The Wisdom of Anson Dorrance

Anson Dorrance celebrated his 800th win with the UNC Tar Heels as they took down the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the ACC. Despite going down by a goal, the Heels rallied back with two excellent goals to seal yet another victory.

Click here for the full game report from goheels.com

Since the program’s creation in 1979 Dorrance has overseen every game as head coach and become an icon in College Sports. Dorrance now holds an unparalleled college coaching record of 800 wins 65 losses and 35 draws.

Thanks to his tenure as the UNC Men’s Soccer Head Coach where he racked up 172 wins he’s now just 28 wins away from 1,000 Victories at the NCAA D1 Level – a record we can’t ever envision being touched. 

Don’t forget he’s also succeeded at the international level – in 1991 he steered the US Women’s National Team to World Cup Glory in China; in turn, inspiring a generation of female soccer players in America and laying the foundations for dominance stretching decades.

So just what makes Anson Dorrance so special? Over the years he’s shared some memorable snippets of his wisdom with us. Here’s some of his best known quotes. Invaluable words for any aspiring soccer player or coach.

After a while, your coaching development ceases to be about finding newer ways to organize practice. In other words, you soon stop collecting drills. Your development as a coach shifts to observing how great coaches teach, motivate, lead, and drive players to performances at higher and higher levels

What you do when no one else is looking will determine how good you’ll be.

One of the most unfortunate things I see when identifying youth players is the girl who is told over the years how great she is. By the time she’s a high school freshman, she starts to believe it. By her senior year, she’s fizzled out. Then there’s her counterpart: the girl waiting in the wings who quietly and with determination decides she’s going to make something of herself. Invariably, this humble, hardworking girl is the one who becomes the real player.

The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.

You can never be fit enough for this game

There is no better coach than the bench