Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ND SPORTS BY DAN MURPHY R andy Waldrum found an offer that was too good to refuse. It took a combination of coaching a professional team in his home state of Texas and the birth of his first grandchild to pull him away from the national p o w e r h o u s e women's soccer program he built in South Bend. T h e 1 5 - y e a r coaching veteran ended his Notre Dame career this winter to take over as the head o f t h e n e w l y formed Houston Dash in the Na- tional Women's Soccer League. Waldrum said that, like many coaches, he has always dreamed of coaching at his sport's highest level. It took more than that, though, to pull him away from the Irish. "These kinds of opportunities to get back to Texas won't happen very of- ten," he said. "I would've liked it to be five years down the road. I would've liked to stay to win another national championship at Notre Dame. I just wasn't sure there would be another opportunity as great as this." Waldrum won two national cham- pionships dur- ing his time in South Bend. The first came in 2004 followed by an- other No. 1 fin- ish in 2010. His teams came up one game short i n t h re e o t h e r trips to the na- tional champion- ship game dur- ing an era that established Notre Dame as one of the country's top programs. The Irish won 12 conference ti- tles and 292 total games, just shy of 20 per year, while setting a slew of NCAA records on Waldrum's watch. He has also made a habit of bringing some of the most talented players in the country to northern Indiana. He coached five National Player of the Year award winners and 28 All-Amer- icans during his tenure. Several Texas college programs tried Women's Soccer Coach Randy Waldrum Heads Home Waldrum coached Notre Dame to two national titles and created one of the nation's premier women's soc- cer programs during his 15 seasons at the school. PHOTO BY MIKE BENNETT/LIGHTHOUSE IMAGING