Legendary UNC head coach Anson Dorrance to retire after 47 seasons, 21 NCAA titles

Anson Dorrance, whose 21 NCAA championships are the most by a head coach in any Division I sport in college athletics history, is retiring after 47 seasons directing the women’s soccer program at the University of North Carolina.

Dorrance informed Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham of his intention to retire on Friday, August 9, and told the team Sunday afternoon.

The Tar Heels open the regular season on Thursday, August 15, at Denver. Associate head coach Damon Nahas will lead the team this season as interim head coach. Cunningham will direct a national search.

“As many of you know I modeled our program after Dean Smith’s basketball program, and retiring at this time is a credit to his thinking, as well,” says Dorrance. “He would re-evaluate his tenure, not after the season, but after he had time to recharge his batteries prior to the next season. When he didn’t, he retired. After last season I initially was excited about the chance to bolster our roster, which we most certainly have done, but as preseason training camp went on, I realized I didn’t have the same energy it takes to give 100% to this year’s team. The players and staff, the university, Carolina athletics and our great fans deserve more, and the respect I have for the amazing legacy the current and former players have built led me to make this decision at this time.”

“Anson is an all-time soccer, coaching and Tar Heel legend,” says Cunningham. “The numbers and accomplishments are staggering and will be hard for any coach or program to replicate or exceed. His impact on the development and growth of women’s sports across the country and around the world has been profound. Not only did he elevate women’s sports in the NCAA, but he also led the early dominance of the United States Women’s National Team. With Anson at the helm numerous Tar Heels raised trophies in the World Cup and later in the Olympics.”

Dorrance, 73, a 1974 UNC graduate, is one of the most successful coaches in college athletics history.

The Tar Heels’ first and only women’s soccer head coach to date, Dorrance led UNC to a 934-88-53 record in 47 seasons (1979-2023). He also was head coach of the men’s soccer team from 1977-88, when he won 172 games and guided UNC to an ACC title and NCAA Final Four berth in 1987. Combined, Dorrance’s teams went 1,106-152-74 over 47 years.

“Anyone who knows Anson recognizes how deeply competitive he is, so to step aside now underscores his belief it is the right decision for the success of this year’s team. I have great respect for him and his decision,” says Cunningham. “Everyone at Carolina thanks Anson, M’Liss, and their family for a 50-plus-year relationship with the university. He will forever be a Tar Heel.”

Carolina women’s soccer has won 22 national championships (AIAW in 1981 and 21 NCAA titles), played in six other national championship games, finished first or tied for first in the ACC regular season 25 times and captured 22 of 32 ACC Tournaments.

The Tar Heels have played in 31 of the 42 College Cups ever played, 17 more than any other program, and are the only team to compete in every NCAA Tournament.

The 934 wins, 21 NCAA titles, 147 NCAA Tournament wins and 31 College Cups (Final Fours) are the most in women’s soccer history. The Tar Heels enter the 2024 season having been ranked 513 consecutive weeks.

Carolina won the AIAW national title in 1981 and NCAA championships in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012. Over the last decade the Tar Heels have played in five College Cups.

“It is no exaggeration to say Anson Dorrance is one of the greatest collegiate coaches of all time, in any sport,” says Chancellor Roberts. “He has trained many of the best players in the history of U.S. women’s soccer and has led our program through decades of unparalleled success. Coach Dorrance has shaped the sport for generations to come and leaves an unequaled legacy at Carolina.”

A seven-time national coach of the year, Dorrance is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame (2008), United Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame (2018), North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame (2005) and North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame (2002).

He received a Priceless Gem from Carolina Athletics in 1994, the Walt Chyzowych Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association in 1996, a C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award from the University in 2010, the Werner Fricker Award from U.S. Soccer in 2016 and was inducted into UNC’s Order of the Golden Fleece in 1988. In 2022, Dorrance was named one of 50 Champions of Women’s Athletics at Carolina to celebrate 50 years of Title IX.

Dorrance is the all-time Division I leader for NCAA championships by a coach in any sport with 21. Al Scates (UCLA men’s volleyball) and John McDonnell (Arkansas men’s indoor track and field) are tied for second with 19.

Carolina women’s soccer has won more NCAA championships (21) than any other women’s team. Stanford women’s tennis is second with 20. The 21 NCAA championships are tied for the fifth-most by any program in Division I history.

Numerous national media outlets labeled the UNC women’s soccer program one of America’s greatest sports dynasties. Sports Illustrated named the program the greatest college dynasty of all-time in 2003. In the early 1990s, Fortune magazine named Carolina one of the best examples of a team along with the surgical unit at Johns Hopkins, firefighters who capped the burning oil wells in Kuwait after the Gulf War and the offensive line of the three-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys.

Dorrance led the Tar Heels to five perfect seasons (unbeaten and untied) and six other seasons with no losses and three or fewer ties. UNC set the NCAA record winning 92 consecutive matches from 1990-94. From 1986-1990, the Tar Heels played 103 consecutive games without a loss (97-0-6); following an overtime loss, the program then played 101 consecutive games from 1990-94 without suffering another defeat (99-0-2).

One of Dorrance’s favorite achievements is playing more than 600 consecutive games over a 25-year period (1986-2010) when UNC either won, tied or lost by only one goal.

Dorrance coached 19 players who won National Player-of-the-Year honors, including three-time honoree Cindy Parlow (Cone), the current president of U.S. Soccer, and Mia Hamm, who was named the ACC’s Greatest Female Athlete in the league’s first 50 years.

From Janet Rayfield to April Heinrichs, Carla Werden (Overbeck), Shannon Higgins, Sarina Wiegman, Kristine Lilly, Tisha Venturini (Hoch), Staci Wilson, Catherine Reddick (Whitehill), Lori Chalupny, Heather O’Reilly, Tobin Heath, Lucy Bronze, Whitney Engen, Crystal Dunn, Alessia Russo, Emily Fox and Ally Sentnor, and numerous other Players of the Year and All-Americas, Dorrance recruited and developed many of the sport’s most outstanding players.

Tar Heels accumulated 102 first-team All-America awards, 191 All-ACC honors, 19 ACC Players of the Year (three-time winners Hamm and Dunn), 34 NCAA Tournament MVPs and 22 ACC Tournament MVPs.

In 2006, the NCAA named Dorrance, Hamm, Heinrichs, Lilly, Overbeck, Hoch and Whitehill to its 25th anniversary team.

Hamm set the NCAA scoring record, was two-time FIFA World Player of the Year and became an international sports icon, one of the most recognizable female athletes in the world.

Lilly played in 354 international games, more than any player in U.S. history, and is one of five Tar Heels to captain the USWNT.

Hamm and Lilly are members of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and join Dorrance, Heinrichs, Hoch, Overbeck and Parlow Cone in the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrance was inducted in his first year of eligibility in 2008 as a “Builder of the Game.”

Dorrance was the head coach of the USWNT from 1986-94, leading Team USA to the title in the first-ever Women’s World Cup in China in 1991. Nine Tar Heels played on that team, and the assistant coach, Lauren Gregg, was also a former UNC player.

Fifty-nine Tar Heels have played for the USWNT, including Dunn and Fox, who won gold medals in Paris in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. It was the fifth time the U.S. won the Olympics with two or more Tar Heels on the roster. Fourteen Tar Heels have won Olympic 21 gold medals.

In 1999, the U.S. famously defeated China in the Rose Bowl in the World Cup final in one of the most memorable and impactful sporting events in women’s athletics history – eight of the 20 players on the U.S. roster played for Dorrance at Carolina.

Carolina has played a lead role in the growth of professional women’s soccer in the United States, producing 29 first-round draft picks, including nine in the NWSL Draft, three of whom were selected No. 1 overall.

Six Tar Heels were selected in the 2024 Draft to match the NWSL record for most players selected by a single school. Carolina had an NWSL-record three first rounders, and Sentnor (No. 1) and Savy King (No. 2) became the second Tar Heel duo picked in the top two slots in the draft.

At the conclusion of the 2023 season, a team-record 11 players signed first-division professional contracts.

Dorrance’s 47-year tenure as a UNC head coach is the second-longest in program history (Ron Miller was the fencing coach for 52 years).

In 2019, after an extensive renovation Carolina dedicated the former Fetzer Field, home of the soccer and lacrosse programs, as Dorrance Field. The Tar Heel women’s soccer team went 413-33-21 at home under Dorrance in 47 seasons.

Dorrance played for the Tar Heels for head coach Marvin Allen, earning All-ACC honors three times and was named one of the league’s 50 best players on the ACC’s 50th anniversary team in 2004. Allen described Dorrance as a player as the “toughest 140-pound man I’ve ever seen.” He also was named the top intramurals athlete on campus in 1971 and helped start a 17-year IM sports championship dynasty in Teague Dorm.

He and M’Liss will celebrate their 50th anniversary later this month.