Head women's soccer coach Melissa Phillips will return former Roadrunner men’s and women’s assistant John Smith to Bakersfield for the upcoming 2011-12 season. Smith coached at CSUB from 1999-2006 before taking over as head coach the last four seasons at the University of the Icarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. At UIW, Smith led the Cardinal’s men’s soccer program to a 62-22-7 record including three conference championships and 3 NCAA Division II Regional Tournament appearances.A native of Wigan, England, Smith played professionally both overseas and in the United States becoming the first foreign player ever drafted out of college when he was selected with the 13th pick in the 1997 Major League Soccer Draft by the Columbus Crew. While playing at Rollins College in Florida, Smith was a Division II All-American and the Tars’ all-time career points leader with 142 and was inducted in 2003 to the Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame.
“I was fortunate enough to have coached here five years ago and to be honest with you this school and this program has never left me,” Smith said. “When this opportunity came up it was going to take something good for me to leave where I was at and this was just too good of an opportunity for me to turn down and I jumped at the opportunity really.”
Joining Smith on the women’s soccer staff will be former Roadrunner player Leanne Tucker. Tucker was a four-year letter winner at CSUB from 2006-2010 making 11 starts as a defender during her senior year playing in 1,156 minutes for the Roadrunners. A native of Cambridge, England, Tucker’s defense-first mentality as a player will serve as a key area of responsibility as an assistant coach along with recruiting and other daily operations of the program.
While this will mark her first collegiate coaching opportunity, Tucker is no stranger to the coaching ranks, having not only obtained several national licenses, but also serving as an assistant with Bakersfield’s Centennial High School last season as well as being the head coach of the Runner United U-14 FC club team.
“This is a pretty amazing opportunity, I played here for four years and absolutely loved it,” said Tucker. “Mel’s a great new head coach and she’s been putting a lot of time and effort into the program so all I want to do now is come in and further the team more, make them better and see what we can do this season.”
Tucker graduated with honors with a degree in physical education and kinesiology at CSUB and is currently pursuing her master’s in special education.
“John and Tucker both bring unique ideas and something fresh and something new from to the direction that we’ve been going with this program,” said Phillips. “John’s been a head coach so he has a lot of experience in that area and Tucker was a great leader on the team and one of our captains so both of them have a lot of different ideas about how we can move forward and both of them have an excellent knowledge of the game so I’m very excited to have them on board.”
CSUB women’s soccer opens up play for the 2011 season August 13, hosting an exhibition against UCLA at the Main Soccer Field.
