MOUNT VERNON – Daniel Seiffert, head coach for the Mount Vernon Nazarene University women’s soccer team, recently earned his “A-Senior” License from the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) after completing six months of required work and successfully passing all examinations.
The “A-Senior” License builds on all previous levels of USSF license work and focuses on creating a winning team in a high-performance environment. It encompasses a premier level development of attacking, defending, and transitioning tactics and strategies, together with a focus on in depth analysis of coaching sessions and games, the leadership of players and the team, and managing a high-performance environment.
The course work involves three residential meetings for one week each separated by three developmental and mentoring periods of between six to eight weeks each. The course work culminated in a final overall assessment by two high-level observers on the MVNU campus.
On top of earning this license, Seiffert already holds his United Soccer Coaches (formerly National Soccer Coaches Association of America) Premier Diploma, which is the highest license that can be obtained through the United Soccer Coaches association, as well as his USC Advanced National, USC National, USC Advanced Regional, and USC National Goalkeeping Diplomas.
MVNU finished its 2017 season with a record of 10-6-2 overall. The Cougars were fifth in the highly competitive Crossroads League with a record of 4-3- 2 and qualified for their ninth consecutive post season tournament appearance for Seiffert and the program. Amongst other highlights, MVNU received votes in three consecutive NAIA Top-25 polls throughout the 2017 season, beginning on October 10 following a victory over then No. 21 Taylor University.
In three of the last four years, the Lady Cougars have reached NAIA national rankings of 14th (2014), 18th (2015), and 28th (2017).
Also, for its eighth straight year, the program earned both the NAIA and the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Awards with a team grade point average of 3.59. In addition, the Cougars had a program record 10 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes to rank second in the nation of all NAIA member institutions, were once again honored with the United Soccer
Coaches Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award, and were recipients of the prestigious NAIA Buffalo Funds Five-Star Champions of Character Team Award. The award goes out annually to one team out of the 194 women’s soccer programs in NAIA Division I and is based on exemplary character, performance on the field and in the classroom, and in the community.
It was the second time that the MVNU women’s soccer program has been honored with the distinguished award, the last time being in 2011.
