CHAPTER SEVEN:

ANSON DORRANCE

Anson Dorrance has had an outsized influence on the game of soccer in America. His success at UNC, with the US Women’s National team and with the development of the world’s best female players has cast a long, successful shadow over the world of women’s soccer. He gave us a paradigm of success so great and expansive that every young aspiring female soccer player has been touched by the influence of Anson Dorrance. Whether you want to play at a high-level college program, or simply are a fan of players like Tobin Heath and Heather O’Reilly, Anson has had an impact on soccer in your life.

(Photo credit: Getty Images Archive via CNN)

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CHAPTER SEVEN

ANSON DORRANCE

When UNC created a varsity women’s team in 1979, Anson Dorrance was hired to coach. Already the men’s coach, he would maintain double duty at the school for a decade.

Within two years of the start of the program, Dorrance had guided the Tar Heels to the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) title. The following year, the NCAA finally recognized women’s soccer as an inter-collegiate sport, and established their own path to championship glory. Dorrance’s teams proceeded to dominate the sport at a level that was, frankly, unimaginable.

The Tar Heels won 12 of the first 13 NCAA championships (1982–1984, 1986–1994). To date, the Tar Heels have claimed a total of 22 national championships and 21 of the 42 NCAA championships. And, that’s without a title since 2012. In other words, they won 21 of the first 31 NCAA women’s soccer titles. That’s inconceivable. But true.

Consider the names that have played at UNC for Dorrance. Mia Hamm. Sabrina Wiegman. Kristine Lilly. Heather O’Reilly. Meghan Klingenberg. Lucy Bronze. Tobin Heath. Crystal Dunn. Alessia Russo. Emily Fox. The best of the best have worn Carolina blue.  

(Photo credit: Sports Illustrated)

Our GUEST

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 828th victory as the UNC women’s coach. Dorrance captured his 900th win as Carolina’s women’s coach against Notre Dame in the 2021 home finale on Oct. 24.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

To learn more about Anson Dorrance and his importance to the growth of the game in America, we recommend the following resources.

Books

Articles

    Our PERSPECTIVE

    Anson Dorrance found a formula that made the UNC women’s soccer program so successful that it created a standard that others wanted to reach and emulate. He created a success story in soccer, in America that was uniquely American. He took that from UNC to the USWNT and did the same thing with that squad helping bring home the country’s first World Cup. Dorrance gave us soccer success. 

    But he also did it in a way that created a unique soccer identity in America. We talked about the pressing approach and you heard him talk about his reasons. Until just the past year or two, the fitness and athleticism of the USWNT has been so head and shoulders above the rest of the world in the women’s game, that Dorrance’s identity has, with some variance, largely remained the calling card of our women’s team. He gave us our first truly proprietary position in the sport, through the women’s game. 

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