The unanimous choice for 2019-20 Ivy League Coach of the Year, Brown University (@BrownWSoccer) Head Women’s Soccer Coach Kia McNeill (@KiaMcNeill) led her team to an Ivy League championship, going undefeated in league play with a record of 14-1-2 and #10 national ranking going into the NCAA tournament. Before becoming Brown’s Head Coach in 2016, Kia was a high school All-American, Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year, a member of youth National Teams, a star at Boston College where she later coached and earned her MBA, and a professional soccer player internationally and, closer to home, for the Boston Breakers.

Here in the PCA/Maddie Potts Coaching Symposium, Kia shares her thoughts on four key topics:

• In coaching, value every player because “every player, #1 through #26 has value” and it is essential that coaches make that clear.
• In recruiting, she looks for players who will be great teammates, leaders who are coachable.
• In soccer parenting, know when to push and when to pull.
• In playing and coaching, she is inspired by Tony Dungy’s book, Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance, and encourages her team to seek to be “uncommon” with the message that it’s easy to be average, but to be elite or a winner is hard and requires commitment and dedication.

Related Link: Brown Women’s Soccer Team Celebrates Diversity