Meet West Virginia's New Soccer Head Coach Dan Stratford
Morgantown, WV – West Virginia Athletic Director Shane Lyons introduced newly hired soccer head coach Dan Stratford Saturday morning.
“Incredibly excited to be here, it does feel like a bit of a homecoming for me,” said Stratford. Crazy to think that 2004 as a freshman stepped foot, not just in the United States for the first time but here in Morgantown, West Virginia. Now, we’ve gone full circle back as a head coach.”
A native of London, England, Dan turned down West Virginia’s initial offer to play for West Virginia in February of 2004, but he was on campus August of that year.
During his four-year career in Morgantown, he became one of the most decorated players in program history. He’s first in Mountaineer history in matches played in a season (23), in a career (85), career game-winning assists (13) and game-winning points (31). Second in career assists (27), shots on goal (86) and multi-assist games (4). Fourth in game-winning goals with nine and ninth in career points with 67. Also, he was an All-Big East and all-region selection as a senior.
Those four years, Stratford and the Mountaineers went 54-24-8 with three NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2006 Big East regular-season championship, along with reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history in 2007.
Stratford was drafted by Major League Soccer’s DC United team in 2008 before heading overseas and joining Scottish Club Inverness Caledonian thistle from 2009-10, before finishing his final two professional seasons with Hereford United (England) from 2010-11.
He then came back to the West Virginia hills as an assistant at WVU from 2011-13 prior to heading to the University of Charleston to be an assistant.
After three years as an assistant, Stratford took over the Charleston program that went to three-consecutive Division II Final Fours with a pair of National runner-up finishes. In his first year at the helm, Stratford led UC to the program's first Division II title in program history and grabbed the second title in 2019, compiling a 61-4-5 record in the three years at Charleston.
Stratford laid out his coaching philosophy, which not only sustained success but brought home the hardware.
“It’s pretty simple for me, you recruit good players that you think have the right mentality and then you make sure you keep them as happy as possible and you care about their well-being. Forget what we do tactically, that will get as a long way in terms of the performances and the results of the team.”
His philosophy is a big reason why he is keeping both assistant coaches Andy Wright and Nick Noble, both former Mountaineer teammates of Stratford.
"I played with Andy for four years and I played with Nick for three," said Stratford. "Again, that bond, that collective team spirit that we have, that’s why the philosophy is what it is. I want players to take ownership of this program. I want it to feel like this is theirs. We’re here to supplement that, but this belongs to them. That’s what it felt when I played here. I feel like that’s what if felt like for Andy and Nick as well.”
West Virginia is coming off a MAC Tournament Championship and a second-round NCAA Tournament appearance.
“There is a lot of quality. The program collectively isn’t broke and needing fixing,” said Stratford.” There may be a few things. I think, for me, the first month or so it needs to be gathering as much information that I can, learning about the players, learning what the needs are of the program.”
“Before I come in and try and do what I did at UC here, I need to know what works here. I need to know what there is in place that will make me better. I’m still a relatively young coach, I like to think. I still want to develop myself and grow myself, so it's not going to surprise me if we come across or I come across some aspect of the program that are better than what I did at UC.”
“So, it’s about identifying what those are, maybe where the shortcomings are as well and understanding how that’s kind of align with my philosophy and what I want the culture and the environment to look like.”
At UC, Stratford had 27 countries representing the program and he will continue to recruit globally, but being at West Virginia, he believes that it will open the more doors domestically. As far as selling recruits on the Mountaineer program, Stratford has that covered.
“It shaped me. So, its firsthand experience," said Stratford. "When I refer to my student-athlete experience, it wasn’t somewhere else it was here. So, I’ve been a player here when we’ve had some success as a program. I’ve worked here as a coach when we’ve had some success as well."
"My core values, my philosophy the environment I want to create, it all stems from my time here as a player. It’s so deeply rooted in what I did here as a student-athlete. I look back at my experience as the best four years of my life and if I can do anything for my student-athletes, it's to create the same vision for them as well."