Stanford women’s soccer hires Paul Hart as assistant coach

STANFORD, Calif. – The Stanford University women’s soccer program has announced the addition of Paul Hart as an assistant coach.

“I am honored to be joining Coach Ratcliffe, his staff and the Stanford community,” Hart said. “The opportunity to work with the Cardinal’s soccer program and its student-athletes is a real privilege. I am looking forward to supporting our student-athletes and playing whatever role that I can to help this program continue to succeed.”

Hart comes to The Farm from Washington, where he was an assistant for the 2020-21 season. With Hart’s guidance the Huskies posted one of their best campaigns, concluding the 2021 spring season with a 10-4-4 record, a Sweet Sixteen appearance, a third-place finish in the Pac-12 and a pair of top 15 rankings – No. 14 TopDrawer Soccer and No. 15 United Soccer Coaches.

Under his tutelage, Husky goalkeepers limited the opposition to a program-record 12 goals on the season. Olivia Sekany had one of the best season by a Husky goalkeeper, setting the program record for goals-against-average (0.62), while her eight clean sheets were tied for the fourth-most in a single season.

Prior to his time in the Pacific Northwest, Hart spent two seasons at Oklahoma as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, including a three-month stint as the interim head coach.

Hart has extensive roots in California, having spent time at San Francisco (2016-18) as an associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, and at UC Santa Barbara (2012-16). With the Gauchos he served as the goalkeeper’s coach for both the men’s and women’s programs (2012-14), helping the men’s team to Big West titles in 2013 and 2014. Hart also spent 2014-16 as UC Santa Barbara’s head strength and conditioning coach. The Gauchos swept the Big West titles in men’s and women’s soccer, with the men advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. UC Santa Barbara also won the Big West Commissioner’s Cup in 2015.

A former professional goalkeeper, Hart is a 2004 graduate of West Texas A&M. He was the Lone Star Conference’s Goalkeeper of the Year all four seasons while pursuing his degree in sport and exercise science. He also has a Master’s of Science in sports performance and injury prevention from California University (Pennsylvania).