Former assistant Erickson returns to Harvard to take over for Wheaton as new coach of W. Soccer

Stephanie Erickson was tabbed as the new head coach of the Harvard women’s soccer team Friday. Erickson replaces longtime head coach Tim Wheaton, who accepted a position as an assistant athletic director at Harvard in February.

Erickson was an assistant coach for the Crimson in 1999, when Harvard went 14-2-1 and earned its first-ever seeding in the NCAA Tournament. She then moved on to Stanford as a recruiter, as well as an interim co-head coach in 2002—a season in which the Cardinal captured a national No. 1 ranking and the Stanford staff was named National Coach of the Year by Soccer America.

Most recently, Erickson was an assistant coach at Northwestern—her alma mater—and she also coached at Cal in 1998.

In addition to her coaching credentials, Erickson boasts some impressive statistics from her playing days. She is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Wildcats, won the Big Ten scoring title in 1996 while leading Northwestern to an NCAA tournament berth, and also holds the NCAA record for fastest consecutive goals scored in a game—five seconds apart.

Erickson inherits a Crimson team that appeared in the NCAA tournament this season for the first time since 2001. While the team will lose co-captain back Liza Barber, co-captain midfielder Falyne Chave, forward Emily Colvin, and midfielder Alisha Moran to graduation, Harvard will return 14 letterwinners for the 2005 season, including junior goalkeeper Katie Shields and sophomore back Laura Odorczyk, who were voted co-captains of next year’s squad.

—JONATHAN P. HAY