SteveGolas

Steve Golas enters his third season with Kentucky in 2024. He is heavily involved in recruiting and helped bring a promising 16-member freshmen class to Lexington ahead of the 2024 season.

Golas helped the Wildcats to a much improved campaign in 2023, posting a 9-4-6 record overall, the program’s most wins since 2015. Kentucky was unbeaten through its first 13 matches for the first time in program history. The team’s biggest win came against No. 9 Alabama, as UK upset the Crimson Tide, 2-1, for its first win over a ranked opponent since 2016 and its first over a top-10 side since 2014. The victory propelled Kentucky into the United Soccer Coaches Top-25 for the first time since 2015.

During his first season with the program, the Wildcats played to a 7-9-2 record in 2022. The Wildcats defeated a pair of power-five programs in non-conference play for the first time since 2015 as they took down both Purdue and Iowa State.  Kentucky began the year with a 5-0-0 start, and ultimately finished the non-conference portion of its schedule with a record of 7-1-0. The team’s four wins in the month of August were the most in program history.

Golas was named an assistant coach of the Kentucky women’s soccer program in January 2022.

Golas arrives in Lexington after serving as an assistant coach on current UK head coach Troy Fabiano’s staff at Milwaukee for the past two years, also holding the same role from 2015-18.

The 2021 season was one for the record books for the Panthers, who punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year and advanced to the second round for the second year in a row. The 1-0 decision over No. 14 Xavier in the first round gave Milwaukee its fourth-ever victory over a nationally-ranked opponent and marked its 19th win of the 2021 campaign, tying the school record for victories in a given season.

With Golas on staff, Milwaukee concluded the 2021 campaign ranked first in the NCAA for goals-against average (0.374), assists per game (3.81), points per game (9.81), save percentage (.893), and shutout percentage (.762). That season also set new program standards in points (206) and assists (80), and the Panthers capped off their record-setting year ranked second in the nation with a .905 win percentage.

Golas first joined the Milwaukee women’s soccer coaching staff in the spring of 2015. He quickly helped turn around a team that won just six games and was picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll the year prior to his arrival. The Panthers nearly doubled that win total by finishing 11-3-4 overall, including an unbeaten 8-0-1 mark in league play that included the regular-season crown in 2015.

The Panthers, who continued their upward trajectory with Golas on staff, experienced their first-ever unbeaten regular season in school and Horizon League history in 2017, finishing as the nation’s lone unbeaten squad. In total, Golas helped guide Milwaukee to Horizon League Tournament titles in 2018, 2020, and 2021.

In between his stints at Milwaukee, Golas spent the 2019 season as the head women’s soccer coach at Dixie State. He led the Trailblazers to a 12-4-6 overall record, making just their second NCAA DII Tournament appearance in program history. In the postseason, the team claimed its first NCAA South Central Regional championship and advanced to the Elite Eight. The program recorded a school-record 56 goals overall, finishing the year ranked No. 8 in the final United Soccer Coaches Top-25 national poll.

Golas was named the first-ever head women’s soccer coach at Texas A&M-Texarkana in 2014. In the inaugural season of the TAMUT program, he led the team to a 10-2-3 overall record, outscoring opponents by a combined score of 58-15 on the year.

Prior to his time with the Eagles in Texarkana, Golas spent four seasons from 2010-13 as the head men’s coach and the women’s assistant coach at Illinois College. He became the men’s all-time leader in coaching victories throughout his tenure, guiding the Blueboys to their first winning season in nearly two decades in 2011 and compiling a 10-6-2 mark in 2013.

Before his success at Illinois College, he was at the helm of the women’s soccer program at Lewis & Clark College from 2008-10.

Golas was also the head women’s coach at Millikin from 2006-08, leading the program to one of the most significant single-season turnarounds in NCAA history in 2007. The Big Blue posted a 12-7 mark while breaking 17 school records and boasting one of the nation’s top-10 scoring offenses, just one year after registering a 2-13 record in 2006.

He was the assistant women’s coach at Angelo State from 2004-05 and helped lead the team to its first ever back-to-back 10-win seasons. While he was with the Rams, the program earned Lone Star Conference tournament berths as well as its highest-ever regional ranking.

Golas was at William Penn from 2002-04, first as the assistant women’s coach and associate men’s head coach. The women’s squad won the Midwest Collegiate Conference championship and advanced all the way to the Region VII championship game during his first year. The men had similar success, posting a school-record 11-5-2 season after finishing 5-11-2 the year before.

He was named the head men’s coach at William Penn at the conclusion of the 2002 season, holding that title until 2004. His 2003 squad recorded a 10-6-1 mark while breaking numerous school records and finishing the season ranked No. 2 in Region VII of the NAIA.

Golas first began his coaching career at Bemidji State, helping lead the team to a then-school record win total and one of the biggest turnarounds in the nation in 2000.

He has also seen success at the club level, leading every team he coached at the Chicago Blast Soccer Club to the IWSL Championships in 2006.

A native of Sandwich, Massachusetts, Golas played collegiately at Coe College where he was a four-year letter winner for the Kohawks and was twice recognized as the team’s most improved player. While at Coe, he was also a member of the track and field team. He earned his bachelor’s from Coe College in 1998 and received his master’s in sports studies from Bemidji State in 2002.

He and his wife, Becky, have a son, Jacoby, and a daughter, Cora.