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Brandon Koons
Decorated head coach Brandon Koons begins his 25th season at the helm of the Otterbein women's soccer program this fall, having led the Cardinals to 11 Ohio Athletic Conference regular-season championships (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020-21, 2021), seven OAC Tournament titles (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2018, 2020-21) and seven appearances in the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Tournament.
Koons is the winningest coach in OAC women's soccer history, finishing the latest campaign at 326-98-40 and with a staggering .769 winning percentage. He has never had a losing season.
Koons took over the women’s program in 1999 after serving four years as an assistant coach for the Otterbein men’s soccer team, helping recruit many players that ultimately played in the 2002 national title game. He enjoyed immediate success on the women's side, leading the Cardinals to a then-school record nine wins in 1999. The improvement continued each season as Otterbein reset school records for wins from 2000-03 before culminating with the current school record of 20 in three separate seasons.
The program made three-straight NCAA appearances from 2004-06 and Koons then delivered the most successful three-year run in OAC history spanning 2008-10, advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16 each fall and then becoming the first OAC program to make the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas. Otterbein finished that memorable 2010 run with an undefeated 20-0-4 record, battling eventual national champion Hardin-Simmons to a scoreless draw before falling in penalty kicks.
The team finished each of those three seasons (2008-10) ranked among the top-10 nationally, playing to a record of 58-4-7 over the time span. In 2009, the Cardinals ranked second nationally with 18 shutouts, breaking the OAC single-season record in the process. In 2010, the team broke the record again with 21 shutouts, finishing atop the country in goals-against average (.16), save percentage (.933), and shutout percentage (.875).
He brought the program back to the national scene in 2018, using a two-month unbeaten streak to finish 17-3-1 while sweeping OAC regular-season and tournament crowns. They cracked into the national rankings and were chosen to host an NCAA Regional inside Memorial Stadium. One of his most notable seasons then took place in 2020-21 (a pandemic-shortened schedule in the spring due to CoVID), where his veteran/unbeaten group went 10-0-1 to claim more hardware. Koons notched career win No. 300 in the OAC Tournament Final against Ohio Northern, capping a three-year record of 56-11-5.
Koons is a 7x OAC Coach of the Year, 3x Ohio Coach of the Year (2000, 2008, 2010) and 3x Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year (2005, 2009, and 2010). He has helped guide eight different Academic All-Americans and seven different All-Americans for their play on the field.
Koons has a USSF "B" License, an NSCAA Premier Diploma and NSCAA State and Regional Goalkeeping Diplomas. He is a frequent contributor to the NSCAA Soccer Journal and has authored eight DVDs for Championship Productions. In 2003, Koons worked with FIFA on the Technical Study for the 2003 Women's World Cup, breaking down systems of play, noting strengths and weaknesses of participating teams and choosing the Player of the Match for games played in Columbus, Ohio.
A native of Westerville, Koons earned both his undergraduate degree in psychology in 1994 and master’s degree in teaching in 1998 from Otterbein. While an undergraduate, he played four years on the varsity soccer team, serving as a captain his senior year. He then served as an assistant on the Otterbein men’s soccer team from 1995 to 1998.
Koons, who was a long-time director for Classics Eagles club, now coaches high school girls for the newly-formed Barcelona Academy in Columbus. He and his wife, Barbara, live in Lewis Center and have a pair of daughters; Mackenzie and Madison.
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