New W. Soccer coach brings lifetime of experience to Penn

passion for the sport of soccer grow inside him. He played goalkeeper for various amateur teams around the city, and on Sundays cheered with his neighbors for Aston Villa, Birmingham's professional soccer team in the English Premier League. For him, soccer was, and still is, a way of life. And as the newly hired Penn women's soccer coach, Nelson is hoping to use his lifelong passion to his advantage on the Quakers sidelines. "In England, I was immersed in a culture revolving around soccer," Nelson said. "There, you're not only a big fan, but you get experiences that teach you a lot. You learn things about the game that become innate." After looking at the coaching record of the 35-year-old, there is no question that the innate qualities of the game he's picked up have helped him along the way. His overall experiences in America, too, have given him a unique perspective and have influenced his approach on the sidelines. Nelson came across the Atlantic when he was 20 to work on a bachelor's degree in Health and Physical Education at West Chester University. With his native England experiencing hard financial times, Nelson realized his best opportunities lay in the U.S. "It was like someone had taken the blinkers off," he said. "Money was tight in England back then. It was just like The Full Monty -- there were no jobs. And as a student in the States I was making more money than I would have working all the time in England." After earning his bachelor's degree from West Chester in 1988, Nelson spent a year coaching the girls' soccer team at Downingtown (Pa.) High School before heading to Penn State to earn his master's degree. In addition to two years of studies in State College, Nelson also honed his coaching skills as an assistant for the Nittany Lions men's soccer team, focusing mainly on the goalkeepers for head coach Barry Gorman. Nelson moved to Tufts after earning his master's degree to take a men's soccer assistant coaching job at the Division III school. He said that the move from a high-profile team at Penn State to a small, more inexperienced team at Tufts helped him get a feel for the extremes of coaching on the collegiate level. "I was very fortunate to work at Penn State where the level of play is very high," Nelson said. "I was also fortunate to be at Tufts where the level of play isn't quite that high but you get much more of an opportunity to interact with the players and teach them the game. I also got to see much more of the administrative side of coaching at Tufts than I did at Penn State." Two years later, in 1995, Nelson took the helm of the very inexperienced women's team at Wellesley College for his first head coaching position. The season before he arrived at Wellesley, the squad at the all-women's school allowed a depressing 49 goals in only 18 games played, ending with a 7-11 record. Progressively, through his five-year tenure at Wellesley, the amount of wins for Nelson's team grew while the amount of goals allowed dwindled to a minuscule amount. His final season at Wellesley was also his most successful, as his team finished ranked 10th in the nation after advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament in its first-ever appearance. Not only did Wellesley end the season with a 16-2-3 record, but the squad also posted the lowest goals against average in the nation. The Wellesley women allowed only six balls into their net for the entire year, a mark that Nelson was especially proud of given his goalkeeping background. The success of the 1998 season at Wellesley, though, convinced Nelson that it was time for a change. "I felt like I'd done a lot at Wellesley," he said. "I had helped take them from nowhere to the top 10 in the country. It seemed like the challenge was somewhat gone, and if you stay somewhere too long without a challenge, you can become stale." Nelson saw a fresh start in the women's program at Penn, which had a vacancy after Patrick Baker took over as head coach of the Florida State women's team in December. While at Penn, Nelson hopes to instill some of his past experiences -- both in England and America -- to get the team over the Ivy League hump which has seemed so daunting in the past. He also hopes to instill some of his passion for the game into the hearts and minds of the Quakers players. "I don't want it to be a case of coming in for practice at 4 p.m. and leaving at 6 p.m. and that be all," he said. "I want them to think about it all the time."