Program founder, Longwood alumnus and Big South Coach of the Year – Todd Dyer’s name has long been synonymous with Longwood women’s soccer, the program he established in 1993 and has been at the helm of ever since.

With a 275-201-50 career record, success has followed Lancer women’s soccer at every step under Dyer, who graduated from the university in 1993 and is the longest-tenured coach currently serving at Longwood. From the program’s infancy as a burgeoning Division II program beginning in 1993 to the Division I transition from 2004-07 and most recently in the Big South era, the Lancers have surged to the forefront of Longwood’s athletics programs and are annually among the most successful the university has to offer.

Now as Longwood women’s soccer enters its 30th season under Dyer in 2023, the program is not only among Longwood’s best, but also among the strongest in the Big South. With five top-four Big South finishes since 2012 and a trip to the 2017 Big South Championship game, Dyer’s Lancers have placed among the conference’s top three in five of their 11 years as a member of the league. The team has amassed a 57-34-19 record in conference play since that inaugural 2012 Big South season.

Since storming onto the Big South scene with back-to-back third-place finishes in their first two seasons as league members in 2012 and 2013, the Lancers long flirted with ascending to the top tier of the conference before finally breaking through with their first championship game appearance in 2017. They followed that with another third-place finish in 2018, posting a 6-2-2 Big South record built on the foundation of one of the conference's top-rated defenses. They have since qualified for the Big South Championship tournament every year but one, including the spring of 2021 when they finished fourth overall to advance to the league semifinals.

Dyer has produced multiple all-conference players each year, receiving a total of 42 all-conference awards over the past nine seasons. In 2017, Longwood nearly swept the conference’s major awards with Dyer winning Big South Coach of the Year, Sydney Wallace earning Defensive Player of the Year, Carrie Reaver Freshman of the Year and Teresa Fruchterman Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Longwood had a stretch of 10 straight years with at least three players earning all-conference honors that began in 2012. The team boasts Big South soccer's first two-time Defensive Player of the Year selection in 2018 graduate and defensive standout Sydney Wallace, who took home that honor in both 2017 and 2018.

But despite the most recent accolades, Longwood women’s soccer success is nothing new. From the program’s modest beginnings in 1993 when Dyer, a Longwood men’s soccer alum, laid the groundwork by fielding the university’s first team, Dyer has built his program on a formula grounded in fitness, fundamentals, local and regional recruiting, and outright grit. That formula has produced 19 winning seasons, including eight since Longwood received full Division I certification in 2007, 74 all-conference awards and two conference players of the year – 2017 & 2018 Big South Defensive Player of the Year Sydney Wallace and 2007 United Soccer Conference Defensive Player of the Year Anne Whitmore.

But the Lancers’ success on the field only tells half the story of Longwood women’s soccer. Dyer’s teams annually perform at the top of their game in the classroom as well, routinely finishing with some of the highest team-wide grade point averages among Longwood’s 14 varsity programs. The team has won three Cormier Awards for Team Academic Excellence over the past four years, an honor presented by the athletics department each year to the male and female teams who earn the highest GPAs during the previous fall and spring semesters.

Longwood women's soccer also lays claim to two Longwood University valedictorians and winners of the Sally Barksdale Hargrett Prize since 2015, with All-Big South defender Kelsey McDonald taking those honors at the 2015 commencement and three-time All-Big South defender Carrie Reaver earning the same awards in 2021. From Big South Postgraduate Fellowship winners Taylor Cave and Olivia Colella to 2017 Big South Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year Teresa Fruchterman, Dyer’s student-athletes have attracted major academic recognitions in magnetic fashion.

The accolades Longwood women’s soccer has received over the past quarter-century are the byproduct of Dyer’s passion for coaching and the game of soccer, specifically at his alma mater. He has immense ties to the university that extend to his family as well, as his wife, Cassie Mullenix ’92, was a standout women’s basketball and softball player at Longwood, and his daughter, Kylie ’15, was a four-year member of the soccer team under Dyer and is the assistant director of athletics engagement in the Longwood athletics department. His don, Devin, also played soccer at Virginia Wesleyan.

A former standout midfielder during his playing career at Longwood, Dyer was a two-time team captain and scored 15 goals during his four years with the program before receiving his bachelor’s in physical education. He earned All-Virginia Intercollegiate Soccer Association (VISA) honors as a senior, and was a student assistant coach with the Lancer softball team for three years as an undergraduate as well.

A native of Manassas, Va., Dyer is a 1988 graduate of Osbourn Park High School where he was an All-State performer for Coach Ken Krieger. He worked as a coach and counselor with Prince William Soccer Incorporated from 1991-94. Dyer was an assistant head coach at C.D. Hylton High School in Dumfries in 1994 as Hylton won a Virginia Group AAA State Championship. He was head coach of the U-14 Girls Virginia State Team in the Olympic Development Program (ODP) from 1996-99, winning the 1999 Region I Tournament. Dyer also works numerous soccer clinics and camps during the summer months, including the development of Longwood’s annual camp in 2003.

Longwood Women's Soccer History

Season

Conference

Head Coach

Overall W-L

Conf. W-L

2022

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

5-9-4

2-5-2

2021

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

8-8-4

6-2-2

2020-21

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

4-4-3

4-4-3

2019

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

6-8-2

4-4-2

2018

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

8-7-3

6-2-2

2017

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

13-5-3

6-1-2

2016

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

8-10-2

5-3-1

2015

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

9-8-2

5-3-2

2014

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

8-8-3

3-5-2

2013

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

9-9-2

8-3-0

2012

Big South (D-I)

Todd Dyer

13-6-2

8-2-1

2011

D-I Independent 

Todd Dyer

7-7-4

2010

D-I Independent

Todd Dyer

11-8

2009

D-I Independent

Todd Dyer

9-8-1

2008

United Soccer Conference (D-I)

Todd Dyer

10-7-2

3-1-1

2007

United Soccer Conference (D-I)

Todd Dyer

10-9-1

5-0-0

2006

United Soccer Conference (D-I)

Todd Dyer

11-5-3

2-1-0

2005

United Soccer Conference (D-I)

Todd Dyer

7-9-1

2-0-0

2004

D-I Independent

Todd Dyer

5-13

2003

D-II Independent

Todd Dyer

9-8

2002

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

12-3-1

10-1

2001

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

13-3-1

9-2-0

2000

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

14-6-1

9-2

1999

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

14-5-1

10-1

1998

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

16-5-1

8-1-1

1997

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

12-8  

5-4

1996

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

7-9-2

5-4-1

1995

CVAC (D-II)

Todd Dyer

12-1-1

6-1-1

1994

D-II Independent

Todd Dyer

5-6

TOTAL (1993-Pres.)

275-201-50

131-52-23

BIG SOUTH (2012-Pres.)

57-34-19

USC (2005-08)

12-2-1

CVAC (1995-2002)

62-16-3