Waldrum Brought In To Revitalize Pitt Women's Soccer
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PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) - Randy Waldrum is a winner.
A pair of National Championships at Notre Dame and 399 collegiate women's soccer wins is the mere tip of the iceberg for one of the most established collegiate soccer coaches in the United States.
Now, Waldrum will be tasked with one of the biggest challenges of his career in turning around the Pittsburgh women's soccer program.
The Panthers come off a 3-12-3 season, going winless in ACC play. Pittsburgh has just two winning seasons since adding women's soccer in 1996, resulting in the dismissal of Greg Miller in November.
"The change is needed," Waldrum said in his introductory press conference Thursday. "There's a history and a culture that we certainly need to change and I'm excited about taking a leadership role and helping us get to the goals that we all have."
Beyond his 14 seasons with the Fighting Irish, Waldrum built the Baylor program from the ground up, going 46-14-3. He also coached Tulsa's men's and women's team for six years, with a total of 127 wins between the two programs.
"I think we've landed a five-star recruit," Pittsburgh athletic director Heather Lyke said. "We hoped to be able to meet the high expectations in the leader of our women's soccer program. We were determined not to settle for anything less than that and we found that leader in Randy Waldrum."
Most recently, Waldrum coached the Houston Dash of the National Women's Soccer League, highlighted by national team stars in Carli Lloyd, Morgan Brian and Pittsburgh native Meghan Klingenberg.
"I want to build a program of excellence," Waldrum added. "We've got to build this in a way that we're eager and competitive and we want to do it as quick as we can."