Last November, the University of South Florida men’s soccer team competed in the final game of the American Athletic Conference championship for the second time in three seasons. The Bulls, who fell to Tulsa on penalty kicks in the tournament final, were led by long-time head coach George Kiefer, a man who turned them from an average team into a perennial powerhouse in the AAC.
In Raleigh, the NC State men’s soccer team was sitting without a head coach, having parted ways with Kelly Findley after an abysmal 5-12 season that saw just one ACC win and a first-round exit from the ACC Tournament for the third year in a row.
The answer for the Wolfpack was found in Kiefer, who NC State announced as the new head coach just five days after USF’s season ended with a first-round loss in the NCAA tournament. Kiefer, who spent 15 years in charge of the Bulls, is taking over a State team that hasn’t had much success in recent years, having not won an NCAA tournament game since 1994.
However, Kiefer says State has always been on his radar, remembering the program for its dominance in the early ‘90s, under head coach George Tarantini. The Pack won the ACC tournament in 1990, and made the NCAA tournament four times from 1990-94, including an appearance in the College Cup. Kiefer recalled those days, as he pointed out the 1990 ACC Championship trophy sitting in the corner of his office.
“I’ve always had my eyes on NC State,” Kiefer said. “When I finished playing in high school was 1990. That trophy is from 1990. That is when coach Tarantini had this place humming and cooking on all cylinders. So, I always kind of looked up to it, even as a player.”
Back in those days, Kiefer was starting out his playing career at Southern Connecticut State University, where he would win two NCAA Championships and four consecutive New England Collegiate Conference titles. After playing a year of professional soccer in the now extinct USISL, Kiefer returned to his alma mater to start his coaching career.
“The coach I played for offered to pay for my master’s in return for working 90 hours a week,” Kiefer said with a laugh. “I started more just to get my master’s, but then after a year I loved it. So, by 25, I knew I wanted to coach.”
Kiefer coached at SCSU as an assistant for two years before taking on the same role at the University of Connecticut. In five years at UConn, Kiefer helped lead the team to two College Cups, and a National Championship in 2000. Then in 2002, Kiefer made the move to USF, where he began to build a powerhouse.
During his time at USF, Kiefer posted a record of 162-86-51, while winning a regular season conference championship twice consecutively in 2013 and 2014. USF also doubled their number of NCAA tournament appearances under Kiefer, making it in 10 of his 15 seasons. Perhaps it was this success that convinced NC State Director of Athletics Deborah Yow to give the job to Kiefer.
“George has had considerable success on every level, building a perennial power at USF,” Yow told GoPack when Kiefer was hired. “NC State has hired one of the best respected college soccer coaches in the nation.”
Kiefer has proven that he can succeed at a high level throughout his career, and he plans on bringing the same ideas and mentalities to NC State that have pushed him through his whole career. This starts with the premise that you need much more than a good head coach to be successful, something he made abundantly clear when talking to him.
“I think you’ve got to figure out who within the program is on board and helpful and can compete to help win an ACC title,” Kiefer said. “It takes a whole team of people and I’m willing to allow people to do what they’re really good at and allow people to maximize their strengths.”
Kiefer mentioned that he wants to win ACC titles, and that he hopes State can compete on the highest level. He also acknowledged that winning starts in the Pack’s own backyard, as other programs throughout the state of North Carolina, especially UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest, have been the gold standard of college soccer in recent years.
“It’s important that you become one of the better programs in your own backyard,” Kiefer said. “You don’t want to make a habit of losing to the boys from the next neighborhood, so I think that it does provide us something that we can chase right now. And I think that you want to find guys that want to pursue that and chase that.”
Taking over a team that has not won many games will always be a tough transition for a new coach, and the pressure to keep up with the other schools in the area is going to be high. Kiefer says he understands the pressure to win, but also explained that he feels more pressure from another source.
“There is no external pressure that will be greater than the internal pressure that I put on myself,” Kiefer said. “Let alone when I walk in the door and say hello to my children. They’re going to expect that we start winning some games here. They don’t want their dad to be coming home losing every night. So, that’s my little bit of motivation.”
As much as the past few years may have been a disappointment for Wolfpack soccer, Kiefer says he is excited about where the program is headed. He admits that it won’t come instantly, that the team is going to take some punches along the way, but that isn’t stopping Kiefer from dreaming big things for NC State.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that it can become one of the best programs in the country,” Kiefer said. “I see a lot of good things. I see packed stadiums and a lot of fun, creative soccer being played. And a lot of winning happening. If I close my eyes and see what’s going to go on, that’s what’s going to go on. And now every minute, that’s the focus that we just keep working toward.”
