NCAA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES (1)

2006

AMERICA EAST CHAMPIONSHIPS (6)

America East Tournament Championship – 2006

America East Regular Season Championship – 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018

America East Tournament Finalist – 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

AMERICA EAST COACH OF THE YEAR (5)

2006, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Enters 20th season at Hartford as winningest coach in program history with a career record of 165-117-50 (.576 winning percentage)

Led Hartford to 14 total postseason bids in 19 seasons at the helm

Three NSCAA All-American honorees

Combined for 22 conference major award winners (seven Scholar-Athletes of the Year, five Goalkeepers of the Year, four Strikers of the Year, four Midfielders of the Year, two Defenders of the Year and one Rookie of the Year)

24 NEWISA All-New England selections

23 United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) All-Region honorees

129 All-Conference honorees, including 43 First Team, 25 Second Team, and 27 All-Rookie Team and 36 All-Academic Team members

Inducted into Connecticut’s Soccer Hall of Fame – 2015 

CAREER BIOGRAPHY

The winningest coach in Hartford women’s soccer history with 165 career victories, John Natale enters his 20th season as head coach of the Hawks in 2022. A five-time America East Coach of the Year, Natale has piloted the Hawks to an NCAA Championship appearance, an America East Championship and five America East Regular-Season Championships during his impressive career at Hartford.

Natale’s track record of success extends well beyond the collegiate level to the international level. Away from the Hawks’ campus in West Hartford, he has been actively involved in a pair of FIFA Women’s World Cups and two Olympic games in London, England (2012) and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2016).

Natale, who became the program’s fifth head coach in 2004, has established himself as one of the elite coaches in the America East, and in the Northeast region. Leading Hartford to at least a share of the America East Regular-Season Championship in four of his past six years, Hartford’s dominance in the America East and in the region has been unmatched as of late under Natale. 

Although the team trained and played one exhibition match, the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined the Hawks for the 2020-21 campaign, as it forced the cancellation of what was an unconventional spring slate. 

The Hawks advanced to the title match of the America East Tournament for the fourth time in six seasons in 2019, but came one victory shy of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament after falling, 2-1, at top-seeded Stony Brook. Hartford finished the campaign with a 10-7-2 record, marking the ninth time under Natale’s watch that the program closed out a season with at least 10 wins.

History was also made under Natale in 2019 when Sierra Stone (’20) became the program’s first-ever two-time America East Midfielder of the Year. Having previously earned the honor in 2017, she was also the first America East player since 2005 to win a Positional Player of the Year award one season after receiving Rookie of the Year distinction (2016). In addition, Stone’s three major awards are tied with Jessica Reifer for the most in program history.

In 2018, Natale led the Hawks to a 13-3-2 overall record, marking the most regular-season wins since 2011 and the program’s best winning percentage (.812) since going 19-2-1 in 1997 (.886). Harford was dominant in America East play as well, finishing tied with Stony Brook with a 6-1-1 mark for the program’s best winning percentage since 2006.

The 2018 Hawks proved to be one of the top offensive teams in the nation. Finishing the season as the America East’s leader in scoring offense and points, Hartford’s 2.28 goals per game and 6.50 points per game ranked No. 17 and No. 20, respectively, among all 335 NCAA Division I teams. In addition, the defense was also a contributing factor to the Hawks’ success, which has not been a rare occurrence under Natale. Conceding the fewest goals in the America East, Hartford posted a goals-against average of 0.93 or better for the seventh time in eight years in 2018.

In addition to taking home four America East Regular-Season Championships since 2014, Natale and the Hawks have been on the doorstep of reaching the NCAA Tournament in five of the past 10 seasons, as they have advanced to the finals America East Tournament in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019. Winning 100 matches since the 2011 campaign, Natale has fostered a trio of All-Americans (Caitlin Alves — 2011; Erin Quinlan — 2011; Amelia Pereira — 2012) and 16 major award winners from the America East over that 10-year stretch.  

Hartford’s dominance under Natale has not just been a recent trend, though. The highlight of Natale’s career came in 2006, when he led the Hawks to their 10th America East Championship and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Entering the NCAA Tournament play as one of the hottest teams in the nation with an unbeaten streak of 10 matches, the Hawks fell to 12th-ranked Rutgers in the opening round. 

Hartford — which posted an undefeated slate during conference play en route to claiming the both the 2006 America East Regular-Season and Championship Titles — knocked off a pair of nationally-ranked opponents that season. In addition, four of the six major conference postseason awards were handed out to Hartford, including Natale and his staff earning the first of five America East Coaching Staff of the Year distinctions.

Overall, Natale has produced 22 America East major award winners at Hartford, including four Strikers of the Year, five Goalkeepers of the Year, two Defenders of the Year, four Midfielders of the Year, one Rookie of the Year and seven Scholar-Athletes of the Year. In addition, 124 of Natale’s players have earned America East All-Conference honors, including a whopping 42 of which have grabbed First Team laurels. 

Natale has also guided several of his players to the professional ranks. Chanel Johnson, a 2013 graduate and two-time America East Striker of the Year, reached that elite level after being called to the Boston Breakers’ roster as an amateur call-up following a stint with the team’s reserves in the Women’s Premier Soccer League in 2014.  

The guidance of Natale allowed Hayley Nolan — a 2017 graduate and four-year member of the women’s soccer team from 2015-18 — to become the most recent Hawk to represent the program on the international stage. A defender from Kildare, Ireland, who recently signed a professional contract with London City Lionesses, Nolan was selected to represent the New Republic of Ireland women’s senior team in the summer of 2020. It marked the second time in her professional career that she was called up to represent the New Republic of Ireland at the senior level since earning her maiden call up in September of 2019.

Nolan joins former Hawks Stephanie Santos and Amelia Pereira, who received their international caps with the senior team of Portugal.

Maia Perez, a 2021 graduate and five-year member of the women’s soccer team from 2017-2021, became the latest Hawk who reached the professional ranks under the guidance of Natale. A three-time All-Conference selection, the Kentwood, Michigan, native signed her first professional contract with Angel City FC of the NWSL in the summer of 2022.

The success of Natale’s student-athletes extends beyond the pitch and into the classroom.In 2021, the Hawks had all 20 of its 20-member roster earn America East Academic Honor Roll laurels for posting a GPA of 3.0 or better. Furthermore, the team’s 3.70 GPA for the 2021-22 academic year was the second-highest mark among Hartford’s 17 Division I programs.

In addition, the Hawks have earned the Team Academic Award from the United Soccer Coaches in seven of the past eight seasons under Natale, most recently garnering the prestigious honor in 2020. 

In addition to landing seven America East Scholar-Athletes of the Year, including Stone, who bestowed the prestigious honor in back-to-back seasons (2018, 2019), Natale has had eight players combine for 12 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District honors, with three of those players being elevated to All-America status (Katie Connolly, Emma Donnelly, Amelia Pereira). Furthermore, three of his student-athletes (Alves, Donnelly and Kristen McAdams) have received NSCAA Scholar-Athlete All-American distinction during Natale’s tenure.

Away from West Hartford, the 2011 Women’s World Cup Games marked Natale’s first appearance on the international stage. A member of the USA Women’s Soccer National Team’s coaching staff as a scout for head coach Pia Sundhage, Team USA fell in a dramatic penalty kick shootout to Japan that season. One year later, Natale rejoined Sundhage’s staff as a Video Analysis Coach for the Olympic games, where he helped Team USA to its fourth Olympic gold medal after it knocked off Japan in the title match. 

Most recently, Natale reunited with Sundhage for the 2016 Olympic games, this time joining Sweden’s National Team’s coaching staff as an advanced scout. He previously fulfilled the same role on Sundhage’s staff for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.

Before beginning his collegiate head coaching career with the Hawks in 2004, Natale was an assistant coach for the Boston Breakers in 2003 and the Philadelphia Charge the previous two years. In those roles, he was involved in all aspects of coaching, including practice planning, player skill development, scouting and player analysis. Both franchises reached the playoffs each year of Natale’s tenure in the WUSA.

Natale also had the opportunity to gain valuable experience under the guidance of two of WUSA’s more successful head coaches – Boston’s Sundhage (2002-03 WUSA Coach of the Year) and Philadelphia’s Mark Krikorian (2001-02 WUSA Coach of the Year). Currently the women’s soccer head coach at Florida State, Krikorian is a former Hartford women’s soccer head coach (1996-2000).

During the summer of 2006, Natale coached the Western Lady Pioneers of the W-League, one of the most highly-regarded women’s leagues in the world. The team finished with an 11-3-1 record and advanced to the semifinals of the Eastern Conference playoffs for the first time in team history. Natale – who coached three all-league selections, including the U19 Player of the Year and the league’s scoring champion – was named W-League Coach of the Year.

Natale excelled as a player at Eastern Connecticut State University, where he was a captain and participant in the All-New England Senior Bowl. A native of Wethersfield, Conn., he graduated from ECSU in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education. Natale also played professionally for the Western Mass Pioneers of the USL. 

Natale’s accomplishments have been recognized across the region, as he was one of six inductees in the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015.