After leading the Golden Eagles to a third consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs and a spot in the West Region championship match in 2011, Chris Chamides returns for his 10th year as the head coach of the women’s soccer program at Cal State L.A.
Chamides has turned around a program that had not produced a winning record before his arrival and transformed the Golden Eagles into one of the top programs in the nation. The Golden Eagles are 92-49-20 over the past eight seasons and have finished the season ranked in the national top-15 in each of the past three years. He is the program’s all-time leader in wins with a 96-63-20 mark in his nine seasons, including an outstanding 45-11-7 record over the past three years.
Chamides, who has vast experience in both Major League Soccer (MLS) and NCAA soccer, has earned six Coach of the Year awards in his nine years at Cal State L.A.
Cal State L.A. has collected 40 All-CCAA, 19 All-Region and four All-America awards during Chamides’ tenure, including the West Region Player of the Year, Liz Franco, in 2009 and three CCAA Player of the Year awards. The Golden Eagles have also had two players earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors.
Chamides led the Golden Eagles to a 13-4-4 overall record in 2011 and a national final ranking of 12, which is the best end-of-the-season ranking in the program’s history. The Golden Eagles reached the NCAA Division II West Region championship match for the second time in five years and hosted the first two weeks of the NCAA playoffs for the first time in the program’s history.
The Golden Eagles qualified for the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament after finishing with the second-best record in the conference at 10-3-3. The Golden Eagles earned the No. 2 seed in the West Region and beat No. 3 Seattle Pacific, 2-1, at home to advance to the regional championship game. The Golden Eagles then fell on penalty kicks in the regional championship match to end the season.
Cal State L.A. once again flourished defensively and set a new program record by allowing only 13 goals in its 21 games.
Chamides was named the CCAA Coach of the Year for a second straight season in 2010 after guiding the Golden Eagles to a 15-4-1 overall record and the conference’s best record for the second year in a row. The Golden Eagles advanced to the CCAA title game for a second straight season and for the third time in four years, but fell in penalty kicks in the final match. Chamides led the Golden Eagles into the NCAA playoffs as the No. 4 seed in the West Region. The Golden Eagles lost to No. 5 seed Montana State-Billings, 1-0, in rainy conditions in Seattle, WA. The Golden Eagles finished with 12 shutouts, which tied a program record originally set in 2007.
For the second straight season, the Golden Eagles had two All-Americans in Liz Franco and Melina Barragan. Cal State L.A. had four players earn All-West Region honors and six players receive All-CCAA accolades. Barragan became the second straight Golden Eagle to earn conference Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Chamides led Cal State L.A. to a 17-3-2 overall record in 2009 and to its first CCAA 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. Franco and Amanda Matthews became the program’s first All-Americans and earned CCAA Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year awards.
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.
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 CCAA matches and wound up with a 6-6-2 conference mark.
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 NCAA 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.
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 mark, which represented a huge jump for the program. The Golden Eagles had never 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 former U.S. National Team Head Coach Bob Bradley and he also worked for three years with former Chivas USA Head Coach Preki. Chivas USA reached the MLS playoffs in each of the four seasons. In his time with Chivas USA, the roster included Claudio Suarez, Ramon Ramirez, Paco Palencia and Jonathan Bornstein, Sacha Kljestan, Jesse Marsch, Ante Razov and Brad Guzan.
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, former USA National Team coach and current Los Angeles Galaxy Head 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 have celebrated the birth of two sons, Ryan and Andrew.
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