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Carolina Blue
Ninety-four percent of Tar Heels’ women’s soccer opponents have left the pitch feeling


Dorrance
Sep 25, 2006 1:01:01 AM

By Michelle Brutlag Hosick
The NCAA News

The statistics are staggering: 17 NCAA titles — including nine straight between 1986 and 1994 —-only 27 losses in 27 years, a 103-game undefeated streak in the late 1980s, dozens of player-of-the-year and coach-of-the-year honors. Sportswriters have used words such as "legendary" and "dominant" to describe them.

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, women’s soccer program is without question the most successful collegiate program in the sport’s history.

After the team’s most recent championship in 2003 — a season in which the team ran the table for the fourth time — Sports Illustrated On Campus named the program the greatest college dynasty of all time, ahead of the John Wooden-era University of California, Los Angeles, basketball teams and the Bud Wilkinson-coached University of Oklahoma football teams. It is not surprising then that North Carolina’s dominance in women’s soccer, culminating in the 2003 run to the title, is one of the NCAA’s 25 Defining Moments.

Coach Anson Dorrance built the program from its beginnings in 1979 to the powerhouse it still is today. Former Sports Illustrated writer Tim Crothers first met Dorrance in the early 1980s when Crothers was a student journalist working for North Carolina’s student paper and was instantly fascinated by Dorrance’s unorthodox character and the grinding playing style of his student-athletes. After several years of working as a sportswriter, Crothers approached Dorrance about writing a book. Dorrance agreed, and the relationship began.

Unexpected style

Crothers was instantly struck by what he called the "chaos" of Dorrance’s coaching style — the team frequently was late to games or nearly missed flights because they wanted to see a movie or stopped off on the way for snacks.

"You assume coming into the program that you’re going to see this military discipline and they’re going to be run through their paces and Anson is going to be this dictator who is running this very tight ship, and it could not be further from the truth," Crothers said. "Anson sometimes has trouble remembering the names of his players. They often arrive late for games. It is total chaos. You would never in a million years think that."

Crothers believes Dorrance’s disorderly nature can take the pressure off the student-athletes. The laid-back nature of Dorrance’s approach to travel and competition time translated to practice as well — Crothers said he never saw him yell at a player in five years. Instead, he said Dorrance uses a sarcastic sense of humor and fosters a sense of competition among his players to motivate them.

Though the national title has become less of a sure thing for North Carolina because of increased parity in the sport, the Tar Heel program remains among the best in the country, respected by other coaches, particularly in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Steve Swanson coaches the University of Virginia women’s soccer team that won the ACC title in 2004 and finished as runner-up to the Tar Heels in 2005.

"It’s pretty remarkable what they’ve done. The whole program has done a lot for our sport and certainly set the bar," Swanson said.

The program has a rich history, a tradition of winning that can be formidable to any opponent, but many in the ACC relish meeting such a team on a regular basis — even if they come out on the losing end. Swanson said any coach who doesn’t look forward to and appreciate playing a team of North Carolina’s caliber should look for a different job.

"That’s the thing that excites you — you get to play the team that sets the standard, raises the bar," he said. "Our players accept that. They value that. We try to make our own history here at Virginia. What’s so amazing about their program is that they’ve been able to do it year in and year out — that’s not easy, either. It’s one thing to be a top-20 program in one year, but to win as many national championships as (Dorrance) has and to be as successful as he has, that’s pretty special."

Mark Krikorian, who coaches conference rival Florida State University’s team, said his student-athletes give North Carolina — and all their opponents — the respect due to them. Being recognized by the NCAA is one more way the program provides a measure by which other coaches can evaluate their own successes.

"I can’t imagine there are too many stories that are a whole lot more impressive in terms of the string of success that they’ve had. In some ways, as an outsider looking in, I think it’s a great model for what all the programs strive to achieve," Krikorian said. "It’s been fantastic for the sport. They’ve defined excellence over the course of 25 years."

With so much recognition for their continued success and ability to dominate the sport, it might be easy for the coaches and players alike to rest on their laurels and assume another win is just around the corner. But Dorrance instills a work ethic in his players that begins from the first recruiting visit.

"We feel we have a moral obligation to play every kid that we recruit. We have a philosophy that is very inclusive, we try to play a deep roster, and we think this sort of work ethic on the field and the commitment to the entire group that we recruit benefits us in many ways," he said. "The kids know that they’re going to get a chance to play, and with the minutes they have, if they work hard, they know they’re going to play again."

There’s nothing profound about the reasons for his success, Dorrance said — he simply recruits quality student-athletes, young women who are proud to represent and attend the University of North Carolina.

But even the recruiting landscape has changed since the Tar Heels’ amazing success story began 25 years ago. Dorrance said that the distribution of talent nationally is more widespread than ever before.

"Now, we could play any team in the top 100 and we could point to two or three players on their roster that would have a significant impact for us. There’s so much talent out there that all the schools in the country are getting quality players," he said. "The game has become very popular in this country and our youth coaches are becoming better coaches. ... We’re getting a large percentage of the top athletes in every high school and youth athletics community."

Being named one of the top 25 defining moments in NCAA history is an honor, he said, and he and the others involved with the program are "tremendously flattered."

Swanson said that Dorrance and the program earned the honor and the respect of everyone in the game.

"We have a healthy respect for what they’ve done, not only for our conference, but certainly in terms of helping women’s collegiate athletics," Swanson said. "Anson has built the program up and he continues to see it through. He’s got a philosophy that he strongly believes in and I think he’s got a vision, and that makes a big difference."

Over the five years Crothers spent with the team, he learned that with Dorrance, what the public sees is not necessarily the way things are. He carries a notebook in which he writes down inspirational quotations he reads in order to repeat them to his team at a pivotal moment. He conducts a weekly leadership seminar every spring with the seniors on his team in which they read and discuss "Man’s Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who was imprisoned in a concentration camp by the Nazis.

"It’s about how you handle adversity. You have to improve your life by how you handle adversity and a lot of players when they first read this book are confused," Crothers said. "He keeps hammering away at them with these passages. He believes that the best way to motivate players is through literature, through quotes and poems."

Whatever his methods, Dorrance’s approach certainly yields results. As of September 18, the North Carolina women’s soccer team was 8-1, with a double-overtime loss to Texas A&M University, College Station, in the season opener. The team’s all-time record stands at 610-28-18.

"A Man Watching: A Biography of Anson Dorrance" by Tim Crothers is available from www.amazon.com and www.annarbormediagroup.com.


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