Jon Lipsitz just finished his third season as head coach of UK women’s soccer. (Chet White, UK Athletics)
James Pennington of CatsPause.com has been working for weeks on a profile of Kentucky women’s soccer coach Jon Lipsitz. On Wednesday, the article was published.It’s an outstanding look at the man who took the Wildcats to an NCAA berth in just three seasons that I really encourage you to read, whether you’re a soccer fan or not. Lipsitz is one of the most enjoyable coaches to cover I can imagine and Pennington’s piece does an excellent job of capturing his essence.Here is an excerpt, but again, I strongLY urge you to give the entire thing a read:
Lipsitz was hired in December 2008 to take UK, which stagnated in the last few years of Warren Lipka’s tenure as coach, to NCAA tournaments, and it had just qualified for its first in Lipsitz’s third season. Lexington would even host the first-round game against Washington State.Lipsitz freely admits that chance, or something resembling it–luck would imply a degree of undeserving–has put him where he is today. Finding his career path, meeting his wife somehow at a New Year’s Eve party, ending up with two sons and a fence and a mortgage and two little dogs … it all just kind of happened, he said.Part of life’s beauty is in its unpredictability, and he seems to have embraced that. He trusts that maxim because he’s worked hard enough to deserve whatever seemingly random byproducts result.
