John Byford Position: Head Coach Experience: Fourth Season Alma Mater: Thomas Edison College '06

Now in his fourth season as head coach, John Byford has led a successful youth movement within the Villanova program and has the team poised to build off the progress made during the past two years. Byford enters the 2011 season with a mark of 29-25-6 (.533) with the Wildcats and an overall career record of 77-64-14 (.542) beginning his ninth season as a collegiate head coach.

Byford has built Villanova into a team that is capable of being a dominant offensive force, as evidenced by the Wildcats scoring production and the awards doled out to the squad's top offensive players. Following the 2010 season forwards Katie Ryan and Heidi Sabatura each were chosen as All-BIG EAST performers, with Ryan becoming the first Villanova forward to merit first team all-conference accolades since 2004.

For both Ryan and Sabatura the 2010 campaign marked the second year in a row that each player received All-BIG EAST recognition. These last two seasons are the only times in the history of the program that the Wildcats have had two of their forwards recognized on the postseason all-conference teams in the same year. As a freshman in 2009, Sabatura also became Villanova's first-ever BIG EAST Rookie of the Year.

When the 2009 season began, Byford and his staff were faced with the task of molding one of the youngest Villanova teams in years into a winner in the highly competitive BIG EAST Conference, a job made even more daunting by the stacked National Division that the Wildcats play in. The results were an astounding success, as Villanova returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2006 while finishing the year with an 11-6-5 record. It marked the 11th consecutive year with a winning record and at least 10 victories for the Wildcats, as well as the program's 13th straight non-losing season.

Best of all during the 2009 campaign was that the aforementioned younger players were at the forefront of the team's success. The team received more than two-thirds of its scoring and better than 60 percent of its assists from underclassmen, a group that continues to lead the squad entering the current year.

The underclassmen were not the only players that stood out in 2009, nor was the squad solely an offensive powerhouse. Senior defender Kelly Eagan wrapped up an incredible collegiate career by earning first team All-BIG EAST recognition for the third time in her career. She wound up starting every single team game over four years and became a four-time NSCAA All-Region pick, only the third player in school history to earn that many accolades.

Through his first three seasons as head coach of the program Byford's success has led to three NSCAA All-Region selections, seven All-BIG EAST nods and two major conference awards.

The merits of the Villanova student-athletes extend to the classroom as well. The team has counted 48 BIG EAST Academic All-Stars during the past two seasons, in addition to four selections to the Capital One Academic All-District team and eight honorees on the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area squad.

In 2008, Byford took over a team that had graduated seven starters from the previous year and returned just half of its scoring from the season prior to his arrival. Byford's inaugural Villanova team started the year with seven consecutive wins while scoring at least two goals in each game. The Wildcats had never had a streak of seven straight games with multiple goals, while the team reached a 7-0 record for just the third time in its history.

The 2008 season featured a number of noteworthy individual performances both on and off the field. Senior Erin Hardiman was named the BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year on the strength of a team-high 22 points, including a single-season school record 14 assists to go along with four goals scored. Hardiman was also named an NSCAA third team Academic All-America selection.

Byford is actually in his second stint with the Wildcats, having previously been an assistant coach on the Main Line in 1995 and 1996. Prior to returning to Villanova, he spent three highly successful seasons as the head coach at Loyola (Md.). The Greyhounds won regular season titles in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in 2005 and 2006 and then won the league's tournament championship in 2007. His teams posted a 35-18-7 (.642) overall record and a nearly unblemished 22-1-4 (.889) mark in regular season conference games.

In his three seasons as head coach, Byford had his players earn All-MAAC honors 28 times, including 10 first team selections. Postseason awards for the Greyhounds also included one Offensive Player of the Year and two Defensive Players of the Year. In addition, several players were named to the conference Academic Team each year.

In 2007, Byford led his team to an undefeated record in conference play for the second time in three years. Loyola finished the year with a 10-6-5 record and went 5-0-4 in MAAC play. The Greyhounds went on to win their first conference tournament title under Byford and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Byford earned MAAC Coach of the Year honors in 2006, when Loyola went 10-7-2 and posted an 8-1 conference mark. The Greyhounds captured their second straight regular season conference championship and had 11 players earn all-conference honors.

After spending two seasons as an assistant coach at Loyola, Byford took the reigns as head coach in 2005 and led the team to a 15-5 overall record and perfect 9-0 mark in conference play. The Greyhounds were ranked as high as fifth in the Mid-Atlantic region during the season. As an assistant coach with the Greyhounds in 2003 and 2004, Byford helped coach the team to consecutive league titles and back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Prior to joining the Loyola coaching staff, Byford was the Director of Coaching and Player Development for the Mandeville (La.) Soccer Club. He worked with coaches from the recreational level and travel teams and was responsible for coaching education. He also set curriculums for different age and ability levels of players, wrote articles for the club newsletter and evaluated the players and coaches involved with the club.

An experienced coach who has had success at many different levels of soccer, Byford also has collegiate head coaching experience from Saint Joseph's University (1999-2000) and Delaware Valley College (1994).

After being named the first head coach at Delaware Valley when the program ascended to a varsity sport, Byford came to Villanova in 1995 and served as an assistant coach for two seasons. The Wildcats won 27 games during that span and posted at least a .500 record in BIG EAST play each season. From Villanova, Byford went on to Kutztown University and was an assistant coach for the men's program.

Byford also has had success in the ODP ranks, most recently working with the Maryland state ODP program during his time at Loyola. He previously had been the head coach for the Region I ODP U-13 Girls team from 2000-02 and was an assistant coach of the squad before that. In all, Byford had seven years of experience with the Region 1 girls ODP squad and six years of experience with the Eastern Pennsylvania Girls ODP program. His team won the ODP national championship in 2002 and the regional championship in 1998, 2001 and again in 2009.

Byford began his coaching career at Villa Joseph Marie High School in Holland, Pa., where he was the assistant coach of the 1993 state championship team. He also led the Downingtown High School girls' soccer team to the league and district championship and to the state playoffs for the first time in school history in 1998.