Tom Brown hired as women's soccer coach
6/18/2008 4:00:00 PM | Soccer
Five years after the start of the Sam Houston State soccer program, Director of Athletic Bobby Williams has announced the hiring of Tom Brown as the second head coach in the program's history.
Brown previously coached at Angelo State University for 11 years, guiding the Rambelles to more than 100 wins, including six consecutive trips to the Lone Star Conference Tournament.
“I am extremely excited to come to Sam Houston State and to be getting close to the Houston area where I grew up,” Brown said. “I appreciate the opportunity Bobby Williams is giving me with this program and look forward to the chance to take it to a new level.”
During his 11 seasons at ASU, Brown has built a solid program from the ground up. In his first two years, he led the team to back-to-back seasons with record win totals. In eight of the last nine seasons the Rambelles have been regionally-ranked. He will now make the trasition to his first opportunity as a head coach on the Division I level.
Under Brown's tutelage, ASU players have excelled both on the field and in the classroom. The Rambelles have had a consistent presence on the All-Lone Star Conference teams, including 1997 Player of the Year Heather Selvitelle and 1998 Freshman of the Year Dorothy May. May also became the program's first Academic All-American in 2001, while the 2000 and 2002-06 teams won coveted Team Academic awards from the NSCAA for combined grade point averages of over 3.0. The 2002 team also earned an NSCAA Bronze Award for team ethics.
"We are excited to have Tom Brown here at Sam Houston," Williams said. "He was very successful at
His prior head coaching experience includes two-year stints at William Carey College and Sterling College. In 1995, Brown led WCC to a No. 2 national ranking in the NAIA and was named the Gulf Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1996.
At Sterling College, Brown was head coach for both the men's and women's soccer teams. He led the women's team to its first ever appearance in the national rankings and was the 1994 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. Before becoming a head coach, Brown served as an assistant coach at the University of Tulsa, Southern Nazarene University (Okla.) and Midwestern State University.
The Olympic Development Program (ODP) has also benefited from Brown's expertise. He served six years on the ODP staffs of Oklahoma, Kansas and Mississippi and has been a member of the Region III staff the last five years, working primarily with goalkeepers in the under-14 and under-19 age groups.
Brown played soccer at Midwestern State, where he helped lead the Indians to three straight appearances in the NAIA National Tournament.
As a professional, Brown played for the Amarillo Challengers and Oklahoma City Warriors of the United States Indoor Soccer League (USISL) and the Tulsa Ambush of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). He was named team Defensive MVP and overall MVP at Amarillo and helped Oklahoma City to the national championship game in 1991. Also an elite-level team handball player, Brown was a member of the 1990 US Olympic Festival South team.
A true soccer aficionado, Brown has also influenced the game on a national level. He previously served as the NSCAA National Rankings Chair for NCAA Division II women's soccer and is currently serving a term on the NCAA Soccer Rules Committee until 2008.
A native of Houston, Brown earned his bachelor's degree from Midwestern State in 1989 and his master's degree in sports management from Tulsa in 1993. He and his wife Kristen have two sons, Tommy and Taylor, and a daughter, Rebecca.
