After being hired in February, Ian Brophy finished his first season in Natchitoches.

Despite losing 16 players from the 2022 team and inheriting no recruits committed to Northwestern State when he took over, Brophy led the program to its fourth appearance in the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals in the last five seasons.

NSU was playing its best down the stretch, not losing in regulation in any of its final five contests, going 2-0-3 during that span, earning a No. 4 seed in the SLC Tournament.

In his first year, he coached all-conference selection Taylor Spitzer, who scored four goals and recorded nine points.

Brophy came to NSU from Mount Olive (NC) where he led the Trojans to a 13-5 record and the Conference Carolinas regular season crown in his only season as the person in charge, going 11-1 during league play.

He led the Trojans to the championship despite the team losing its top two goal scorers from the previous season as well as the Conference Carolinas Defensive Player of the Year.

Brophy coached eight all-conference selections in his one season at Mount Olive, the most of any team in the conference.

Prior to his time at Mount Olive, he was an assistant for Division II Florida Southern for five seasons, where he led the Mocs to 18 wins after the school won just nine games combined in the previous three seasons.

In his first season, he helped guide the Mocs to an 8-3-4 mark in 2017, despite operating with the lowest scholarship total in the conference. That 2017 campaign was their best mark since 2010.

Brophy spent one season as an assistant at Knox College in 2016, Brophy helped lead the Prairie Fire to an unblemished 19-0-1 overall record after the team recorded just one winning season in the previous eight years.

The only season at Knox was the first NCAA appearance in program history, along with the first conference regular season and tournament titles. The team also earned its first top-25 ranking in school history.

He began his career as an assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s soccer teams at Treasure Valley CC.

Inheriting a team who posted a 2-14-4 mark the year before, he helped guide the women’s team to an incredible turnaround, going 28-9-5 in his two seasons there. Among those two seasons was a 16-3-3 mark in his first season, a 14-win turnaround.

In that historical first season, it was the school’s first ever appearance in the Northwest Athletic Conference quarterfinals and best season in school history.

During his tenure, the women also found the national rankings in the NSCAA top 25 for the first time in school history.

In his second season with the women, the team went 12-6-2, while setting a school record eight-game unbeaten run and returned to the NWAC playoffs.

The men’s program went 8-7-5 in his first season, narrowly missing the NWAC playoffs by a single point after finishing last the season before.

Brophy graduated in 2012 from Emerson College in Boston.