In typical North Carolina fashion, Dorrance stayed ahead of the curve by forming a new general manager position. In recent years, he has delved into international recruiting while establishing connections with players and coaches across the globe.īy the time he reached his 26th season, Ducar was operating in so many different roles that, in a way, he was already working an administrative position. So that was really kind of frustrating, but I created it, right? That was my monster that I created.”īecause of Ducar, UNC landed gems like Heather O'Reilly and Tobin Heath early on in their playing careers, and he started consistently bringing in highly ranked recruits each season. "Then it became a wild west in my opinion, and it ended up hurting us, because now all these other schools are recruiting earlier and earlier. “That paradigm worked really well for us until everybody else figured it out," Ducar said. Soon, UNC was winning more and more recruiting battles against other elite programs. Traditionally, teams would begin scouting players during their junior year of high school, start communicating with them over the summer and then take them on official visits during their senior year.ĭucar pioneered a new method of recruiting by inviting top prospects on unofficial visits to Chapel Hill early and verbally offering them a scholarship. Why are we doing it like everybody else?’”
“I looked at the way recruiting was going, and I said, ‘Hey, we are the name brand in women's soccer. In order to get an edge on competing programs, Ducar developed a strategy to land the best recruits early. "I was basically thrown in the deep end."īut within a few seasons, he began to excel in the recruiting game. “It was overwhelming at first because I had no background in this," Ducar said. In 1998, Dorrance asked him to take charge of the program's recruiting and become a full-time coach. In his first few years, Ducar proved he was a valuable asset to the team, willing to dive headfirst into any task placed before him.
“And so we had to bring in someone that understood how to do it, who was very good at it, who would commit himself to it.” I mean, holy cow is your goalkeeping important,” Head Coach Anson Dorrance said. “The first initial reason for hiring was just to bring him in to make sure we took care of something that was critically important. When Ducar arrived at UNC in 1996, the young coach was splitting time between Chapel Hill and Greensboro, where he was working part-time for UNC-Greensboro’s team. In his 26 years with the program, Ducar has helped lead the Tar Heels to nine NCAA championships as an elite goalkeeper coach and recruiting coordinator. No person knows that better than Chris Ducar, the longtime UNC women’s soccer assistant coach who was promoted to general manager of the team in September. Building up a program to become a perennial championship contender is even harder.