HONORS & AWARDS

2019 College Soccer News - one of the top 15 assistant coaches in the nation 

2017 United Soccer Coaches Far West Region Coaching Staff of the Year

A veteran of the Aggie Soccer Field sidelines, associate head coach Jason Hotaling returns for his 19th season overall with the Aggies in 2023. Elevated to his current position in April of 2014, Hotaling’s duties include coordinating the program’s recruiting efforts, team travel and scouting, while also leading the development of UC Davis’ goalkeepers.

Under Hotaling's watch, UC Davis keepers have posted a combined save percentage over .700 in three straight seasons. 

“Jason has been on my staff for many years, working his way up from a volunteer assistant to his new position as the associate head coach,” head coach Dwayne Shaffer said. “He has been instrumental in the development of our outstanding goalkeepers throughout the years and will now assume more responsibility in helping take our program to the next level.”

Hotaling has helped engineer the Aggies’ successful transition to the Division I level and the always difficult Big West Conference, helping lead UC Davis to a consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in 2007 (first round) and 2008 (second round), and another appearance in 2019 (second round). With Hotaling on staff, UC Davis earned eight consecutive trips to the Big West Tournament, winning the conference’s North Division and a spot into the tournament’s championship match in 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2019. The Aggies advanced to the semifinals in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2021.

In 2021 with Hotaling on staff, UC Davis returned from a one-year competition absence due to the Big West Conference canceling the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and went 9-10-1. The Aggies advanced to the Big West Conference Tournament semifinal, defeating CSU Bakersfield in the quarterfinals to get there. Goalkeeper Derrek Chan posted four shutouts and both Chan and Charles Janssen both had save percentages over .700. 

In addition, the Aggies welcomed a 10-member signing class that comes in ready to contribute immediately to the 2022 squad. 

UC Davis enjoyed a historic season in 2019, one that saw it win both Big West championships — regular season and the league’s year-end tournament — for the first time in program history, earn a bye and a No. 14 ranking in the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Tournament. Men’s soccer also recorded a historic accomplishment that season when it hosted Louisville in Aggie Soccer Field’s inaugural Second Round Tournament match.

With all-region standout Wallis Lapsley in goal, the Aggies’ defense allowed a paltry 13 goals throughout the championship campaign — one of the lowest totals in the nation, among all Division I teams, and in program history. Not only did men’s soccer match a program record with its 13 overall victories, its seven home wins also tie a program-best figure. 

Under his tutelage, the Aggies earned a collective 81 All-Big West awards, including 15 first-team honorees. In only its second full season of play at the Division I level, Hotaling also helped tutor a pair of NSCAA All-Americans in 2008, as Quincy Amarikwa and Dylan Curtis earned second- and third-team honors, respectively.

Six other student-athletes: Amarikwa (2008), Dylan Curtis (2008), Brian Ford (2012), Omar Zeenni (2013), Roy Boateng (2017), Nabi Kibunguchy (2017) and Lapsley (2019) were named to the NSCAA All-Far West Region squad during his time on the sidelines, including first-team honors for Amarikwa and Curtis in their respective seasons.

In net, Hotaling has coached some of the Aggies best goalkeepers, including UC Davis’ first Big West Conference Goalkeeper of the Year honoree in Zeenni following the 2013 season, and Lapsley, who received this award in 2019.

With Hotaling as the Aggies' goalkeepers coach, Lapsley ended his senior season with one of the highest shutout totals and lowest goals against averages in the nation, and added his name to numerous all-time and Division I-era lists within the program’s records book.

The 2008 season saw goalkeeper Ryan McCowan allow a program Division I record-low 20 goals (while leading the Big West with a 0.87 GAA), a mark that was later equalled in 2012 behind the combined efforts of Zeenni and Kris Schlutz (eventually topped by Lapsley in 2019), while his keepers have posted a sub-1.00 team goals against average on three occasions, including in two of the last three seasons. The Aggies’ goalkeepers have also stopped better than 70 percent of the shots against them six times, including a Division I-record .780 in 2012.

In addition to his duties at UC Davis, Hotaling is the Davis Legacy Soccer Club’s director of goalkeeping and has worked with the PDP program in District 6. He currently holds an advanced national coaching license and a national goalkeeper license with the NSCAA, and has taken leadership and management courses along the way.

After his collegiate playing career at Santa Rosa Junior College and Chico State, Hotaling was a member of the Chico Rooks of the Premier Development League. He then returned to his hometown of Rohnert Park, Calif., where he finished his undergraduate degree at Sonoma State in 1997. Hotaling majored in speech communication with a minor in English.