Men's Soccer
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- gtporter@uncaa.unc.edu
- Phone:
- 919-843-8657
Grant Porter begins his 15th season as an assistant coach for the North Carolina men’s soccer program in 2025.
A key figure in both national titles in school history, the 2004 UNC graduate helped lead the Tar Heels to their first national championship as a player in 2001 and again as an assistant coach in 2011.
Porter assists in all aspects of the program from handling travel plans to recruiting. Carolina has routinely brought in top-10 recruiting classes in recent years: No. 3 in 2012, No. 4 in 2013, No. 7 in 2015, No. 1 in 2016, No. 2 in 2017 and No. 1 in 2019. He played alongside 16 MLS draft picks as a player and has helped guide 27 players into professional soccer since becoming a Tar Heel assistant coach in 2011.
His 19 combined years with the Carolina program as both a player and a coach is stellar. His resume includes the aforementioned two national titles in 2001 and 2011, and 18 appearances in the NCAA Championship. He has also been a member of six Atlantic Coast Conference regular season championship programs and two ACC title teams.
Porter returned to Chapel Hill in 2011 with eight years of coaching experience under his belt after graduating from UNC. Porter was the Director of Soccer for the Charlotte United Futbol Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 2006-10. During that time he was also the head soccer coach at Charlotte Country Day School during the 2009 and 2010 seasons where he groomed an all-state selection, a pair of all-region honorees and six all-conference award winners.
He began his coaching career at Georgia State University as the head assistant coach for two seasons, guiding the Panthers to a winning record and a trip to the Atlantic Sun Tournament semifinals. He was also an assistant coach at UC Santa Barbara in 2005, helping lead the Gauchos to an NCAA Tournament appearance and a top-25 final national ranking.
A four-year starter during his time in Chapel Hill from 2000-03, Porter made the game-winning assist in the 2001 national championship game and was awarded the UNC Nicholas Douglass Potter Coaches’ Award in 2001.
He would later go on to become the team captain in his senior year of 2003. The run from 2000-03 with Porter on the roster ranks as one of the best four-year spans in school history. The Tar Heels won 21 matches in back-to-back seasons and won both the 2000 ACC and 2001 NCAA championships.
Porter, who works with US Soccer as a regional scout for youth national teams, holds a bachelor’s degree from UNC in economics and a master’s degree in sport administration from Georgia State.
