Women's Soccer: NSCAA Honors Izzo-Brown
December 02, 2007 12:09 PM | General
By Tim Goodenow for MSNsportsNET.com
December 2, 2007
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| Nikki Izzo-Brown |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After leading the West Virginia University women’s soccer team to an appearance in the Elite Eight of the 2007 NCAA tournament, Head Coach Nikki Izzo-Brown was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s Coach of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic Region, the association announced.
Izzo-Brown earned the honor for the third time (2002, 2003 and 2007) since her arrival in Morgantown in 1996. As the only coach in Mountaineer soccer history, Izzo-Brown has amassed an impressive overall record of 165-67-19 in 12 seasons. Izzo-Brown’s career record stands at 178-72-19 in 13 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
Consistently ranked in the top 25 national rankings, Izzo-Brown guided the Mountaineers to its first Elite Eight appearance this season and tied the school record for wins with 18 (18-5-2). An unofficial crowd of 3,000 set a new Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium record Friday (Nov. 30) in WVU’s quarterfinal match with USC, the largest crowd for any soccer event at West Virginia.
The Mountaineers repeated as American Division BIG EAST Champions during the regular season, giving Izzo-Brown’s teams a third regular season title. Izzo-Brown has led West Virginia to three postseason BIG EAST Championships finals matches and its first BIG EAST tournament crown this season.
To date, Izzo-Brown has coached two players who went on to play professionally, five All-Americans, 19 all-region players, 15 first team all-BIG EAST performers, five conference players of the year and two Hermann Trophy semifinalists.
A two-time BIG EAST Coach of the Year, Izzo-Brown has never had a losing season in 13 seasons as head coach. West Virginia has made eight consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament.
Also named regional coach of the year honors by the NSCAA were G Guerrieri (Texas A&M/Central Region), Rob Klatte (Purdue/Great Lakes Region), Simon Riddiough (Hofstra/North East Region), Patrick Baker (Georgia/South Region) and Ali Khosroshahin (USC/West Region). All six coaches are now on the ballot as candidates for the National Coach of the Year presented by the NSCAA and adidas.
