The University of Akron Athletics
Men's Soccer
- Title:
- Head Coach
In a short amount of time, Caleb Porter, who owns the highestwin percentage among all active Division I coaches, has become oneof the most highly respected soccer coaches in the nation.
Since becoming the sixth head coach in Akron history in 2006,Porter, who owns a career mark of 123-18-17 (.832), has built theZips' program into a perennial national championship contender– capturing the school's first national title in any sport in2010 – while developing a brand of play that is attractiveand attack-oriented, yet effective on both sides of the ball.
Due in large part to this dynamic vision, unprecedented successand keen ability to identify and develop talent, Porter wasselected to lead the U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team in Octoberof 2011 and will become the head coach of the Portland Timbers ofMajor League Soccer this December.
The Zips' historic 2010 campaign capped off one of the mostdominating two-year runs the college soccer world has ever seen.During that time, the Zips, who lost just once during the regularrun of play over 50 matches, posted an overall mark of 45-2-3 whilebecoming the first school to advance to national championship gamesin back-to-back seasons since Indiana accomplished the feat in 2003and 2004.
Leaving little doubt of its strength of schedule, Akron achievedthis success while playing the most difficult competition incollege soccer with the No. 1-ranked RPI in the finalregular-season release in 2009 and the No.1-ranked non-conferenceRPI in 2010.
Fueled by one of the greatest defensive seasons in collegesoccer history, the Zips matched an NCAA record by winning 23consecutive matches on their rampage to the College Cup andrunner-up finish in 2009. UA didn't allow a single goal during theNCAA Tournament that year and finished with 19 shutouts –representing the second-highest total all-time. Furthermore, it'sgoals-against average (0.27) and shutout percentage (.760) wereranked third all-time.
Porter's Zips then matched another NCAA milestone in 2010 byregistering their 11th consecutive shutout in a 4-0 rout at homeover No. 2 Tulsa before a sold out crowd and nationally televisedaudience. The win also represented the 29th game of UA's 48-matchhome-unbeaten streak, which shattered an NCAA record the followingseason.
Records continued to fall in 2012 when Akron ran the table againstthe Mid-American Conference with a 7-0 mark during the regularseason before capturing its fifth league tournament title in sixseasons. In doing so, UA pushed its conference unbeaten streak to47 matches (44-0-3) to set another NCAA standard. In fact, onewould have to go all the way back to the 2006 season to find theZips' last loss to a MAC foe.
In all, Porter, 37, has guided Akron to seven MAC regular seasonchampionships, five MAC Tournament titles and five consecutivetrips to the NCAA's Round of 16. He became the fastest in programhistory to reach 100 career wins, accomplishing the feat in just126 matches, and is among the fastest all-time to do so; beatinglegendary Hall of Fame coaches, Virginia's Bruce Arena (140matches) and UCLA's Sigi Schmid (131) to the century mark.
Porter was named the NSCAA National Coach of the Year in 2009and has won the MAC Coach of the Year award in each of the past sixseasons (2007-12). He is also a three-time Division I All-OhioCoach of the Year.
Highly regarded for his tactical insight and ability torecognize talent, Porter, who served as an assistant coach on theU.S. Under-18 National Team for three years from 2009-11, hasdeveloped two Hermann Trophy winners in the last four seasons.
Teal Bunbury, who earned his first call-up to the U.S. NationalTeam in 2010 after a solid rookie season with Sporting Kansas City,became the first UA player to win the prestigious award in 2009 andteammate Darlington Nagbe, who was the No. 2 overall selection ofthe 2011 Major League Soccer SuperDraft, followed suit in 2010. UAwas just the fifth school in the history of the men's player of theyear award to record consecutive winners all-time and the firstsince Virginia in 1995-96.
Moreover, Bunbury and Nagbe are two of 15 players competing inMLS or overseas who were coached by Porter and his staff at Akron,including nine first-round draft picks. In fact, Zips' players hadtheir names called at a record-setting pace at the 2011 MLSSuperDraft as seven members from the national championship teamwere selected, including five of the first eight picks. The fivefirst-round selections set an MLS record, as did the seven playerstaken overall.
English striker Steve Zakuani, who led the nation with 20 goalsas a sophomore in 2008, became the No. 1 overall selection of thedraft (to Seattle) after just two years in Porter's system. In thatsame mold, Bunbury was the country's top goal scorer in 2009 as asophomore with 17 goals and was selected with the No. 4 pickoverall (Kansas City) in 2010.
Nagbe was the first of three straight UA selections drafted in2011, going No. 2 overall to the expansion Portland Timbers.Freshman midfielder Perry Kitchen (No. 3 to D.C. United) andsophomore defender Zarek Valentin (No. 4 to Chivas USA) wouldfollow before another run of Zips that saw junior defender andSoccer America Player of the Year Kofi Sarkodie go to Houston withthe No. 7 pick and junior midfielder Michael Nanchoff go toVancouver with the No. 8 pick complete the historic first round ofthe 2011 draft. After senior defender Chris Korb became the secondZip on the day to go to D.C. United (No. 31 overall), seniormidfielder Anthony Ampaipitakwong was taken by San Jose (No. 33) topush UA's total number of draftees to seven; setting the MLSstandard.
Akron's success at the MLS draft continued in 2012 whensophomore Darren Mattocks was the No. 2 overall selection, going tothe expansion franchise Montreal Impact. He was the fourth UAsophomore to be drafted in as many seasons after tallying 21 goals– the third highest, single-season total in school history– in 22 matches.
In the past seven seasons, the Zips have yielded 14 NSCAAAll-Americans, 13 freshman All-Americans and 32 NSCAA All-GreatLakes Region standouts. During that time, nine players have beensigned to highly coveted Generation adidas contracts, includingfive in 2010, which represented another MLS record.
UA has also produced 73 all-conference honorees since 2006,including 59 first teamers, and has captured the MAC Player of theYear award in each of Porter's seasons at the helm (Scott Caldwellin 2012, Mattocks in 2011, Nagbe in 2010, Bunbury in 2009, Zakuaniin 2008, Corey Sipos in 2007 and Sinisa Ubiparipovic in 2006). Infact, the Zips have swept the league's postseason awards in each ofthe past six seasons by claiming Coach of the Year, Player of theYear and Newcomer of the Year (Dillon Serna in 2012, Wil Trapp in2011, Mattocks in 2010, Valentin in 2009, Nagbe in 2008 and Zakuaniin 2007) honors.
Porter and his staff have also taken the recruitment game to anall new level at UA by securing top-five classes each year. Afterreeling in fifth-ranked classes in both 2007 and 2008, the Zipsrecorded the No. 1 classes in the nation in 2009 and 2012 and theNo. 2 classes in 2010 and 2011.
As a team, the Zips have been just as impressive in theclassroom during Porter's tenure.
Akron was ranked No. 2 in the nation for the 2010-11 academicyear with a team GPA of 3.44 (second only to Harvard's 3.45) afterearning a No. 8 designation (3.33) for 2009-10. In all, 14 Zipshave been named to Academic All-America teams in seven seasonsunder Porter while 19 have been named to the all-conferenceacademic team.
Headlining that list of Academic All-Americans in 2010 wasSarkodie, who became the first player in school history to earnAcademic All-America of the Year honors with a 3.969 GPA as abiology major at UA. He was one of four players to land on the ESPNAcademic All-America squad that season, which signified the mostrepresentatives by any single team in UA history.
Furthermore, Ampaipitakwong, an ESPN Academic All-America ThirdTeam honoree in 2010, was the recipient of the 2010 Lowe's SeniorCLASS Award, which is presented annually to the most outstandingsenior student-athlete in NCAA Division I men's soccer. To beeligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as anNCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areasof excellence - community, classroom, character andcompetition.
Akron has also established newly-renovated FirstEnergy Stadium– Cub Cadet Field as one of the nation's toughest places foropposing teams to play over the past few years with a sparkling74-3-8 (.918) record in seven seasons under Porter.
As a result of the unprecedented success, excitement for Akronsoccer has risen to a fever pitch. After finishing seventhnationally for attendance in 2009, the Zips drew an average of3,213 fans to the pitch in 2010, which was the second-highestfigure in the country and represented an increase of more than1,000 fans on average from the previous season.
The enthusiasm continued in 2011 as UA saw its numbers riseagain with an average of 3,300 fans packing the pitch, including afacility-record figure of 5,819 supporters for the Zips' 3-1 winover in-state rival Ohio State on Sept. 28.
Porter came to the Zips from Indiana where he spent six seasonsas an assistant coach for the Hoosiers, four of which came underHall of Fame head coach Jerry Yeagley, who is the all-timewinningest coach in Division I history and a six-time nationalcoach of the year honoree, and the last two under Mike Freitag.
As Indiana's recruiting coordinator, Porter helped compile arecruiting class that was rated No. 1 in the nation in 2005 byCollege Soccer News and StudentSportsSoccer.com. The talent heattracted to the Hoosiers included four national players of theyear, 14 Youth National Team members, 18 All-Americans and 12 stateplayers of the year.
During his time as an assistant with IU, the Hoosiers won fiveBig Ten Conference championships and made six NCAA Tournamentappearances - including four trips to the College Cup. Indiana wonconsecutive national championships in 2003 and in 2004.
A 1998 graduate of Indiana with a degree in sports management,Porter was a four-year letterwinner in the midfield for theHoosiers. He was just the second three-year captain in IU historyand was the runner-up for the 1997 Hermann Trophy, awarded to thenation's top collegiate player.
Porter's Indiana teams won four Big Ten titles and made fourNCAA Tournament appearances, advancing to the College Cup on twooccasions. As a senior, Porter captained IU to an NCAA record 23consecutive wins before losing to eventual national champion UCLAin the national semifinals.
Porter's resume also includes playing two seasons with the U.S.National B Team in 1996 and 1997 and earning a bronze medal at the'97 World University games.
The three-time All-Big Ten selection was chosen by the San JoseClash as the 26th overall pick in the 1998 Major League SoccerDraft. He spent one season in San Jose and one year with the TampaBay Mutiny before a knee injury ended his career in 2000.
During the MLS offseason in 1998, Porter served as anundergraduate assistant coach at Indiana while finishing hisdegree. That season IU won the Big Ten regular-season andtournament titles en route to an NCAA Championship.
From 2003-05, Porter served as a coach and senior age grouptrainer with the Bloomington Cutters Soccer Club, winning anUnder-18 Indiana state championship in 2004 and a U-19 statechampionship in 2005.
Porter is a native of Kalamazoo, Mich. He currently resides inBath with his wife, Andrea, and their three children, Colin (3),Jake (2) and Stella (1).
CAREER HONORS
NCAA National Champion (2010)
NCAA National Runner-Up (2009)
NCAA Round of 16 (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008)
NSCAA National Coach of the Year (2009)
NSCAA All-Ohio Coach of the Year (2011, 2009, 2008)
Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009,2008, 2007)
