The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Head Coach Chris Petrucelli
01.02.2005 | Soccer
Full name: Chris Petrucelli
Date of birth: May 9, 1962
Hometown: Orange, N.J.
High school: John P. Stevens High School
College: North Carolina-Greensboro '84
Family: Wife, Eve; daughter, Gabrielle; sons, Nicholas & Andrew
Entering his eighth year as Longhorns head coach, Chris Petrucelli continues to raise the national profile of Texas Soccer.
Petrucelli has not only signed top five recruiting classes on the Forty Acres, including the No. 3 class nationally in both 2003 and 2004 according to Soccer America, but has led the Longhorns to seven consecutive double-digit win seasons for the first time in history (2000-06). Under his tutelage, Texas also captured the program's first-ever Big 12 regular season title in 2001. He has guided the Longhorns to their first six NCAA Tournament appearances (2001-06), including runs to the third round (round of 16) in 2004 and 2006.
Petrucelli stands at No. 7 in all-time college women's soccer coaching wins (280) and No. 8 in career winning percentage (.768). In the last three years, Texas compiled a 44-20-6 record for a .671 winning percentage.
Under Petrucelli's guidance, the 2006 season was one for the record books as UT set school records in overall victories (18) en route to claiming the program's first-ever Big 12 Soccer Tournament Championship and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Championship. Petrucelli, who was named 2006 NSCAA Central Region Coach of the Year, became the first Longhorn soccer coach to win 100 games at UT with a 1-0 victory over Missouri on Oct. 20, 2006.
The Longhorns' success carried from the regular season to the postseason as UT earned one of four No. 1 national seeds, and, for the second time in the past three seasons, advanced to the third round of the NCAA Championship. UT ended the season with the highest ever ranking for a Longhorn program (No. 8), and two National Soccer Coaches Association of American/adidas All-Americans in sophomore Kasey Moore and junior Kelsey Carpenter. Moore became the first UT soccer player to earn a place on the First Team while Carpenter is just the third Longhorn to earn Second Team honors.
Since taking the Texas coaching reigns on December 31, 1998, the two-time National Coach of the Year has seen his UT clubs tally 105 victories over eight years (13-plus wins per season average), garner the program's highest-ever in-season national ranking (No. 3 in 2002), and finish the 2006 campaign ranked as high as any UT team has ever finished (No. 8).
His Longhorns teams have also earned berths in eight consecutive Big 12 Tournaments, winning the program's first postseason title in 2006. After earning the league's regular season crown in 2001, UT has finished second in the Big 12 regular season race twice (2002 and 2006). UT also reached the championship game of the 2001 and 2004 league tournaments.
Petrucelli was lauded as the 2002 NSCAA/adidas Central Region Coach of the Year and is a six-time conference coach of the year.
Prior to coming to UT, Petrucelli constructed the Notre Dame soccer program into one of the nation's examples of national achievement and succes. He guided the Fighting Irish for nine years (1990-1998). He was honored by the NSCAA as the National Coach of the Year in both 1994 and 1995 en route to becoming the only collegiate coach to win the award in consecutive years.
During his tenure with Notre Dame, he led the Irish to the 1995 NCAA National Championship (dethroning nine-time champion North Carolina in the process), three National Championship title games (1994-96) and six NCAA Tournament appearances. This included four consecutive national semifinal berths from 1994-97, and eight straight conference championships (four Midwestern Collegiate Conference (MCC) titles from 1991-94 and four Big East Conference crowns from 1995-98). In addition, Petrucelli-led Irish clubs also posted six consecutive top-five finishes in both the Soccer America and NSCAA national polls from 1993-98, which included two final regular-season No. 1 rankings to close out the 1994 and 1996 seasons in which Notre Dame finished as NCAA Tournament runners-up.
Prior to being honored as the 1996 Big East Coach of the Year and leading the Irish to Big East crowns during each of his four seasons in the conference, Petrucelli was named the MCC Coach of the Year in each of Notre Dame's four years within that league as he guided the Irish to MCC titles every year and never lost a league match.
A standout teacher of the game, Petrucelli has not only produced championship-caliber teams as a head coach, but has also developed some of the nation's top soccer talent as well. Top honorees include NSCAA All-Americans current Longhorns Kasey Moore (2006) and Kelsey Carpenter (2006), along with Texas exes Kelly Wilson (2001-02), Kati McBain (2002) and Kelly McDonald (2003); the 2002 Big 12 Player of the Year (Wilson), and two 2006 All-Big 12 Tournament MVP's (offensive - Kelsey Carpenter; defensive - Dianna Pfenninger). Under Petrucelli's guidance, 17 players have garnered 30 All-Big 12 accolades, 21 All-Central Region selections, and three Big 12 Rookie of the Year honors (Kati McBain in 2000, Wilson in 2001 and Kasey Moore in 2005).
Prior to arriving at Texas, Petrucelli saw his Notre Dame players win 23 NSCAA All-America honors and the Irish women's soccer program boast more NSCAA All-America selections than any other soccer program since 1994. In fact, under Petrucelli's direction, All-America midfielder Cindy Daws won the prestigious 1996 Hermann Trophy and 1996 Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year awards, while All-America goalkeeper and Longhorns' volunteer assistant coach Jen Renola was selected as the NSCAA's 1996 National Player of the Year.
Additionally, Petrucelli has also fostered the talents of 56 NSCAA All-Region honorees, has seen his players garner 87 All-Conference accolades, seven Conference Players of the Year, eight Conference Rookies of the Year, 15 NCAA All-Tournament Team members, 12 WUSA players, and six Olympic/World Cup Team athletes to date.
A native of Orange, N.J., Petrucelli, 45, is the second head women's soccer coach in UT history, replacing Dang Pibulvech who coached the Longhorns in their first five intercollegiate seasons from 1994-98.
Besides working with his programs, Petrucelli has served as chair of the NCAA Division I Soccer Rules Committee; been active in the NSCAA; served as a member of NSCAA Coaching Academy staff while sponsoring workshops for other coaches at the convention; and has been a member of the United States Soccer Federation Region I Olympic Development Program staff for boys as well as the Region II staff for girls. In addition, Petrucelli was also the head coach for the United States Olympic Festival in both 1994 and 1995, served as the head coach of the U.S. Under-21 Women's National Team during the summers of 2003 and 2004, and has worked as the Under-16 girls Region II ODP head coach. Of note, he led the Under-21 National Team to back-to-back Nordic Cup titles in 2003 and 2004.
Petrucelli arrived at Notre Dame in 1990 with the late Mike Berticelli, as Berticelli took over the Irish's men's program the same year. Petrucelli's association with Berticelli began when Petrucelli was a player at North Carolina-Greensboro and Berticelli was the head coach. When he first arrived at Notre Dame, Petrucelli served as the assistant men's soccer coach from 1990-91 before working solely with the women's team and assuming his first Division I head coaching position.
During his playing career under Berticelli, Petrucelli helped UNC-Greensboro capture a pair of NCAA Division III titles in 1982 and 1983 and was named the team's captain as a senior. After earning his degree in business administration in 1984, Petrucelli spent a year as a graduate assistant at Old Dominion, where Berticelli had become the head coach. Petrucelli then became one of ODU's full-time assistant coaches in 1986 after also serving as Old Dominion's director of student promotions in 1985.
The Berticelli/Petrucelli pairing produced a six-year mark of 76-27-17 (.706) with the Monarchs, which included top season finishes of 16-1-3 in 1985, 13-5-2 and a No. 10 national ranking in 1986, 14-3-2 and a Sun Belt Conference title in 1987, and the school's first-ever NCAA Tournament berth along with a 10-4-4 record in 1989.
Petrucelli and his wife, Eve, are the parents of daughter Gabrielle (13), and sons Nicholas (12) and Andrew (9).
