Enos resigns as women’s soccer coach
By Aaron Morton, sports editor
The only women’s soccer coach USU has ever know, Stacey Enos, announced her resignation Thursday after five years at the helm.
“It’s been a long five years, but it has been a good five years,” Enos said. “I want to thank USU for five great years of being an Aggie.”
Enos, a Tampa, Fla., native, is moving on to look for coaching opportunities on the East Coast to be closer to her mother, who is battling cancer.
“It just hit me that [Utah] is just too far away,” she said about a recent trip back home.
USU went 24-59 under her direction. The team’s record steadily increased every year from the 2-14 record at the program’s inception in 1996 with the exception the 2000 season where the Aggies went 5-12. USU’s best finish was fourth in the Big West Conference with an 8-9 record.
“Stacey’s tremendous energy and enthusiasm enabled our program to get off the ground,” said Athletics Director Rance Pugmire.
But Enos said that enthusiasm had waned this year. And that was a big factor in her decision to resign, which will become official on Jan. 31.
“It’s definitely the right time,” Enos said. “I don’t want the program to suffer.”
Enos would like to move back East as soon as possible after this month. She is looking into a job at a small college in North Carolina. Before coming to USU, she coached at Seattle University and Rowland Hall Saint Mark’s High School in Salt Lake City.
The former U.S. Women’s National Team (1985-87) and University of North Carolina member brought both the team’s record and academic standing out of the bottom in her five years.
This year USU led the conference with eight academic all-conference honorees.
“When you start a program it is not only coaching and recruiting,” Pugmire said. “There are so many details behind the scenes that need to be attended to. We will miss her leadership.”
Enos will miss out on coaching on the new soccer field (located near the Stan Laub Facility) – something Enos worked all five years to obtain.
“I’m sad I won’t be able to coach on the field,” Enos said.
Assistant coach Jen Kennedy-Croft has applied for the open position at USU, Enos said, giving her an endorsement.
“They wouldn’t miss a beat,” Enos said.
The weekly soccer clinics will go on as scheduled. Enos said she is glad that those USU traditions will continue.