Hall of Fame UNC women’s soccer coach and 21-time NCAA National Champion Anson Dorrance visited campus on March 3rd as the featured guest of this year’s Jake McCandless ’51 PVC Speaker Series. An audience of students, coaches, campus colleagues and PVC Members filled the new Engineering Commons as Dorrance shared stories, lessons and perspectives from his five decades of collegiate coaching.
Dorrance coached at the University of North Carolina (UNC) for 47 years, including 45 seasons as the women’s soccer head coach. During this time, he turned the UNC women’s soccer program into one of the premier dynasties in American sports, winning an unprecedented 21 National Championships, the most by a head coach in any Division I sport. Additionally, he coached 19 National Player of the Years, including current President of U.S. Soccer Cindy Parlow and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist & FIFA World Cup Champion Mia Hamm, among other soccer greats. His 934 victories with the UNC women are the most in the sports history. Dorrance also served as head coach of the United States Women’s National Team from 1986-94 and led Team USA to the title in the first-ever Women’s World Cup in 1991.
Dorrance was joined by more than 100 Princeton coaches for a morning conversation, before engaging with students, staff, campus partners and the greater Princeton community in the afternoon. He shared his perspectives around team-building, leadership and creating and maintaining a championship standard, while also taking the audience behind the curtain to explore his “Competitive Cauldron” training philosophy and the 13 core values that governed his UNC program.
Click here to view a full photo gallery from the event.
The Jake McCandless ’51 PVC Speaker Series was endowed in the name of J.L. “Jake” McCandless ’51, who coached Princeton to the 1969 Ivy League football championship during the Tigers’ centennial year of football. Since its inception, the Series has featured a variety of speakers including Professors, Olympians, Civil Rights Activists, Sports Professionals and Team Owners, and more. Click here for a feature on past McCandless series speakers.
