After leading the Golden Eagles to a record-setting season in 2009, Chris Chamides returns for his eighth year as the head coach of the women’s soccer program at Cal State L.A.
Chamides led Cal State L.A. to a 17-3-2 overall record in 2009 and to its first California Collegiate Athletic Association championship. The Golden Eagles won the CCAA South Division and then posted shutout wins over Chico State and Cal State Dominguez Hills in the four-team CCAA Championship Tournament to claim the conference crown. The Golden Eagles earned the No. 1 seed in the West Region and hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Division II playoffs for the first time ever.
Chamides was named the CCAA Coach of the Year in both women’s soccer and men’s soccer in 2009. The Golden Eagle women set new program records for wins (17) and goals scored (53) and achieved their highest-ever national ranking (No. 6) during the historic season. They also tied a program record for most shutouts in a season with 12.
In his first seven years at Cal State L.A., Chamides has turned around a program that had not produced a winning record before his arrival. He led the Golden Eagles to their first-ever NCAA Division II playoff appearance in 2007 and, after guiding Cal State L.A. through a challenging 2008 campaign that was marked by a number of pre-season injuries to key players, Chamides guided the Golden Eagles to their best-ever season in 2009.
Liz Franco and Amanda Matthews became the first Cal State L.A. women’s soccer players to earn All-America honors in 2009 and Franco was the first to be named the West Region Player of the Year. Franco was also the CCAA Offensive Player of the Year and Matthews was the CCAA Defensive Player of the Year, both becoming the first Golden Eagles to win those awards.
Cal State L.A. had six players earn All-CCAA honors in 2009, which tied the program record first set in 2007, and four earn All-West Regions, which is a new program record.
Chamides has built a program that now owns a 64-41-15 overall record over the past six seasons and has become recognized as one of the nation’s best. Cal State L.A. has earned 29 All-CCAA and 10 All-Region awards during Chamides’ tenure. The Golden Eagles also had a player earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors in 2009, defender Reauna Wong, the first in the program’s history.
The 2009 excellence came with a young roster that was picked to finish fifth in the six-team CCAA South Division by the conference coaches.
Chamides led the Golden Eagles to a strong finish in 2008 that carried over into the 2009 campaign. Although the Golden Eagles finished with a 7-9-3 overall record, they were 5-1-2 in their last eight California Collegiate Athletic Association matches and wound up with a 6-6-2 conference mark. That marked the third consecutive year and the fourth time in five years that Cal State L.A. had finished with a .500 record or better in conference play.
Chamides led Cal State L.A. to a memorable 2007 season that included the Golden Eagles’ first-ever trip to the four-team CCAA Championship Tournament and their first-ever NCAA Division II playoff appearance. Cal State L.A. knocked off perennial power UC San Diego to reach the championship game in the CCAA tourney and then advanced past Chico State and Seattle University to the West Region championship game.
The Golden Eagles were ranked 15th in the nation at the end of the season. It marked the first time in the program’s history that Cal State L.A. was nationally ranked. In addition, Cal State L.A. had three players earn All-Region honors and six players earn All-Conference awards.
Cal State L.A. flourished defensively and posted a new single-season record 12 shutouts.
The 2007 success came on the heels of an impressive 2006 season when the Golden Eagles, despite having a young team without a single senior, compiled a 9-7-3 overall record. An upset of No. 2-ranked Seattle Pacific, 2-0, in the Seawolf Classic at Sonoma State was a highlight of the season.
In 2005, Chamides guided the Golden Eagles to a 9-8-1 overall record, while in 2004, he led the Golden Eagles to the program’s first-ever winning season after nine straight losing years. Cal State L.A. recorded a 9-8-2 record, which represented a huge jump for the program. The Golden Eagles had not won more than seven games in a season before that and had won five games or less for six straight years.
Chamides also served as an assistant coach for Chivas USA of Major League Soccer for four seasons. In 2006, he worked under MLS Coach of the Year and current U.S. National Team head coach Bob Bradley and he also worked for three years with former Chivas USA Head Coach Preki. In his time with Chivas USA, the roster included Claudio Suarez, Ramon Ramirez, Paco Palencia and Jonathan Bornstein. Chivas USA reached the MLS playoffs in just its second season of existence in 2006 and Bornstein was named the 2006 MLS Rookie of the Year.
Chamides came to Cal State L.A. from the San Jose Earthquakes of the Major League Soccer, where he served as the Senior Director of Soccer from 2000-02. While in the role, Chamides was directly involved in all soccer-related facets, including roster development. He helped build a San Jose squad that won the 2001 MLS Cup one year after having the league’s worst record. The roster included USA National Team members Landon Donovan and Jeff Agoos.
From 1997-99, Chamides was the head men’s and women’s soccer coach at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla. The Flagler women’s team improved from 2-15 before his arrival to 12-7 in 1998. The men’s squad was ranked as high as 17th in the country and four Flagler players earned All-America honors during his tenure. During that time span, Chamides was also a coach in the Florida Olympic Development Program and was hired as the head coach in 1999 of the USL’s expansion Jacksonville Jade.
In 1995, Chamides got his first collegiate coaching job when he was hired as an assistant for the University of Massachusetts’ women’s soccer program. During his two years in Amherst, Massachusetts was ranked as high as No. 6 in the country, won two Atlantic-10 Conference titles, made two consecutive “Sweet 16” appearances in the NCAA Division I playoffs and compiled a 30-9-3 record.
His first head coaching job came in 1993 when he worked with both the junior varsity and varsity boys soccer teams at his alma mater, Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. That same year, he was also tabbed by then-Virginia head coach and former USA National Team coach Bruce Arena to serve as a staff coach at the University of Virginia’s summer soccer camps. In 1994, he also revived the S.C. Gjoa U-16 boys club team in Brooklyn, leading the squad to the State Cup.
Chamides played in college for NCAA Division I Lafayette from 1989-92 and helped the Leopards to a Patriot League runner-up finish in 1990. He was a team captain as a senior. Lafayette posted a winning record in each of his four seasons and had an overall mark of 43-32-5.
He owns an “A” license from the U.S. Soccer Federation and has an Advanced National Diploma from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Chamides earned a Masters of Science degree in Sports Management from the University of Massachusetts.
Chamides and his wife, Nancy, were married during the summer of 2005 and celebrated the birth of their son, Ryan, in July of 2008.