In his ninth season at the helm of the Hardin-Simmons women's
soccer program, Marcus Wood has brought his team to a level where
it is yearly considered one of the nation's best.
Last year may have been his best coaching job as he dealt with a
bevy of injuries, including a torn ACL to All-American forward Amy
Kuykendall. He still led the Cowgirls to a 19-2-1 record, led the
Cowgirls to their fifth straight ASC title and advanced to the
second weekend of the NCAA Tournament and extended its ASC unbeaten
streak to 96 matches.
In 2006, the Cowgirls made their deepest run in the NCAA
Tournament, going to the Elite Eight with wins over Puget Sound,
Trinity and UC-Santa Cruz. HSU won its fourth straight American
Southwest Conference title.
The program has also made great strides in facility improvements.
The Cowgirls have a new game field that is three years and a soccer
fieldhouse that opened over the summer. On the other side of the
field is an area that is going to be the new practice field for the
Cowgirls.
Wood has compiled a 139-19-14 record in his nine seasons with
Cowgirls currently ranks fourth in the NCAA Division all-time
winning lists by percentage. His .843 mark puts him behind only Joe
Russo of The College of New Jersey, Scott Frey, Messiah, and Luis
Reis of Wheaton (Mass.).
His teams have not shied away from going against some of the
toughest competition in the nation. In the last seven years, the
Cowgirls have played eight teams that have advanced to at least the
Final Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Striving to get to the top of
the NCAA ladder, Wood has had to play most of those games on the
road, either in the regular season or the NCAA playoffs. The
Cowgirls have made trips to Emory, Trinity and Puget Sound, three
of the powerhouses in NCAA Division III, in search of the best
competition. Although not always successful, the Cowgirls have been
competitive in all of those on-the-road situations.
HSU has to find tough foes in the non-conference portion of its
schedule, because HSU has dominated the ASC slate going undefeated
in its last 83 games. HSU has been to the last six ASC Women's
Soccer finals winning five of the titles, including four straight.
Overall, the Cowgirls have won 10 of the 12 ASC titles.
Not only do the Cowgirls go anywhere to face the best competition in season, its offseason conditioning program may be one of the best in the nation. The Cowgirls have made two trips to Europe under Wood, including August of 2007 when the team went 1-0-2 against some top level teams from London.
In each of the last seven seasons the Cowgirls have been ranked in
the National Soccer Coaches Association of America National Poll at
some point, reaching a high of No. 4 in 2006.
Wood is already the school's all-time winningest coach. Eight
players have been named all-region a total of 11 times under Wood's
guidance. He has coached four All-Americans at HSU, including a
pair of current Cowgirls Christ Carr and Amy Kuykendall. Mollie
Porter and Whitney Piendak are the other two All-Americans.
Prior to HSU, Wood was a highly-successful assistant coach at both
Cumberland College (Ky.) and Gardner-Webb (N.C.) University. His
most recent stop was a one-year stint at GWU, where he helped turn
the program from 6-13 in 1998 to 13-9 in 1999. The Lady Bulldogs
also upset the No. 1 team in the nation.
Wood coached the Bettendorf (Iowa) Soccer Association team to the
U18 Iowa State Championship in 1999. He had a 41-7-2 record as the
head coach for the youth team. Also added to the resume is his
ability to speak and perform at soccer clinics all around the
Midwest. Known as a skillful motivator and teacher, he has
conducted his annual camp called "Woody's" since 1993. The camp is
for ages 6-14.
At Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee, Ill.,Wood was team
captain, team MVP, NCCAA All-Region and was a NAIA Academic
All-American. Wood graduated from ONU as the school's second
all-time leading scorer and team captain and MVP. Wood was also a
three-time Olympic development player.
Wood holds a Premier National Coaching Diploma through the National
Soccer Coaches Association of America. He earned his premier in
April of 2004 in Lilleshall, U.K. He earned his master's degree
from Hardin-Simmons in Sports and Recreation Management. He married
the former Kelley Tragesser in December of 2005 and they have an
infant daughter, Kamryn.
