Vanderbilt women's soccer coach Robbie Church always wanted to come back to Duke.
After attending Duke basketball and football games as a child and serving as an assistant to men's soccer coach John Rennie in 1985, the Greensboro native left his favorite school to pursue a career in coaching, but he constantly kept the Gothic Wonderland in the back of his mind.
Now, 16 years after departing Durham and only two years after leaving UNC-Charlotte to take the head coaching position at Vanderbilt, Church is returning to Duke as the women's soccer coach. And athletics director Joe Alleva could not be more enthralled with Church's decision.
"I'm just really excited that we could get him, because he was my first choice all along," Alleva said. "He's a veteran, experienced coach, he's been successful, he's built a program at UNC-Charlotte, and he knows how to deal with... and recruit young ladies, which is critical to our success. I think our girls can relate to Robbie very well; they'll be comfortable with him."
Church boasts 15 years of head coaching experience on the college level. In total, he has amassed a record of 177-107-14, having coached men's soccer at East Carolina, Belmont Abbey and Lynn University, and women's soccer at Charlotte and Vanderbilt. At these latter two schools, Church compiled a record of 87-49-9 overall. At Vanderbilt, he took his team to the semifinals of the SEC tournament in successive years, but had only a marginally winning record of 21-19-1.
"It's been an interesting two years," Church said of his tenure in Nashville. "We've had our share of ups and downs, but the girls really were outstanding young ladies, both on and off the field. [Leaving Vanderbilt] was one of the hardest things I've done in my life."
Church also boasts a long career of involvement in youth soccer programs. For instance, after his short stint at Lynn, a Division III school, Church returned in the early 1990s to the high school ranks to coach Charlotte Country Day School, a perennial contender for the state independent schools title.
Most notably, Church serves as an assistant coach for the Region III United States Olympic Development team, which includes players from throughout the Southeast, stretching from Texas to Florida to North Carolina. Based on his own involvement in ODP, Rennie believes that his former protege's experience will help his recruitment efforts and his ability to relate to his players.
"It's absolutely invaluable," Rennie said. "It not only gives him access to and awareness of players in Region III, but then they do inter-regional events where you meet all the other regional coaches. I was the head regional coach in Region III in the mid '80s, and it established a tremendous base for recruiting for the men's program."
Rennie also considers the new women's soccer coach an excellent tactician of the game, a quality which, among others, set Church apart from the rest of the field.
"I think he has a tremendous reputation for his on-field coaching of players," Rennie said. "Plus his track record as a coach is very strong. With women's soccer being a fairly new sport, it doesn't have many coaches who have coached all that long.... The third thing is, I know him personally and he's a Duke fanatic."
Ultimately, this fanaticism for Duke--and his allegiance to his home state of North Carolina--was the clincher in Church's decision to accept Alleva's offer. Church said he was impressed by the University's close attention to academics, and felt comfortable being near his and his wife's families, who reside in Greensboro and High Point respectively.
In his interview with Alleva, he was also touched by the commitment the AD showed to improving the women's soccer program, which has made the NCAA tournament nine out of 12 seasons, but has only once been a serious contender for a national championship.
"Obviously, we want to compete for a national championship. That's our long-term goal," Church said. "Our short-term goal is that we want to get better every day.... We want to compete and we want to have a national program, a program that is received by the community and one that the students will be proud of."
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