2021 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI SOCCER GUIDE PAUL NELSON
PAUL NELSON ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH 23RD YEAR
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aul Nelson enters his 23rd season with the Southeast Missouri women’s soccer program and his 15th year as the team’s associate head coach. Paul and his wife Heather Nelson, head coach of the Southeast women’s soccer team, have built the Redhawk women’s soccer program from the ground up since its inception in 1999. Nelson has drawn on his extensive playing and coaching experience from every level – juniors to professional – providing plenty of valuable guidance along the way. Together with his wife, the Nelsons have built a program on the foundation of quality student-athletes. In 22 seasons, the Redhawks have compiled a .584 winning percentage going 205-138-55. SEMO’s Ohio Valley Conference record is an even more impressive 100-53-34 (.626).
He helped lead the Redhawks to Ohio Valley Conference regular season championships in 2001, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2014 and 2019. Southeast also registered back-to-back OVC Tournament titles and NCAA Women’s Soccer Cup appearances in 2006 and 2007. Prior to Southeast, Nelson spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Florida State and two years at the Canadian western-based National Training Center. In addition, he was an assistant coach for Canada’s Olympic team in 1994. Nelson first entered the professional ranks in 1977 and enjoyed 13 competitive seasons at that level. He played in the once-heralded North American Soccer League (NASL) during both the indoor and outdoor seasons and competed in the Irish Premier Division. Nelson signed with the NASL’s Vancouver Whitecaps at the
age of 18, where he had the opportunity to play with and against some of the best players in the world, including Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cryuff. In 2011, Nelson, his teammates and staff from the Whitecaps were inducted into the Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum as the 1979 Whitecaps earned the 2011 Team of Distinction Award. The Whitecaps went 20-10 that season and claimed the NASL’s Soccer Bowl with a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies in front of 66,843 fans at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. As a staff coach for British Columbia Soccer, Nelson boasted one of the best amateur soccer coaching records in Canada. His coaching successes include gold medals from the 1991 Western Canadian Championships and the 1993 Canada Matches. In 1999, Nelson served as
coach of the American Soccer League’s Vancouver 86ers reserve team. He and his wife, Heather, have four children, Jordan, Taylor, Justi and Chase. Their daughter, Taylor, is a junior on the Redhawks soccer team, while their oldest daughter, Jordan, is a SEMO soccer alumna.
8-TIME OVC CHAMPIONS | 2001 • 2002 • 2006 • 2007* • 2011 • 2014 • 2019
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