But with the recommendation of Flinn, the support of the search committee, University administration, and perhaps most importantly, the student-athletes, Sitch was named head coach on April 20, 2022. With her focus on finding the best fit for the program, Torain said she didn’t think about the rarity of hiring a woman coach until the final stages. “I’m so glad she stepped up to the plate and took the chance.”
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It was her preparation, it was being authentic about who she is, and her experience, and I knew the athletes would enjoy the fact she had been at the next level from a professional standpoint. She knew what her first 30 days were going to look like, and what her motto was going to be. “She knew UChicago, she knew what it takes to recruit here, she had a plan. But Sitch, a former UChicago women’s soccer assistant, an all-American forward at DePaul University and a professional player who retired with the Chicago Red Stars, was ready.
The program’s recent history of success drew an extremely talented hiring pool, making Torain’s decision even more difficult. The team had made its fourth run to the Final Four-and third in four seasons-in Flinn’s final year in 2021 and was returning a strong core with hopes for another stellar year in 2022. “When they can see it, they can believe it they dream it, and they continue to go after it.”Īfter former UChicago head coach Pat Flinn’s exit last spring-he took an NCAA Division I position at Drake-UChicago Director of Athletics and Recreation Angie Torain knew she had big shoes to fill. “I think it’s important for young girls to see women in leadership roles,” Sitch said. And in doing so, she hopes she’s opened the door for the dreams of others. Department of Education, 95 percent of NCAA men’s sports team coaches were male.įast forward to her first season at the helm for the UChicago Maroons-unbeaten at 20-0-1, four NCAA Tournament wins under their belts and headed to their second-straight NCAA Final Four-and Sitch has already made history as the first woman head coach to lead a men’s soccer team to a NCAA Final Four. Data from 40-odd years later shows that, in the realm of women coaching men, not much has changed.Īccording to 2020 numbers from the U.S. Growing up playing soccer with the boys in the 1980s in Oswego, Illinois, she didn’t have a woman coach to look up to. Julianne Sitch will be honest: Being the head coach of the men’s soccer team at the University of Chicago was not her “dream job.” How could it have been?
#Head soccer coach series
Editor’s note: This story is part of ‘Meet a UChicagoan,’ a regular series focusing on the people who make UChicago a distinct intellectual community.
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