Kansas State to add women’s soccer
By Andrew Towne
In October, K-State Athletics, Inc. Board of Directors and school President Kirk Schulz approved a recommendation by A.D. John Currie for Kansas State to add women’s soccer to the slate of 16 athletic programs at Kansas State.
The Wildcats will begin play in the fall of 2016, and K-State will become the final team in the 10-school Big 12 Conference to compete in the sport.
“The sport of soccer is one of the most popular, not only in the Midwest but across the world, and is a natural fit for us with nearly 4,000 high school young women participating throughout the state of Kansas,” Currie said. “Kansas City has become the epicenter of U.S. Soccer with the emergence and popularity of Sporting KC and FC Kansas City in addition to becoming the future home of the U.S. National Team. We are excited for our fans and the residents of Kansas to bring women’s soccer to K-State and the Manhattan community.”
Then on Dec. 26, Currie announced Mike Dibbini will lead the new program.
Dibbini is a former standout player and highly-successful coach at Kansas Wesleyan who has most recently rebuilt Cal Poly Pomona into an NCAA Division II championship contender
He is a 12-time conference coach of the year who led Kansas Wesleyan and Cal Poly Pomona to 13 postseason tournament appearances and an overall career winning percentage of .750 as a collegiate head coach (265-78-25). Dibbini coached eight years at KWU leading both the men’s and women’s programs before moving to Pomona in 2013.
Dibbini’s first team posted a 6-7-5 record at Cal Poly Pomona before making tremendous strides in year two with a 15-6-1 mark.
For his career, Dibbini has a 256-78-31 record to go along with 12 conference championships and 12 conference tournament titles.