Dewi Hardman, who has more than 20 years of intercollegiate and club coaching experience, has been named Lamar University’s second soccer coach, as announced by university officials.
“We are excited to have Dewi on board to lead our soccer program,” said Helene Thill, Assistant Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator at Lamar. “We went through an extensive national search and believe Dewi is the coach to continue developing our soccer team into a conference contender. His college coaching background, his recruiting ability and playing experience is a perfect fit for us here at Lamar University.”
Hardman has spent the last two seasons as the Director of Coaching for the Tophat Soccer Club in Atlanta, Ga., where he oversaw seven other coaches who instructed 16 different teams. Over half of those teams qualified for regional tournaments and had more than 20 athletes sign Division I scholarships.
“I am very excited about this opportunity and the reception that everyone in southeast Texas has given me,” said Hardman, who holds a United States Soccer Federation National ‘A’ license. “I am excited about the challenge and ready to turn this program around. There are a lot of things in place here that bode well for much progress.”
Hardman (pronounced Deh-wee Hard-man) returns to the state of Texas where he spent nearly six seasons at TCU working his way from graduate assistant to assistant head coach from August 2001-June 2006.
While in Fort Worth he served under coaches Dave Rubinson and Dan Abdalla, in addition to a two-year stint as a coach with the North Texas Olympic Development Program.
In 2003, his first as a full-time assistant, TCU went 7-3 in Conference USA to finish second and advance to just its fifth postseason tournament in the 18 years of the program to that point. Each of the next three seasons produced a combined 18 wins for the school.
He coached five players who received all-conference plaudits and one player who was named to an all-freshman team. Additionally, he oversaw the academic development of the Horned Frog teams and had 28 student-athletes earn academic all-conference accolades. He also served as the assistant director of the TCU soccer camp for six years.
His 2003 North Texas state ODP squad finished as the national runner-up and was led by current Notre Dame goalkeeper Lauren Karas.
He played collegiately at Wake Forest University where he appeared in 20 games and was part of the first two NCAA Tournament teams in school history and the 1989 ACC Championship squad, which was coached by the late Walt Chyzowych, who is considered by many to be the father of American soccer.
He graduated from Wake Forest in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, before adding a master’s in liberal arts from TCU in 2003.
After college, the Wales native played semi-professional soccer for the Carolina Crunch from 1990-92. He served as a volunteer coach with the Demon Deacon men’s program from 1990-92 and 96-98. WFU won 61 games during that stretch and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 1990 and 1991.
He also served as the head coach at East Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem, N.C. from 1994-96, was Director of Coaching for the Winston-Salem Twin City Soccer Association from 1998-2000 and club coach for the DFW Tejanos from 2001-06.
