Rob King enters his 14th season as the only head coach soccer coach in program history at Kennesaw State University, with his list of acomplishments never ceasing to impress the soccer community. The 2003 NCAA Division II Coach of the Year is continually bringing the Owl soccer program to new heights.
The 2014 campaign for the King and the Owls was one of ups and downs as KSU finished the season at 8-11-1, but ended the year on a high mark with a runner-up finish in the 2014 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship. The Owls entered the conference tournament as the No. 6 seed for the first time in program history and made more history by becoming just the second sixth seed to advance to the finals with a dominating 5-0 win at Jacksonville, before a dramatic 1-0 overtime victory over Lipscomb in the semifinals. KSU, in its third appearance in the Championship final, fell to regular season champion Florida Gulf Coast, 3-1, but not before benefiting from the experience of reaching the conference final.
King continued to build upon the success of previous seasons with a demanding 2013 campaign that included tournaments at Tennessee and North Carolina, where the Owls competed against then-No. 1 UNC and No. 12 Duke. As the only coach in program history, King led KSU to its 150 win in program history midway through the season in a 2-0 win over Northern Kentucky on Sept. 29. The Owls, who finished third in the A-Sun with a 5-3-1 record, would make it back to the A-Sun Championship semifinals, before falling to eventual tournament champion Jacksonville to wrap its season at 9-9-1.
The veteran coach returned the Owls to the conference championship en route to a 10-win season in 2012, including the program’s second-only defeat of a Southeastern Conference (SEC) opponent when KSU posted a 1-0 win over Arkansas in non-conference action. The Owls took the No. 3 seed into the A-Sun Tournament, before falling short of their champioships aspirations in the first round.
Coming off a 7-8-2 season in 2011, King and the 2012 Kennesaw State soccer team looked to improve upon their seven win season, highlighted by victories over non-conference foes College of Charleston and UAB and conference rivals Lipscomb, Stetson and USC Upstate, while also tying the regular season co-champions East Tennessee State. KSU finished seventh in league standings with a 3-5-1 mark, only the second time in seven years as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference that the Owls finished below second place.
The Owls finished the 2010 season with an overall record of 8-8-3 and a 5-4-1 mark in Atlantic Sun Conference play, defeating ETSU in a first round shootout to move on to the A-Sun semifinals where their season ended in a 3-0 loss to Jacksonville.
Leading his club to an eighth consecutive season of double digit wins during the 2009 campaign, the Owls posted an 11-7-0 overall record and a 7-3 conference mark to earn their third regular season Atlantic Sun Conference title in only five years of league membership. They would then take down Jacksonville and Belmont, both in thrilling fashion, while serving as hosts of the A-Sun Tournament, to win their second tournament title and allow them to make their second trip to the NCAA Division I Women’s College Cup. The Owls battled No. 14 Wake Forest in the first round, but would fall 2-0 to the eventual quarterfinalist in Winston-Salem, N.C.
King continued the habit of having his team’s success carry-over into his player’s trophy cases in 2009, as his team took home a total of 12 conference regular season and tournament honors, including Bridget Gaughan, who was named the A-Sun’s Defensive Player of the Year and to the All A-Sun First Team, and Goalkeeper Staci Pugh, who was named the A-Sun Tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Immediately upon his arrival in Kennesaw in 2001 following a successful six-year stint at the University of Montevallo (Ala.), King built the Owls’ program from scratch and immediately instilled a culture of winning and the expectation of doing so year-in and year out. After spending the 2001-2002 academic year recruiting and filling out his coaching staff, his troops took to the field for the first in the fall of 2002, putting together an undefeated season in the program’s first year of existence en-route to snagging the Peach Belt Conference regular season title and the NCAA Division II Southeast Region title.
Already one of the feared teams in the south after just one season, King took the final step towards national prominence just one year later, guiding his club to a 25-1-0 record and a stunning run through the NCAA Division II College Cup, including a 2-0 victory in the championship game against Division II titan Franklin Piece, who had won five of the last nine national titles.
As one of two sports in the Kennesaw State athletic department that were “fast-tracked,” into NCAA Division I competition, women’s soccer first dipped their toe into the deepest pool of competition in the fall of 2004, with King leading his squad to a 12-4-1 record. They began play in the Atlantic Sun Conference the following year and made a strong impact straight away by finishing first or second in the standings during the first five seasons as a member of the conference.
With all of his success, King readily greeted the Owls move to Division I by volunteering his program’s move to the highest level of collegiate competition. Never shying away from a challenge, he quickly tested himself against top-notch Division I opponents, scheduling meetings with Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke and NCAA perennial powerhouse, North Carolina. A pair of near-upsets ensued, earning King the respect and admiration of many of his peers in the upper echelon of collegiate soccer.
Following back-to-back regular season conference titles in 2006 and 2007, King once again delivered a first to the Kennesaw State community when he led the Owls on their championship run in the 2007 A-Sun Tournament with a thrilling 2-1 victory over conference rival Mercer, earning the athletic department’s first-ever bid to an NCAA Division I championship. The Owls would go on to face national power Florida State in the first round.
King’s team accomplishments have been staggering, but so have been his player’s. Entering 2010, his club has garnered a total of 66 All A-Sun Conference awards in its seven years as a conference member, including two conference Player of the Year winners (Annie Phillips- 2007, Laura Tucker- 2006), four Defensive Player of the Year Winners (Bridget Gaughn-2009, Rebecca Hall-2006 Katrina Hirsch and Jessica Marek-2005) and two A-Sun Tournament MVPs (Staci Pugh-2009, Caitlin Dingle-2007). The Owls’ short time in the Peach Belt Conference was no different, as their two years of play in the Division II conference yielded 11 All-Conference awards, including back-to-back Peach Belt Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player honorees in Jenae Gzehoviak in 2002 and Jessie Fream in 2003, while Fream also took home NCAA Division II All-American Third Team honors in 2003.
Overall, King has recorded a 135-42-15 (.742) mark with the Owls over seven seasons. The record includes an impressive 47-17-5 (.717) tally in A-Sun play that includes championships in 2006, 2007 and 2009.
King boasts an career record of 180-91-20 (.653) in 16 years of coaching women ‘s soccer at the collegiate level.
As a coach, King has won a plethora of honors. He was named both NCAA Division II National Coach-of-the-Year and Regional Coach-of-the-Year in 2003 after leading the Owls on their national championship run. In 2002, he was honored as the Peach Belt and Regional Coach-of-the-Year in his squad’s first year of play.
King began his American soccer career as a three-year letter-winner for the University of Alabama-Huntsville Chargers. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UAH, he joined their staff as an assistant coach, a capacity in which he served from 1990-1992.
In May of 1992, Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tenn., offered King his first head coaching job. His inaugural team went 14-2-1 and won the National Junior College Athletic Association Region VII championship. The following year, King’s team went 17-1-0 and won the National Small College Athletic Association title.
In 1995, he was asked to take over the men’s and women’s soccer program at the University of Montevallo. In the six seasons at the helm of the women’s team, King led the Falcons to post season play during four of those seasons and finished with a conference winning percentage of .500 or better during all five seasons of Gulf South Conference play. In 1998, he was named the GSC Coach-of-the-Year after leading his squad to a 10-5-2 record and an appearance in the GSC championship game. His stint as the men’s coach included a 15-10-2 conference record, a Co-Coach of the Year honor and a GSC Tournament title in 1999.
During King’s final season at Montevallo, in 2000, he led the Lady Falcons to the best season in school history. He set the record for wins in a season, with 12, and made the GSC Tournament for the third consecutive year, a school first. King amassed a 45-49-5 record with the Lady Falcons, going 29-17-4 in his last three seasons.
In addition to his work at the collegiate level, King has established himself as a fixture in the Cobb County soccer scene, conducting youth clinics and helping to coach youth teams in the local community.
Coach King and his wife, Valerie, have two children, Chloe and Rory. The Kings currently reside in Dallas, Ga.
