Tim Wheaton Gets 100th Harvard Win Against Yale

Harvard women's soccer coach Tim Wheaton has been selected as the 1999 NSCAA/Adidas Women's Northeast Region Coach of the Year.

Wheaton, in his 13th season at the helm, guided the Crimson to a 14-2-1 overall record, a fourth Ivy Title in five years, and its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.  Along the way, the Crimson recorded its fourth overall undefeated  Ivy League schedule, finishing the 1999 season with an unblemished 7-0 record in Ancient Eight play.  In addition, the squad picked up it's 100th overall Ivy League victory, becoming the first team in Ivy women's soccer to reach the century mark in League wins.  Harvard rode a 13-game unbeaten streak, at the time the third longest in the nation, into the NCAA Tournament, where Harvard received the eighth seed, it's highest-ever.  The Crimson suffered a heartbreaking second-round loss to Boston College, 1-0.  

Harvard, which started the season ranked 25th in the NSCAA poll, slowly ascended up the rankings all season, finishing the regular season ranked seventh in the same poll. This season, nine Harvard women's soccer players received All-Ivy accolades, including Ivy Player of the Year Jessica Larson and Rookie of the Year Cheryl Gunther.  Under his tutelage, 35 players have received First Team All-Ivy accolades, and four have been named the Ivy Player of the Year (Tracee Whitley '88 in 1987, Emily Stauffer '99 in 1995 and again in 1996; Naomi Miller in 1997, and Larson this fall).  In addition, this year's freshman class received a pre-season national ranking of seventh by Soccer Buzz Magazine.

Wheaton's overall record stands at 122-61-19 in 13 seasons, a .650 winning percentage.  His record against the Ivy schools is even better, as his teams are 56-19-5 (.731). The accomplishment's of this year's team are just the most recent in what has become a long history of success of women's soccer at Harvard.  Wheaton guided the 1998 squad to a 12-5-1 mark and the second round of the NCAA's, falling to Hartford (3-0) after a first-round victory over Central Connecticut State (4-1).  In 1997, Harvard advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the first time since 1982 by virtue of victories over UMass (2-0) and George Mason (2-1 in triple overtime) before succumbing to eventual national champion North Carolina, 1-0.  That year, he guided the Crimson to a 13-4-2 record and top-10 national ranking, while the 1996 team compiled a school-record 15-2-0 mark, tying the single-season record for wins and completing the program's best campaign in 15 seasons.  Wheaton was also recognized as the Northeast Region Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the '96 season. A USSF "A" License coach, Wheaton began his coaching career in 1984 as an assistant in the women's soccer program at Princeton.  In the fall of 1985, he came to Harvard and served as an assistant to Bob Scalise in both the women's soccer and men's lacrosse programs before taking over as head coach of women's soccer in 1987.

A 1983 graduate of Drew University in Madison, NJ, Wheaton enjoyed a phenomenal athletic career as a four-year letterman in soccer and lacrosse.  His career highlights include three soccer Regional All-America accolades and graduating with eight school scoring records in lacrosse. He was named Drew's Athlete of the Year in 1983, and was inducted as a member of the inaugural class into his alma mater's Athletic Hall of Fame in October of 1991.

Write to Tim Wheaton.