VALDOSTA — After leading the Piedmont College women's soccer program for the last nine seasons, Stephen Andrew will be departing Demorest after accepting the women's soccer coaching position at Valdosta State University, a NCAA Division II program.
"We would like to thank Stephen for his service as our head women's soccer coach over these last nine seasons," said Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jim Peeples. "His time leading our program brought unprecedented success, and he will be missed by all of us here at Piedmont. We wish him luck in his new role as the Head Coach at Valdosta State, and we know he will work just as hard to be successful leading the Blazers as he was leading our Lady Lions."
"I want to thank the Piedmont family for becoming my own over the last 17 years, and I will always fondly remember my time in Demorest as a student-athlete and a coach," said Andrew of the move. "After serving as a player and a coach since 2000, leaving Piedmont was a very tough decision for me, but this is a great opportunity in my career to have a chance to step up and start competing hard at the Division II level."
Having taken over at Piedmont prior to the 2008 season, Andrew led the Lady Lions to four conference championships including three in five seasons as a USA South Athletic Conference member. With his 2014 squad also earning a share of the USA South regular season title, Andrew took Piedmont to the NCAA National Tournament four times over the last six seasons as well.
Overall, Andrew posted 136 wins, 42 losses and eight ties in his nine seasons, representing a .764 winning percentage making him the leader in program history in that category while he finishes just seven wins shy of Jason Smith's 143 wins as one of five head coaches since the program's inception in 1993.
Andrew's winning percentage not only puts him atop the Piedmont coaching list as it also has him ranked in the top 30 of active winningest coaches in the country in NCAA Division III as he sat 27th prior to the start of the 2016 campaign.
Andrew has produced 49 All-Conference selections, seven NSCAA All-South Region selections, and five NSCAA Scholar All-South Region honorees. In 2015, Andrew produced his first Conference Player of the Year with CASSIDY REICH taking the honor along with Rookie of the Year honors becoming the first to do so in the 20-plus year history of the USA South in women's soccer.
The coach's teams have also been impressive in the classroom with 83 All-Academic honorees in his first eight years at the helm of the women's soccer program. Having developed the athletic department's first Capital One Academic All-American (Justine Clay, 2011), Andrew has seen three more of his players earn the title including Laura Goodwin in 2013, Kelsey Schaffernoth in 2014, and Savannah Castles in 2016.
With his most recent team taking home the second of back-to-back USA South championships, Andrew brought perhaps the most successful year in the program's history in 2015 as Piedmont went 20-2-1, the first 20-win season for the Lady Lions, but also the first such season for any women's soccer team in USA South history with PC setting the new league mark for wins in a season.
The tourney title in '15 handed Andrew his third of four NCAA National Tournament appearances as a coach with all of those coming in a six season stretch that ended his time at PC. Seven players earned All-Conference honors including Conference Player and Rookie of the Year Cassidy Reich whose double-overtime heroics against Methodist in the title game also gave her Tournament MVP honors.
Before beginning his coaching career, Andrew was a four-year starter for the PC men's soccer program from 2000-2003 under then Head Coach Jason Smith. The Falkirk native still holds the school's all-time career record for goals at 114 as he is one of just three players in the history of NCAA Division III to tally more than 100 goals in a collegiate career.
The four-time All-Conference selection led his team to the Great South Athletic Conference title in three of his four seasons wearing the Piedmont green and gold. Andrew was also named the Conference Player of the Year an unprecedented four times earning the honor in each of his four seasons as a Lion.
In addition to his conference accolades, Andrew placed on the NCCAA All-Region team and All-American team while being named the NCCAA South Region Player of the Year four times. Andrew also earned a pair of All-Region and All-American honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in his time as a player with the Lions.
In 2003 during his senior season with Piedmont, Andrew notched a school record and national best 33 goals to lead the Lions to the college's first-ever NCAA Division-III postseason in the first year of eligibility with the collegiate governing body. Andrew's team also continued to make history for the college notching the school's first-ever NCAA postseason victories in any sport grabbing a pair of wins over a pair of nationally ranked opponents in Greensboro College and Emory University to advance to the Sweet 16 round before falling to the eventual national champion in Trinity University (TX).
Before coming to the states, Andrew competed at the highest level in his home country earning a trio of caps for the U-17 Scottish National Team making all three of his appearances during the spring of 1999. On a 21-day European tour with the squad, Andrew saw action against the U-17 counterparts from Germany, Belgium, and Holland scoring a pair of goals along the way to earn national recognition at a young age.
After completing his undergraduate degree at PC, Andrew remained to serve as the assistant coach of both the women's and men's soccer programs at Piedmont for three seasons. During his tenure as the assistant coach, the Lady Lions posted an overall record of 31-26-4 and three straight runner-up finishes in the Great South Athletic Conference while the men's teams grabbed a pair of conference championships winning a title in 2004 and again in 2006.
Following the completion of his third season as an assistant at Piedmont, Andrew took the reins of fellow GSAC member Huntingdon College for the 2007 season. Inheriting a Lady Hawks team that had posted a single win in 2006, Andrew led Huntingdon to a quarterfinal appearance in GSAC post-season play while mentoring a pair of conference All-Academic players before moving back to PC in 2008 to take over the women's soccer program.
A result of his dedication to the Piedmont athletic department over the last 15-plus years, Andrew was inducted into the Piedmont College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012 as a part of the 23rd induction class of the prestigious club. Andrew is one of three men's soccer inductees to the Hall, a group which also includes Andrew's coaching colleague in Jimmy Stephens, Piedmont's Head Men's Soccer Coach.
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