Jan. 14, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Stanford women's coach Paul Ratcliffe and new men's coach Jeremy Gunn each were named National Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America on Friday night.

Ratcliffe coached the Cardinal to its first national women's title and Gunn, hired Dec. 21 at Stanford, led Charlotte to the NCAA men's final.

This is the third such honor for Ratcliffe, an unprecedented honor in a four-year span, after previously winning in 2008 and 2009. Ratcliffe's teams went 95-4-4 over the past four years, including 53-0-1 at home, and reached the NCAA College Cup each of those seasons, with three finals appearances.

The Cardinal went 25-0-1 in 2011, completing its third consecutive undefeated regular season, and won its third consecutive Pac-12 title with a perfect record. Two of his players won national player of the year honors, forward Lindsay Taylor (from Soccer America) and midfielder Teresa Noyola (the Hermann Trophy).

Gunn led Charlotte to its first championship final in school history, falling to North Carolina in the NCAA title match. His team went 16-5-4 and compiled a 64-26-14 mark over Gunn's five seasons. This is Gunn's second National Coach of the Year award, having earned the honor in 2005 after leading Fort Lewis College to the Division II national title.