New Soccer Coach Recruiting This Summer For Fall Team


by Anne Dolan

Former Creighton University head coach Cathy Klein was named 
Iowa State's first women's head soccer coach June 23. The 
women's team, the first Division I women's soccer program in 
the state, will begin practicing in mid-August and competing 
in September.

Athletic director Gene Smith said Klein got the job because 
she is "an outstanding recruiter and teacher and because she 
has a strong commitment to athletics."

Klein said she hopes to build a competitive soccer program 
very quickly at ISU and will recruit yet this summer for this 
fall's team.

"Absolutely, I know there are kids out there who want to play 
and want to play for Iowa State," Klein said, adding she will 
seek student athletes who "first have a strong academic 
background and second have a strong athletic background." 

Klein said she anticipates the Big 12 will become one of the 
top two conferences nationally in women's soccer. The 
Atlantic Coast Conference currently dominates women's soccer, 
she said. In addition to Iowa State, Big 12 schools Kansas, 
Nebraska, Texas, Texas Tech and Texas A&M will have women's 
soccer teams this fall. Missouri will field a team in 1996; 
Baylor, Colorado and Oklahoma State plan to add teams in the 
future.

Last fall, in Klein's first season, her Creighton team 
finished 14-4, including wins over Nebraska and Big Ten 
conference champion Wisconsin.

Prior to coaching at Creighton, Klein was the head women's 
soccer coach for three years at Earlham College, Richmond, 
Ind. She also coached women's soccer for two years at Utica 
College, New York.

As a student athlete at the State University at New York, 
Cortland, Klein was a two-time All-American (1985, 1986) at 
the Division I level. She also played internationally for the 
Canadian national team for three years.

Klein received the bachelor's degree in physical education 
from SUNY at Cortland and the master's degree in physical 
education from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.

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contact:  Anne Dolan, Internal Communications, (515) 294-7065
updated:  7-7-95