Anson Dorrance
"The single most successful coach in any sport in all of intercollegiate athletics," Dorrance is credited with having set the standard for women soccer worldwide when as the U.S. Women's National Coach his 1991 team won the first FIFA women's world championship with an extraordinary attacking style. For this feat Dorrance and the team were awarded the National Soccer Hall of Fame Medal of Honor in 2001. Named National Coach of the year on many occasions in his role as Head Coach of the University of North Carolina Women's Soccer program, in his 29th year of his collegiate coaching career, Dorrance's staggering 696-36-22 record and 21 national championships represents the best NCAA record for any coach in any Division I sport nationwide.
In 1991, Soccer America named Dorrance one of the 20 most influential men in American soccer over the previous 20 years. Soccer America followed that up in 1995 by naming Dorrance as one of the 25 most influential people in the history of American soccer. Dorrance was one of only three coaches on that list and the only women's coach tapped.
In 1995, Dorrance's program was profiled in a full-length documentary film entitled, "Dynasty," focusing in particular on the Tar Heels' amazing nine-year national championship run from 1986 through 1994. More recently HBO produced "Dare to Dream", a special on the remarkable rise of the U.S. Women built on the "91ers", the five athletes Dorrance picked for the first world championship who remained the spine of a U.S. national team dynasty that won two world championships (1991 & 1999) and two Olympics (1996 & 2004) and in 2008 a documentary produced by Hap Kindem "Winning Isn't Everything" The Untold Story of a Soccer Dynasty. Dorrance has co-authored two best selling books for coaches and players: "Training Soccer Champions" and "The Vision of a Champion". Dan Davies publisher of Business Leader in the September 1997 issue of his magazine called "Training Soccer Champions . . . the best book on management I've read in the past five years". "The Vision of a Champion" was honored as a finalist for Fore Word Magazine's 2002 Book of the Year. In October of 2006 Tim Crothers, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, produced "The Man Watching: A Biography of Anson Dorrance the Unlikely Architect of the Greatest College Sports Dynasty Ever".
In 1996 Fortune magazine did a study on The Seven High Performance Groups Outside the Corporate World. Under the title "Elite Teams Get the Job Done" were features on the U.S. Navy SEALS, the Mass General Trauma Unit, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Kuwaiti Fire Fighters, the Dallas Cowboys offensive line, Richard Childress' NASCAR team, and the University of North Carolina Tar Heel Women's Soccer Team.
In 2003 the Atlantic Coast Conference selected Dorrance as a member of the 50th Anniversary Team, honoring the fifty best players in ACC history.
In 2004 an expert panel employed by ESPN announced its list of The Best Twenty-five Coaches of the Past 25 Years. Most of the coaches selected were from the professional coaching community and college football and basketball, Dorrance was one of only two coaches outside those communities honored on that list.
A 1974 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in both English and philosophy, Dorrance was inducted 14 years later into the Order of the Golden Fleece, Carolina's highest honorary society which includes Carolina students, faculty and staff. In 1994, Dorrance added another honor when the athletic department at the University of North Carolina designated him as a "Priceless Gem". This is reserved only for those individuals who have contributed in extraordinary ways to the successful athletic climate at the University. It is usually bestowed upon an individual at the time of his or her retirement.
Dorrance has been a charter member of the NCAA Women's Soccer Committee, currently serves as a national staff coach for the NSCAA and on the National Soccer Hall of Fame Board of Directors for U.S. Soccer. He is a member of the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame and was inducted in 2005 into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and most recently on August 3, 2008 was inducted into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame. Dorrance was born on April 9, 1951, in Bombay, India, and is married to the former M'Liss Gary. They have three children, daughters Michelle and Natalie, and a son, Donovan.
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