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Kennedy named coach of the year
Fort Lewis College head men’s soccer coach Oige Kennedy was named the 2011 NSCAA/MONDO National Coach of the Year for NCAA Division II, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America announced last week at its annual convention and awards banquet.
“Recognition by your peers is always special,” said FLC Director of Athletics Gary Hunter. “The amount of success that Oige has had in such a short period of time as a head coach is just extraordinary.”
In his three years at the helm of the Skyhawk men’s soccer program, Kenney has guided his squad to a pair of NCAA Division II national titles in 2009 and 2011.
Through his first three seasons, Kennedy has posted a 59-7-4 (.847) overall record and is 37-3-2 (.929) in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference games. His teams are a perfect 10-0-0 in the NCAA playoffs and 4-0-2 in the RMAC tournament (two ties ending in penalty kicks).
His 2009 and 2011 teams each went 24-1-0, setting the NCAA Division II standard for most wins in a season.
Earlier this season, Kennedy was named the NSCAA/MONDO Central Region Coach of the Year and the RMAC Coach of the Year. He was previously named the CaptainU Division II Coach of the Year in 2009.
He wasn’t the lone Skyhawk to be honored. Senior defender Fabian Kling received the NSCAA/Continental Tire NCAA Division II Player of the Year honor at the awards banquet. Kling’s honor was announced last month by the NSCAA.
In addition to Kennedy winning the Division II award, former Fort Lewis College men’s soccer skipper Jeremy Gunn (1999-2007) was named the NSCAA/MONDO National Coach of the Year for NCAA Division I. Gunn led North Carolina-Charlotte to their first championship game appearance in school history, falling to North Carolina 1-0 in the title match. His team finished with a 16-5-4 record, boosting his career mark to 64-26-15 at the Division I level in five seasons at Charlotte and 187-61-31 in 13 seasons as a collegiate head coach. Gunn, who left Charlotte for Stanford last month, also won the 2005 NSCAA National Coach of the Year award at the Division II level after leading Fort Lewis to the 2005 national title.
Kennedy and Gunn are the only two Fort Lewis College coaches in any sport to win National Coach of the Year awards while coaching at FLC.
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