Nov. 25, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - After serving as an assistant on Penn State men's soccer head coach Barry Gorman's staff for the past two seasons, James Walker is leaving his post to become the Executive Director of Coaching for the Pacesetter Soccer Club in Sylvania, Ohio.
"I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Penn State and would like to thank the administration, Coach Gorman and Coach Defibaugh for a tremendous opportunity" said Walker. "It has been a pleasure working with a fantastic bunch of young men and I am looking forward to seeing this team do great things in the next few years."
While at Penn State, Walker has helped to mentor a young Nittany Lion squad that has featured a conference-high three All-Big Ten Freshman Team honorees in each of the past two seasons. All six will return to next year's team, joining standouts Jason Yeisley (Allentown, Pa.) and Andy Parr (Hummelstown, Pa.), who missed the 2007 season while recovering from knee injuries.
Before coming to Penn State in 2007, Walker served as head coach of the Duquesne University women's team for the previous four years. He experienced unprecedented success at Duquesne, changing the fortunes of a program that was 5-13-1 in 2002 into one that posted the most wins in school history in just three short years. Walker's 2005 Dukes squad garnered a 10-6-1 overall record, the program's first-ever double-digit win season, and featured four All-Atlantic 10 Conference players.
Prior to his stint at Duquesne, Walker headed up the women's program at his alma mater, Tiffin University (Ohio), from 1997-2002. While at Tiffin, he guided the Dragons to four American Mideast Conference Championships, amassing an impressive 84-33-2 overall record. Under his leadership, Tiffin was nationally ranked for four consecutive years, advanced to the Regional Final Four in each of his six seasons, and reached the NAIA National Tournament quarterfinals in 2000 and 2002. Walker's achievements did not go unnoticed, as he was named American Mideast Coach of the Year and Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association Coach of the Year three times and was the runner-up for the 2000 BRINE National Coach of the Year Award.
As a player at Tiffin, Walker, a forward, helped the Dragons capture two AMC titles while earning NAIA All-America honors in 1994 and 1995. Finishing seventh in career scoring, Walker was inducted into the Tiffin Hall of Fame in 2006.
After graduation, Walker played at the professional level with the Kalamazoo Kingdom (1996-97) and the Cleveland Caps (1998) of USISL. He also previously acted as head coach for the Ohio North ODP (2001-02) and the Pennsylvania West ODP (2003) teams.
Since 1980, the Pacesetter Soccer Club has fielded teams that have competed at local, regional and national levels. Many Pacesetter alumni have gone on to play in college and include collegiate All-Americans. The club has produced national team players, as well as state and regional ODP players. The club fields boys & girls teams in U9 through U19 age groups which compete in the Northwest Ohio Youth Soccer League (NWOYSL) and the Michigan State Premier Soccer League.
A national search for Walker's replacement will begin after the new year.