D-I assistant takes Cortland job
Wade Jean has been named Cortland's men's soccer head coach,
according to director of athletics Mike Urtz. Assistant coach Steve Axtell served as the program's
interim head coach since January after the departure of
eight-year head coach Dwight Hornibrook.
Jean is a veteran coach at all levels of collegiate soccer. Most
recently, he served as the associate head coach at Division I
Vermont from 2008-11. During that stretch, the Catamounts qualified
for the America East playoffs three times and defeated two
nationally ranked teams, including 13th-ranked Stanford in
2010.
A native of St. Albans, Vt., Jean brings 24 years of successful
college coaching experience to Cortland, including 10 years as a
head coach in Division I and II. As the head coach at St. Michael's
in Colchester, Vt., from 2006-07, Jean led the Purple Knights to a
combined 21-10-8 record. St. Michael's reached the Northeast-10
Conference tournament in each of his two seasons, and he was named
NE-10 Coach of the Year in 2006.
Prior to his stint at Saint Michael's, Jean was the head coach at
Division I Duquesne and compiled an 82-54-14 record over eight
seasons. He was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year an
unprecedented four times (1999, 2002, 2004, 2005) while leading the
Dukes to a share of three consecutive A-10 regular-season titles
(2003-05) and three appearances in the league's championship game.
Duquesne also recorded four straight seasons of 13 or more wins
from 2002-05. The Dukes were ranked 25th in the final 2003 national
poll.
Jean arrived at Duquesne after serving five seasons as an
assistant at two successful Mid-American Conference programs,
Bowling Green State (1995-97) and Illinois State University
(1993-94). Prior to entering the Division I ranks, he was the head
coach at Champlain College, a former junior college power in
Burlington, Vt., and was an assistant at his alma mater, Johnson
State, now a Division III school, for a year.
Academics have been an emphasis of Jean's throughout his career.
His teams at Duquesne were regular winners of National Soccer
Coaches Association of American Team Academic Awards. In 2003-04,
the Dukes had the second highest grade point average in the
country. In 2006-07 at Saint Michael's, the Purple Knights also
earned an NSCAA Team Academic Award and saw one of its
student-athletes earn a spot on the ESPN The Magazine Men's Soccer
College Division Academic All-America Team.
Jean is a native of St. Albans, Vt., and a 1990 graduate of
Johnson State, where he was a four-year standout defensive
midfielder. He helped lead the Badgers to three Mayflower
Conference titles and was a co-captain as a senior. He also earned
a master's degree from Illinois State in 1996.
Jean, who holds an NSCAA Advanced National Coaching License, has
served as the executive director of the Nordic Soccer Club in
Vermont. He and his wife, Marcella Pelkey, have two daughters,
Sienna and Emma.
