After a search of just longer than one month, the Syracuse women’s soccer team finally has its man. Syracuse announced Monday that Patrick Farmer will leave his position at Tennessee Tech to become the second head coach in Syracuse women’s soccer history.

The announcement was well ahead of the mid-May deadline that Associate Director of Athletics Janet Kittell set when April Kater resigned on April 7 to pursue her master’s degree in New Zealand.

According to Kittell, ‘a series of circumstances’ made it possible to draw Farmer away from Tennessee Tech, where the Golden Eagles completed a 9-11 season in his first year there.

‘Pat Farmer is the Roy Simmons Jr. of women’s soccer,’ Kittell said. ‘We are incredibly fortunate to get a man of his success, dedication, knowledge, passion and connections to central New York.’

The Orangewomen look to Farmer to turn around a program that fell from a NCAA Tournament berth in 2001 to a combined record of 12-19-4 in the 2002-2003 seasons.

Farmer is in place as head coach in time to begin recruiting and preparation for next year without many problems. He could also help assistant coach Greg Tait run the annual girl’s soccer camp in July.

Farmer has not arrived in Syracuse yet and could not be reached for comment.

Farmer has been a head coach at the collegiate level for 15 years. His teams have a combined record of 242-68-31.

He was hired as the first women’s soccer coach at Penn State in 1994. While at Penn State, Farmer won Division I National Coach of the Year honors for leading the Nittany Lions to the NCAA semifinals in 1999.

Farmer also won Division III National Coach of the Year honors in 1989 as the head coach at Ithaca. Farmer led Ithaca to two Division III national championships.

‘Everyone he met recognized his passion and his absence of ego,’ Kittell said. ‘The team is thrilled to have him.’

Published on May 16, 2004 at 12:00 pm