Andy Richards Hometown: Warwick, England Last College: Sheffield City Polytechnic (1989) Position: Head Coach Experience: Eighth Season in '07 2005: MAC Coach of the Year

Andy Richards congratuates goalkeeper Ali Shingler after the Falcons advanced past Kent State to win the 2005 MAC Tournament championship (photo by Brad Phalin)

Andy Richards embarks upon his eighth season as head coach of the Bowling Green State University women's soccer program, having guided the Falcons to unprecedented heights during that time. Richards enters the 2007 season with a collegiate head coaching record of 71-69-12.

Richards led the Falcons to the first Mid-American Conference Tournament title and NCAA Championships berth in school history in 2004, then guided the Brown and Orange to the first regular-season crown in BG annals in `05, along with a second-straight league tourney title and NCAA berth.

Then-BGSU Director of Athletics Paul Krebs announced the hiring of Richards as the second coach in the program's history on April 10, 2000. Richards, 41, came to BG after five seasons as assistant women's soccer coach at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore.

On Feb. 20, 2006, BGSU reached an agreement with Richards on a three-year contract. The contract runs through June 30, 2009. Richards' new contract marked the first time in school history that a soccer coach has received a multi-year contract at Bowling Green.

In his first seven years in BG, Richards has led the Falcons to the Mid-American Conference Tournament on six occasions, guiding his team to the semifinals five times and to the championship match four times, including in three-straight seasons from 2004-06. Richards-coached teams have posted a league tournament record of 8-4-3 and, as mentioned, won back-to-back MAC Tournament titles in 2004 and '05, advancing to the NCAA Championships.

Andy Richards addresses the Falcons prior to a 2006 home match

Richards is ranked second all-time among MAC coaches in league tournament victories, and is tied for first all-time in league championship-game appearances.

Last season, with 12 newcomers on the 24-woman roster, Richards guided the Falcons to a 7-4-0 league record and a tie for third place in the conference standings. BGSU's 10 wins all came by shutout, setting a school record for the second year in a row.

In 2005, Richards led the Brown and Orange to a 14-7-2 overall record, including a 9-2-0 league ledger, en route to MAC Coach-of-the-Year honors. The '05 team set school records for most wins and fewest losses in a season, both overall and in MAC play, and also set a record with an 11-match unbeaten streak. That streak began in late September and took the Falcons all the way through the league tournament and into the NCAAs.

After beginning the conference portion of the schedule with a 1-2-0 mark, BGSU proceeded to win the final eight regular-season matches, culminating with a win at Toledo on the last day of the season that clinched the title.

BGSU hosted UT in a rematch several days later, in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament, and advanced past the Rockets via penalty kicks. That earned the Falcons the right to host the semifinal and championship rounds of the conference tourney at Cochrane Field for the first time.

BG downed Miami in the semifinals, and went to PKs in the championship match before advancing past Kent State. The Falcons did not allow a single goal in the three MAC Tournament games, spanning 310 total minutes.

Richards and the `05 Falcons swept the MAC's specialty awards, as senior Samantha Meister was the league's Player of the Year and Corbie Yee was named the MAC Freshman of the Year. Richards, in addition to being named the conference coach of the year, was runner-up for Soccer Buzz Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year.

In the classroom, BGSU had six student-athletes, the most of any conference school, chosen to the Academic All-MAC Team in 2005. One of those six, Ali Shingler, was the first BGSU women's soccer student-athlete ever to earn Academic All-America First-Team honors.

In 2004, the Falcons were seeded eighth for the MAC Tournament, after finishing with a 5-5-2 record in league regular-season play. But, the Falcons downed top-seeded KSU on the road in the quarterfinal round, going on to defeat fourth-seeded Western Michigan in the semis before picking up a championship-game win over Central Michigan.

In 2003, just as in `04, the Falcons finished league play at 5-5-2 to earn the eighth seed for the MAC Tournament. But, Richards guided the `03 Falcons to the tourney's championship match. That fall, the Brown and Orange became the lowest-ever seed to win a first-round match, with a 2-1 road victory over top-seeded Eastern Michigan. Richards and the Falcons then advanced past CMU via PKs in the semifinals, before falling in the championship.

In 2002, Richards performed one of the top coaching jobs in the MAC, if not the Midwest. The Falcons, picked to finish ninth in the MAC's preseason poll, finished fourth in the loop with a 7-4-1 record. Overall, the Brown and Orange had a 12-8-2 mark, shattering the school records for both league and overall wins. Those records, of course, stood until 2005.

Under his direction, the Falcons had the MAC's Newcomer of the Year in two consecutive seasons. Meister earned the honor in 2002, after Kristy Coppes had won the award in the 2001 campaign.

In 2000, his first year at the helm, all Richards did was guide the seventh-seeded Falcons to the championship match of the MAC Tournament. That team was the lowest seed in MAC history to win a first-round match at the time.

That fall, his inaugural BGSU squad set a school record with 10 victories, posting a 10-10-1 overall record. The Falcons doubled the win total of the previous season, and BGSU went 5-5-1 in MAC play to place seventh among the 12 league squads.

When the MAC Tournament began, however, Richards and the Falcons travelled to EMU and upset the second-seeded Eagles in the quarterfinals. BGSU then pulled another upset, downing WMU in the semifinal round.

The Falcons advanced to the championship round, and battled Miami through nearly 112 minutes of scoreless soccer before the RedHawks got an overtime goal to capture the tourney title.

A native of Warwick, England, Richards brought to the Falcons a wealth of experience in not only intercollegiate soccer, but also in club, high school, and youth soccer. For the two years prior to coming to BG, Richards served as a member of the coaching staff for the Region IV Olympic Development Program.

He was also the state coach for the 17-year-old age group of the Oregon Olympic Development Program. Richards was heavily involved with the Corvallis United Soccer Club his final four years there.

Oregon State, a member of the Pacific-10 Conference (PAC-10), finished the 1999 season with an overall record of 8-11-1.

Prior to his appointment at Oregon State, Richards spent five years as the Regional Director for Goal Line Soccer Clinics in Oregon. Richards taught and coached at the high school level in England before moving to the United States.

Richards' enthusiasm was evident immediately, as he travelled cross-country to arrive in Bowling Green just four days after his hiring. The next day, he accompanied the Falcon team to the last competition of the spring season, a tournament at Kent. In all, Richards spent nearly two weeks with the Falcons before spring practice concluded, getting to know his new squad and evaluating the individual student-athletes.

Richards earned his Bachelor of Education degree from Sheffield City Polytechnic, located in Sheffield, England, in 1989. He received his Master of Education from Oregon State in 1997.

ANDY RICHARDS - YEAR-BY-YEAR AT BGSU