Anson Dorrance - Women's Soccer Coach - University of North Carolina Athletics

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

Anson Dorrance

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
anson@email.unc.edu
Phone:
919-962-5491

The 2024 season will mark Anson Dorrance’s 48th year as a head coach at UNC, including 46 seasons as the women’s head coach – the only head coach in program history.

A 1974 Carolina graduate, Dorrance has won a combined 1,106 games at his alma mater while coaching the men and women. Heading into the 2024 season, he owns a career record of 1,106-152-74, including a 934-88-53 mark as the women's head coach.

His 934 victories as head coach of the UNC women’s program are the most in the sport’s history.

He won his 1,000th game as a collegiate head coach, including 172 wins as UNC’s men’s head coach from 1977-88, when the Tar Heels defeated Ohio State on August 18, 2018. It was his 828^th victory as the UNC women’s coach. Dorrance captured his 900^th win as Carolina’s women’s coach against Notre Dame in the 2021 home finale on Oct. 24.

Dorrance was presented with the prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award in 2016 from United States Soccer, given to an individual who has 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.

He was inducted in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in August 2008 on the “Builders of the Game” ballot, being inducted in his first year of eligibility.

In 2012, Dorrance led Carolina to its 20^th NCAA Championship, making him the first coach in NCAA history to win 20 NCAA championships in a single sport. He is the all-time leader in Division I NCAA championships in any sport and tied for second across all NCAA divisions in all-time titles with 21.

The women’s soccer program has produced 21 of UNC’s 50 NCAA championships, which ranks the fifth-most by any program in NCAA Division I history. Oklahoma State wrestling has 34, Southern California men’s outdoor track and field 26, Denver skiing 24, Iowa wrestling 24 and UNC women’s soccer, USC men’s tennis and Yale men’s golf have won 21.

Beckett Entertainment named the 1982-2000 Tar Heels the sixth most successful sports dynasty of the 20th century, trailing only the 1957-69 Boston Celtics, 1947-62 New York Yankees, 1963-75 UCLA men’s basketball, 1991-98 Chicago Bulls and 1953-60 Montreal Canadians.

Dorrance led Carolina to a 103-game unbeaten streak (97-0-6) from 1986 to 1990 and a 101-game unbeaten streak (99-0-2) from 1990 to 1994.

In 2022, the Tar Heels claimed a share of the ACC regular season championship, advanced to the ACC title game and made its unprecedented 31st appearance in the NCAA College Cup. The Tar Heels are the only women's soccer program in the country to appear in every NCAA Tournament.

He has coached 19 different players to National Player-of-the-Year honors, including three-time recipient Cindy Parlow (current president of U.S. Soccer) and Mia Hamm, who was selected the Greatest Female Athlete in the ACC’s first 50 years.

Dorrance has been named National Coach of the Year seven times, six as the women’s head coach (1982, 1986, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006) and once with the men (1987).

He led the Carolina men to the 1987 NCAA Final Four.

Dorrance served as head coach of the United States Women’s National Team from 1986-94, leading Team USA to the title in the first-ever Women’s World Cup in China in 1991.