012 after finishing the regular season with a mundane 10-5-2 ledger.  But the Heels caught fire in the post-season, winning three overtime games and downing regional No. 1 seeds in each of the last three rounds of the NCAA Tournament.  Crystal Dunn was the consensus National Player of the Year and the winner of the ACCs Top Female athlete accolade for 2012-13 while Amber Brooks took home player of the season accolades from Top Drawer Soccer. Dorrances Start In Coaching Ironically, Dorrances career plans did not originally include coaching a womens team.  He began his coaching career at Carolina as the designated head coach for the mens team in 1976 during Marvin Allens last year as head coach.  He took over as mens coach the following year and served for 12 years in that role, posting a 172-65-21 record.  His team won the ACC Tournament championship in 1987.  He took the Tar Heels to the 1987 NCAA College Cup semifinals and the second round of the 1988 NCAA Tournament.  Dorrances .708 winning percentage is second amongst Carolinas mens soccer coaches all-time and his 172 wins rank third in school history behind Elmar Bolowich, whom Dorrance brought to Carolina as an assistant mens coach in 1987, and Dr. Marvin Allen, the founder of the program in 1947, and the man who coached Dorrance at Carolina. Since being named the womens head coach in 1979, Carolina has a 777-58-31 record under Dorrance and only nine times in 36 years have the Tar Heels lost more than two games in a single season.  The Tar Heels 21 NCAA crowns are more than any other womens NCAA Division I sports program in the history (Stanford womens tennis is second with 17), and the 22 national championships overall are more than any single sports program in ACC history, mens or womens. A Host of National Players of the Year Over the years, 19 different Tar Heels have been named national players of the year under Dorrances direction April Heinrichs in 1984 and 1986, Shannon Higgins in 1988 and 1989, Kristine Lilly in 1990 and 1991, Mia Hamm in 1992 and 1993, Tisha Venturini in 1994, Debbie Keller in 1995 and 1996, Staci Wilson in 1995, Cindy Parlow in 1996, 1997 and 1998, Robin Confer in 1997, Lorrie Fair in 1999, Meredith Florance in 2000, Lindsay Tarpley in 2003, Catherine Reddick in 2003, Heather OReilly in 2006, Yael Averbuch in 2006, Casey Nogueira in 2008, Whitney Engen in 2009 and Crystal Dunn and Amber Brooks in 2012. Coach of the Year Honors Galore Dorrance has been named national coach of the year for coaching both women and men.  He earned womens national honors in 1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 and he was named mens national coach of the year in 1987. Dorrance has been named the Southeast Region coach of the year in 1989, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008.  In 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008, he was named the ACC Womens Soccer Coach of the Year. In 1996, Dorrance received the highest honor possible from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America when he won the Walt Chyzowych Award for lifetime coaching achievement.  In 2007, he won the Bill Jeffrey Award from the NSCAA for raising intercollegiate soccer to new heights through his long-term dedication to the game.  In 2011, the NSCAA accorded him its prestigious NSCAA Honor Award. Honors from His Peers Dorrance was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988, Carolinas highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another cherished honor when the athletic department designated him a Priceless Gem.  This honor is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. In 1995, Dorrances program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, Dynasty.  The movie focused in particular on the Tar Heels amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994, and it included in-depth interviews with both current and former Tar Heel players.  Another documentary about the UNCprogram, Winning Isnt Everything, was released in DVD format following the 2007 season. In the fall of 2003, Sports Illustrated On Campus magazine named UNCs womens soccer program as the greatest college dynasty of all-time. Dorrance has also coauthored two books.  He combined with Tim Nash to write Training Soccer Champions in 1996.  It sold out in its first printing and did equally well in its second press run.  Dorrance also co-authored the award-winning The Vision of a Champion with Gloria Averbuch.  It was published in 2003 and almost immediately went to second and third printings.  In 2006, The Man Watching by former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers debuted to smashing reviews and amazing sales success. Following the U.S. victory in the Womens World Cup in 1991, Dorrance received an Honorary All-America Award, one of the most prestigious of its kind, from the NSCAA. In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer during the previous two decades.  Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer.  Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only womens coach tapped. In 2002, Dorrance was selected for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame, joining his mentor, Dr. Marvin Allen, who was in the initial class inducted into the Hall.  More accolades were bestowed on Dorrance with his induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on May 19, 2005 and to the National Soccer Hall of Fame on August 2, 2008. Dorrance In His College Years A 1974 University of North Carolina graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and philosophy, Dorrance originally enrolled at St. Marys University in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent one semester studying and playing soccer. He then transferred to Carolina to play for Marvin Allen. Dorrances natural gifts on the pitch led to his selection to the All-ACC Team three times as an undergraduate and he won All-South Regionhonors in 1973.  He was named in 2002 as one of the Top 50 mens soccer players in ACC history.  He was also one of the top intramural sports performers on the Carolina campus during his days as an undergraduate. Dorrance has an A level coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He was a charter member of the NCAA Womens Soccer Committee and he also served as the womens chairman of the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America.  He is the former chairman of the NCAA Mens and Womens Soccer Rules Committee and one of the few coaches in the country to qualify as a national staff coach for the U.S. Soccer Federation and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.  He formerly was involved in training coaches and awarding coaching licenses as part of the NSCAA Coaching Academy.  In the summer of 2003, he was named to the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrances summer soccer camps for women are the most popular in the nation.  The camps sell out well in advance.  Dorrance has even hosted a version of the famous camp in England. The Dorrance Family Albert Anson Dorrance, IV, was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and he is married to MLiss Gary Dorrance.  The couple celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary in August 2016. MLiss Dorrance is a former professional ballet dancer who teaches at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, which she cofounded in 1980. When MLiss is not watching soccer games on the weekends she is rehearsing her choreography for Chapel Hill Dance Theatre productions. The Dorrances have three grown children. Michelle, a graduate of New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, is an internationally renowned multi-award winning rhythm tap dancer residing in New York City where she is on the faculty at Broadway Dance Center and director/founder of Dorrance Dance/NY.  Dorrance Dance was presented in the fall of 2014 by Carolina Performing Arts at Memorial Hall as part of their 10th anniversary season.  Dorrance Dance returns to the Carolina Performing Arts series in Chapel Hill in September 2016. Natalie Dorrance Harris, a UNCgraduate, is a part-time librarian and helps administrate the North Carolina Girls Soccer Camp team camps, amongst the most popular youth camps in America.  She and attorney husband David Harris, a University of North Carolinalaw school graduate, are the proud parents of Finley Dorrance Harris.  The Dorrance familys first grandchild was born in April 2009. Donovan Dorrance, a 2013 UNC graduate with a B.A. in philosophy, is currently working for his sister Michelle as an assistant to the director, media controller and musician of Dorrance Dance/NY. Dorrances soccer origins stem from his youth when he lived overseas.  He resided in India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland while growing up.  His family moved all around the world following his fathers assignments as an international businessman.  Additional members of the Dorrance clan residing in Chapel Hill include his brother Pete, a co-owner of six prominent Triangle area restaurants, and Petes wife Dolly Hunter, a former UNC head field hockey and softball coach.  Carolinas biggest soccer fan, Anson Dorrances mother Peggy, passed away at the age of 87 in October 2014 and has been sorely missed in the Fetzer Field stands over the past two Carolina womens soccer campaigns. DORRANCE DATA Head Coach Anson Dorrance is now in his 38th season as the Tar Heels head mentor.  His teams have an all-time record of 792-63-32 (.911).  Under Anson Dorrance, UNChas won 22 national championships, including 21 NCAA crowns and one AIAWtitle, 21 regular-season ACC titles and 20 ACCTournament championships.  During his tenure, Dorrances teams are 185-24-7 in ACCregular-season games, 59-5-4 in ACCTournament matches and 121-11-3 in NCAATournament games.  UNC is 339-26-11 in home games in its history and 453-37-21 in games played on the road and at neutral sites.  Under Dorrance, UNC has won 91.1 percent of its games overall, 87.3 percent of its ACC regular-season games, 89.7 percent of its ACC Tournament games, 90.7 percent of its NCAA Tournament games, 91.6 percent of its home games and 90.7 percent of its road and neutral site games. In the programs 37-year history, totaling 887 games, Carolina has shut out opponents 555 times and has been held scoreless in just 46 games. Carolinas National Team Coaching Connections Anson Dorrance, 73, was the head coach of the U.S. Womens National Team from 1986-94.  He was the head coach of the 1991 World Cup Team which won the gold medal. Lauren Gregg, 83, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1987-99.  She was an assistant coach at the 1991 World Cup (gold), 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold) and 1999 World Cup (gold). April Heinrichs, 87, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 1995-2000 and the head coach from 2000-05.  She served on staffs for the 1995 World Cup (bronze), 1996 Olympics (gold), 1999 World Cup (gold), 2000 Olympics (silver), 2003 World Cup (bronze) and 2004 Olympics (gold). Bill Palladino, 72, was an assistant coach with the National Team from 2002-03.  He served on the staff which won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Cup. Marcia McDermott, 87, was an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team.  She served on the staff which won the silver medal at the 2011 World Cup and captured gold at the 2012 Olympics. Carolinas Influences On The Game Current and former UNCplayers have been staples on World Cup rosters as both players and coaches.  The 1991 U.S. World Cup roster featured nine players and two coaches; the 1995 U.S. World Cup roster featured seven players and two coaches; the 1999 U.S. World Cup roster featured eight players and one coach; the 2003 U.S. World Cup roster featured six players and two coaches; the 2007 U.S. World Cup roster featured five players as well as one former player being on the Canadian roster; the 2011 U.S. World Cup roster featured two U.S. players and one coach and there was one player on the Canadian roster.  In the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup, six former Tar Heels played on the U.S. Team which won gold while other Tar Heels competed for England, Canada and New Zealand. Olympic Team rosters have also been filled with Tar Heel coaches and players.  The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team included seven players and two coaches; the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team included six players and two coaches; the 2004 U.S. team included six players and two coaches; in the 2008 Olympic Games four players competed on the U.S. squad and one player was on the Canadian roster; in 2012, two Tar Heels competed for the U.S. and one for Canada; while in 2016, five former Tar Heels played for the U.S. and one for New Zealand. 55 Carolina players have earned caps with the United States National Team since its founding in 1985. North Carolina featured the largest alumnae class of players drafted by teams for the inaugural season of Womens Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2009 with 13. Four Tar Heels played on WPS champion Sky Blue FC in 2009.  In 2010, four Tar Heels were taken in the top eight picks of the WPS draft and seven players were chosen overall.  In the 2010 season, UNC was represented by 17 players in WPS.  In the 2011 season, UNC was represented by 15 players in WPS.  In 2011, three Tar Heels Yael Averbuch, Whitney Engen and Ashlyn Harris were members of the WPS champion Western New York Flash. The National Womens Soccer League opened play in 2013 with 13 former Tar Heels on squads.  In addition, three former UNC players competed professionally in Sweden with one each in Germany, England and France.  Cindy Parlow, 98, coached Portland Thorns FC to the inaugural NWSL title in 2013.  Several Tar Heels were key players on that team. The top two picks in the 2014 NWSL draft were Tar Heels Crystal Dunn and Kealia Ohai.  All six seniors on the 2013 team signed professional contracts five with the NWSL and one in Sweden.  Nineteen Tar Heels were on opening day 2014 NWSL rosters.  Satara Murray signed a contract to play with Liverpool LFC following the conclusion of her senior year in 2014. In 2016, a total of 16 former Tar Heels were on opening day rosters in the National Womens Soccer League.  In the 2016 NWSL Draft, UNC had four players taken - Katie Bowen, Alexa Newfield, Paige Nielsen and Summer Green - the most of any university in the nation.

Meaders returned to coach at his alma mater in 2012 after an 18-year stint at Florida State that saw him rise to the programs associate head coach in 2004 while coaching the throwers and coordinating recruiting operations. Im extremely delighted to have the opportunity to reunite with the Carolina family, said Meaders in the summer of 2012, Im a product of North Carolina track and field. I was born and raised in this state and had the privilege to compete at the University of North Carolina.  If youve ever worn the Carolina Blue and White, you know how I feel. Carolina is an extremely special place and its an honor to give back to the university and the community that has given so much to me. The track and field teams experienced success on the national level in the 2014-15 season with eight First Team All-Americas (Lizzy Whelan, Sean Sutton, Xenia Rahn [twice], Javonte Lipsey, Ceo Ways [twice], and Kenny Selmon). Additionaly AJ Hicks, Kenny Selmon, Javonte Lipsey and Sarah Howard earned Second Team All-America honors. The team earned 26 All-ACC honorees including ACC champions Xenia Rahn (pentathlon and heptathlon), Paul Haley (heptathlon), and the men's 4x400 relay (RJ Alowonle, Javonte Lipsey, Kenny Selmon and Ceo Ways). The team excelled in the classroom with 46 individuals making the 2014-15 ACC Academic honor roll.  In the throws for 2014-15, Meaders coached AJ Hicks and Sarah Howard to Second Team All-America honors. Hicks set personal bests in the weight throw in four consecutive weeks and eclipsed the second place mark on the school's all-time list in the event. He earned All-ACC honors for finishing third in the event and took 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Howard earned Second Team All-America honors in the shot put during the outdoor season. She set a career best mark at 16.99 meters and still ranks second all-time in UNC's history. During the 2013-14 track and field seasons Meaders led the Tar Heel program to a better blue through four ACC Champions and a 4x400 relay ACC Championship, 19 All-ACC honorees, a relay and 26 individual NCAA First Round qualifiers, three relays and 10 NCAA National Championships qualifiers, five First Team All-Americas in RJ Alowonle (4x400, 400-hurdles), Sean Sutton (4x400), Javonte Lipsey (4x400), Ceo Ways (4x400) and Xenia Rahn (Heptathlon), and seven Second Team All-Americas in Isaac Presson (mile and 5,00), Lizzy Whelan (1,500), Annie LeHardy (mile and DMR), Cori Floyd (DMR), Lianne Farber (DMR), Javonte Lipsey (400-hurdles), and Sarah Howard (shot put), and 22 All-ACC Academic honorees. Additionally, 40 of his student-athletes were named to the 2013-14 ACC Academic Honor Roll. In the throws for 2013-14, Meaders coached the unit to several personal records and a few top-five school marks. Meaders guided AJ Hicks to an ACC Championship in the weight throw as well as earning ACC Indoor Field Event MVP. Sarah Howard threw a new personal record under his direction that ranks second in UNCs history and ranked 10th among all NCAA athletes in 2014. Meaders is a 1992 graduate who competed in the discus, shot put, and 35-pound weight throw. While competing, he won back-to-back ACC outdoor titles in the discus in 1991 and 1992 as well as an indoor conference crown in the weight throw in 1992. Meaders was a high school All-America who became an NCAA and Olympic Trials qualifier while at UNC in addition to his three individual conference championships. He set the school record in discus, a mark that stood for 23 years. Meaders ranks second on the UNC all-time list with a discus throw of 186-10 (56.95 meters). Meaders was also a captain on the 1992 track team that won the ACC Outdoor title in the same year. The Monroe, N.C., native began his coaching at Western Carolina where he spent three years as an assistant coach while earning his masters degree in physical education. While there Meaders also instructed courses in the physical education department. He coached several Western Carolina track and field athletes to multiple Southern Conference individual titles. During his tenure at Florida State, Meaders helped the Seminoles win the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Associations NCAA Division I mens program of the year award for two consecutive years in 2011-12. The Seminole mens and womens programs have both finished among the top five nationally in each of the four years the honor has been awarded by the governing body. As the throws coach, Meaders guided 11 different Florida State throwers to a total of 22 All-America honors and compiled 22 ACC indoor and outdoor titles. The male and female athletes he coached there hold more than three-quarters of the top-10 all-time school bests in the discus, javelin, shot put and weight throws. In 2005, Meaders was named the East Regional Assistant Coach of the Year for his success with the Seminoles throwing corps. At Florida State Meaders coached two-time NCAA Champion Garrett Johnson who is widely considered the greatest student-athlete in Florida State school history. In the fall of 2005 Johnson was honored as the second Rhodes Scholar in school history as well as the first for a student-athlete. In the spring of 2005 Johnson claimed NCAA Indoor and Outdoor titles in the shot put for the Seminoles first national championships in that event. Johnson also set school, conference and NCAA East Regional records that year. Johnson went on to compete in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, earning a ranking of 14th in the world. Meaders coached Olympian Dorian Scott, a stand-out at Florida State and native of Jamaica, to the 2012 London Olympics. Scott was the first Jamaican to ever reach the final of the mens shot put at an Olympics, throwing 66-6 (20.31 meters) to qualify, and ultimately finished 10th with a throw of 67-6 (20.61 meters). Scott has an all-time best shot throw of 70-4 ½ (21.45 meters) which he set in March 2008 in Tallahassee, Fla. Among producing top athletes, Meaders has also taught student-athletes who have gone on to become successful coaches: Gregg Jack is the throws coach at Virginia Tech, Cathy Erickson is the head coach at Northeastern University, David Price is at East Carolina, B.J. Linnenbrink is at Duke, and Dorian Scott is an assistant coach at Florida State. Karen Rademeyer and Makiba Batten are also former Meaders pupils who went on to coach. In addition to the coaching and athletic successes to his name, Meaders brings with him a deep commitment to academic success. From 2007 to 2012, his student-athletes earned 19 Academic All-America honors. He was also the co-founder of R.E.A.L. Men (Reliable, Educated, Approachable Leaders), a leadership program at Florida State for male student-athletes. Along with his coaching duties at FSU, Meaders oversaw daily operations, including team travel and budget, as well as acting as the programs liaison with athletic department administration, compliance, facilities, admission, financial aid and the business office.

VanAlstyne coached the womens cross country team to their first ACC Championship in 10 years. VanAsltyne also qualified both teams for the NCAA Cross Country Championship, a feat that had never been accomplished by Carolina before. The men ultimately placed 12th, their highest finish at the Championship since 1985 while the women finished 22nd. With the mens team competing at the Championship, VanAlstyne guided the men to two consecutive championships, which hadnt been done for nearly 40 years in North Carolina history. Under VanAlstynes guidance the teams had eight All-ACC Honorees (, ,, , , , , and ) and eight All-Region Honorees (, , , , , , , and ). VanAlstyne coached 10 Tar Heels to the first round of the NCAA National Championships, including Lizzy Whelan, Karley Rempel, Annie LeHardy, Lianne Farber, Stella Radford, Caroline Alcorta, Hannah Christen, Ryan Walling, Mark Derrick and John Raneri. LeHardy went on to the NCAA Outdoor Championships to compete in the 5,000 while Farber went for the 1,500. Both women earned All-America honorable mentions. VanAlstyne acted as an assistant athletic director at North Florida and was essential in transitioning the program from NCAA Division II to Division I in 2005. He coached six national champions, 35 All-Americas in track and 12 All-Americas in cross country while leading the Ospreys. One of VanAlstynes athletes went on to win a U.S. Championship while another gained a berth in the 2004 Olympic Marathon. VanAlstyne has accrued numerous coaching honors, including the 2002 NCAA South Region Coach of the Year, 2003 Peach Belt Conference Womens Cross Country Coach of the Year and the 2010 Atlantic Sun Conference Womens Cross Country Coach of the Year, and most recently 2014 ACC Womens Cross Country Coach of the Year. VanAlstyne was inducted into the North Florida Hall of Fame in October of 2013 for his coaching and athletic accomplishments. A graduate of North Florida and a former stand-out athlete there, VanAlstyne holds the school record for the marathon while his 10,000 meters time ranks third all-time in the school record books. VanAlstyne is married to Patty, who was a six-time All-America track & field athlete at North Florida. They have a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Kaley. Follow Coach VanAlstyne on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

Hudson guided Steve Dunbar to a third-place finish in the men's high jump at the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships earning All-ACC honors. Hudson also saw freshman Natisha Dixon finish seventh in the 100-meter hurdles at the conference championship while the 4x400 team placed ninth. During her first season in 2013, Hudson helped guide six jumpers, two sprinters, two hurdlers, and one relay to the NCAA East Preliminary with two Tar Heels advancing to the NCAA National Championships. In 2014 Hudson helped multiple Tar Heels reach personal records while guiding Philip Morris and Cori Floyd to the NCAA East Preliminary. Hudson is a native North Carolinian, born in Goldsboro. Throughout her life she has maintained a passion for athletics and education. In high school she was a two-sport athlete, playing basketball and competing in track and field, for the Harnett Central Trojans. In her senior season she was selected to the All-Region team in basketball and was the 1988 NC 3A high jump state champion.  Hudson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship.  While at UNC, she majored in mathematics education and was a member of the track and field team.  During her collegiate track career she was a four-year letterman, a three-time ACC Champion, a two-time All-American and a 1992 Olympic Trials finalist in the heptathlon.  She held the ACC record in the heptathlon for 15 years and still holds the UNC heptathlon record.  After her graduation in 1992, Hudson spent nine years teaching and coaching in Georgia and North Carolina at Chattahoochee High School, Myers Park High School and Chapel Hill High School while continuing in her own athletic pursuits.  In 1996 she was a finalist in the high jump at the U.S. Olympic Trials.  In 2001, she began her graduate work at UNC-Chapel Hill in sport administration.  After completing her masters coursework and thesis titled, The History and Significance of the Womens Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Basketball Tournament, she became the Director of Training and Recruitment for Competitive Resources Group in Lawrenceville, Ga.  During that time she conducted career development workshops for various colleges across the country.  She also had an opportunity to work with professional sports leagues like the WNBA and the NBDL. She returned to the classroom once again in 2004 and has been the head boys and girls track coach at Alpharetta High School in Georgia since 2005.  In that time the Raiders have been 2006 Region 6AAAA Runner-ups, 2007 Region 6AAAAA Champions, three-time Fulton County Champions (2006-2008) and posted state championship team finishes of fourth, seventh and eighth place.  The Raiders were mainstays of the Georgia State Track and Field Championships and Hudson coached two-time Georgia State Champion Dylan Hassett in the 3,200 meters in track and field. In 2011, Hudson joined the faculty of Eastside High School in Greenville, S.C.  As an assistant cross country coach, she aided the Eagles in winning their first state championship.  During track season she coached the third-place high jump finisher, Katie Anderson, and the 2012 State 400-meter hurdle champion, Sydney Smith. Hudson has coached numerous high school athletes who have gone on to compete at the collegiate level, including the current Drew Branch (University of Georgia), Dylan Hassett (William and Mary) Keturah Williams, (ETSU), Ama Larbi (Georgia Tech), and Brandon Terry, (Wake Forest), and the graduated Breanna Radford (University of South Carolina), Daniel Jester (West Point) and Audris Williams (Murray State, who was named Rookie of the Year).

Roberts will work directly with the cross country program and middle distance runners, but will have a hand in coaching all distance runners. I am honored and humbled that Coach Meaders and Coach VanAlstyne have faith in me as one of the next leaders to assist this distance program, Roberts said. This University demands the very best in all areas and as an alumnus, I share the same love and passion that is contagious for this community and campus. I am eager to continue building off of the successes that this program has enjoyed and work toward furthering the tradition of excellence here at Carolina.  Roberts first joined the coaching staff at UNC after completing his Masters in Sport Administration in May of 2013. In his time as a volunteer assistant, Roberts helped coach the mens cross country program to two consecutive NCAA Championship appearances and their highest finish since 1985. On the womens side he helped coach the womens team to an ACC Championship in 2014 and an NCAA appearance. The womens team also had its highest USTFCCCA ranking since 2004. During the track and field seasons, Roberts worked across all distance events including large involvement with mens half milers. Most recently, Roberts helped coach Cory Nichols to a breakout season in 2015 where Nichols finished second in the 800 at the ACC Indoor Championships earning all-conference honors. Oneal Wanliss also reached the NCAA East Preliminary Round in the same event. Roberts is an alumnus of Baylor University where he completed his undergraduate degree in Health Science Studies (Pre-Physical Therapy) while competing on the track and field and cross country teams. During his time at Baylor, Roberts served as the Big 12 Conference representative on NCAA Division I National Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the NCAA Division I Sport Management/Championships cabinet. After earning his degree at Baylor, Roberts received the Dr. Gerald Lage Award, the highest academic honor distributed by the Big 12 Conference. Roberts earned the USATF Level 1 coaches certification in February of 2013.

Rubin has guided student-athletes to All-America status in every sprinting, relay, hurdling and jumping event, as well as the decathlon. In 2015, the Tar Heel resurgence in the mens sprints and hurdles under Rubins guidance continued. Sophomore Ceo Ways was named First Team All-America in the 400m, setting a new personal record of 45.49, which moved him to third on UNCs all-time performance list.  Ways joined freshman Kenny Selmon, senior Sean Sutton and junior Javonte Lipsey to gain First Team All-America honors in the Indoor 4x400m relay, placing sixth overall at the 2015 Championships. Outdoors, the relay quartet continued its dominance at the ACC championship, winning its fourth conference title in a row, as well as setting a new school record with the team of Ways, Sutton, Lipsey and junior RJ Alowonle in 3:04.06. Rubin has also been instrumental in the recent recognition of UNC as Hurdle U, as the Tar Heels placed three 400m hurdlers in the NCAA National Championships. Among them, Selmon had an outstanding first season, setting a new personal record of 49.60, winning the US Junior National Championship and earning a silver medal at the 2015 Junior Pan American Games. Lipsey set a new personal record of 49.65 and finished 10th overall at the NCAA Championships; and Junior RJ Alowonle set his new PR of 50.02.  In 2014, Rubin led the mens sprinters and hurdlers to one of the most successful campaigns in UNC history. The Indoor 4x400 meter relay team of RJ Alowonle, Sean Sutton, Javonte Lipsey and Ceo Ways moved from relative obscurity to a fifth-place All-American finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The team ran 3:06.49 and was just 0.13 seconds from the school record, which was set by the 1996 National Championship team. Outdoors, the mens sprinters and hurdlers made a significant impact at the 2014 ACC Outdoor Championships, combining to score 67 of the teams 110 total points. The 400m hurdles were a particularly strong area for the Tar Heels, as sophomore Alowonle won his second straight ACC Championship and sophomore Lipsey was right behind to earn the silver medal and ensure the second consecutive year that North Carolina would finish 1-2 in the event. Freshman Ceo Ways signaled his arrival in the ACC by completing an impressive pair of second-place finishes in both the 200m (20.53) and 400m (45.93), and by anchoring the ACC-Champion 4x400m Relay team that included Alowonle, Lipsey and freshman Kwame Donyinah. The team ran 3:05.89 to claim North Carolinas third consecutive ACC 4x400m Championship. At the Outdoor NCAA Championships, Alowonle set his PR of 50.11 en route to earning fifth place and First Team NCAA All-America honors, while Lipsey finished 10th for Second Team All-America honors. The 4x400 meter relay team of Alowonle, Donyinah, Lipsey and Ways ran their best time of the year in the preliminary round and qualified for the NCAA finals with a time of 3:04.80, the second best time in UNC history. In his first year in Chapel Hill, Rubin guided four athletes to the NCAA Championships, including Clayton Parros, Tristine Johnson and Briana Hudson, all of whom qualified for the Outdoor NCAA Finals in Eugene, Or., and Chrishawn Williams who qualified for the Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. Williams earned NCAA All-America honors in the long jump with a lifetime-best of 6.31m; Parros achieved a collegiate-best in the 400m at 45.73; and Johnson and Hudson jumped 12.84m and 12.75m, respectively, to give the Tar Heels double-qualifiers in the womens triple jump. Coach Rubins squad also made a significant impact at the conference level as his athletes garnered 10 All-ACC Outdoor honors. Included among those achievements were the Carolinas Mens 4x400 relay team, which became repeat-ACC Champions, and RJ Alowonle and Reynaldo Radlin, who finished 1-2 in the 400m hurdles. Rubins jumpers also made a statement as Jacinda Evans (6.43) and Chrishawn Williams (6.31) finished second and third in the Womens Long Jump with national top-10 marks. In 2005 while head coach at Florida International, he led Sheri-Ann Brooks to an NCAA Championship in the 200 meters, as she ran 22.85 and became the first-ever national champion in the history of the FIU program. In the same year, Rubin guided Kevon Pierre to FIU records in the 100m (10.19) and 200m (22.42) and led the Mens 4x100 to a school record (39.65) and NCAA Championship qualification. In 2010, he guided Case Western Reserve's Obinna Nwanna to an NCAA National Championship in the decathlon. In all, he has coached a total of 38 First-Team NCAA All-Americans and two national champions over the course of his distinguished career. Rubin is a USATF Level II Certified Instructor and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA. He graduated from Emory University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy.  He and his wife, Tiffeni, live in Chapel hill.  

Langley owns 11 years of coaching experience including years at his alma maters Western Carolina and Gardner-Webb as well as at Clemson. A quick look at the body of work that Josh has composed throughout his coaching career, and perhaps its obvious why I am excited to see Josh take on the role of Assistant Head Track and Field Coach here at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Meaders said. Under his guidance athletes have excelled in nearly every discipline that our sport has to offer. Josh has a comprehensive knowledge base and a proven ability to teach young men and women. Above and beyond that, Josh has consistently demonstrated character and the highest degree of moral fiber. He has embraced each of our guiding principles but embodies the principal of helping our student-athletes grow as individuals. I am delighted that Josh, in this new capacity, will continue to help me and the rest of the staff write the next chapter for Carolina track and field and cross country. Langley coaches the multis, pole-vaulters, javelin, and Avana Story in the throws. Nearly every student-athlete under his guidance set a personal record in 2015. His athletes earned 44.5 of the 62.5 points that the womens team scored at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships, a large reason in why Langley was named the Southeast Womens Assistant Coach of the Year for the indoor season. Among his athletes who had a stellar year in 2015 was Xenia Rahn. Rahn was a headline for the track and field teammate throughout the entire year as she smashed all the school and conference records for the pentathlon and heptathlon. Under Langleys guidance, Rahn was the ACC Champion in the pentathlon and heptathlon and earned First Team All-America nods twice last year, including a third-place finish in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Her performance in the national meet made her become the seventh-best individual to ever compete in the pentathlon in NCAA history. The other female multis each posted personal records in their events throughout the year. Langley also coached Paul Haley to a breakout year. Haley improved his heptathlon mark considerably and became ACC Champion in the heptathlon during the indoor season. Haley was narrowly edged out for a final spot at the NCAA Indoor National Championships. In his last collegiate competition, Ryan Ramsey scored an all-time personal best score in the heptathlon with help from Langley, and earned all-conference honors for finishing third. Langley guided Cameron Overstreet to a school record in 2015. Overstreet broke the indoor pole vault record by clearing 13-11 in her final indoor home meet of her collegiate career. She placed second at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships earning all-conference. Redshirt freshman Brittany hull consistently cleared 13-0 and ended up finishing fourth in the indoor pole vault at the conference meet. Overstreet had previously earned All-America honors during the 2013 outdoor season. Langley coached Overstreet during a jump-off at the NCAA East Preliminary Round in which Overstreet won that allowed her to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Langley is a 2003 graduate of Western Carolina where began his coaching career with the Catamounts. He was an outstanding javelin thrower at WCU and was a member of two Southern Conference championship teams in 1999. Langley received his masters degree in Sport Science/Pedagogy from Gardner-Webb in 2005, where he also coached for a three-year period from 2004-06. He coached 49 all-conference selections and five regional qualifiers in his three seasons at Gardner-Webb. The Bulldogs won the 2006 Atlantic Sun Conference mens outdoor title. Langley helped coach the Bulldogs to the 2006 Atlantic Sun Championship title, and his throwers scored 92 points at the championship meet, including Cody MacArthur who was named Field Event Performer of the Year. In 2005, GWU jumper Jake Didion was named Freshman of the Year in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Langley coached at Clemson from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2009 where he coached several specialties including mens field events, multi-event athletes, and mens and womens pole vault across the years of his tenure. Named the 2007 East Region Assistant Coach of the Year for Jumps and Combined Events at Clemson, he helped Mitch Greeley to a second-place finish in the pole vault at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships, the Tigers best individual finish indoors ever by a field athlete. Greeley later qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials. Langley also helped Miller Moss qualify for the 2009 NCAA Championships in the decathlon; Nicole Lomnicka was ranked No. 7 in the nation for the hammer; and his athletes earned All-America honors in the heptathlon and triple jump. In his first season with Carolina, Langley helped two Tar Heels earn All-America accolades in Daniel Keller and Mateo Sossah. Both merited All-America honors in the decathlon. During the 2010-11 season Langley took over as the Meet Director in addition to his post as assistant coach for pole vault at Carolina. In that same season, Langley coached Parker Smith and Sandi Morris each to NCAA appearances. Smith took fourth tying the highest finish ever by a UNC pole vaulter at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, earning him All-America honors, and also qualified for the 2011 NCAA Indoor meet, where he took 14th. In his last indoor season of eligibility, Smith added a second first-team All-America honor to his credit when he cleared a personal best 17-8 1/2 at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Championships. He is married to the former Layna Stoetzel, a former volleyball player at Western Carolina. Their daughter Jayden was born September 1, 2010. Their son Raymond Jacob (RJ) was born August 23, 2012 and their daughter Lilly Anne was born October 16, 2013.