NCAA Tournament Appearances Under Brawn: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2012
Patriot League Championships Under Brawn: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2012
Patriot League Coach of the Year: 1993, 1994, 2014
Northeast Region Coach of the Year: 1994, 2004
Howard Hartman Award for Colgate Athletics Coach of the Year: 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2009
Kathy Brawn enters her 29th season as head coach of Colgate Women’s Soccer in 2019, having built the Raiders into one of the premier programs in the Northeast.
Brawn has guided the Raiders to 12 Patriot League championships, three ECAC championships, six NCAA tournament appearances and 307 coaching victories, all of which have come at Colgate. She earned her 300th career victory on Sept. 18, 2018, when the Raiders defeated Fairfield at Beyer-Small ’76 Field. Brawn’s Patriot League record of 131-47-17 (.713) not only tops the all-time conference list for wins but also winning percentage for a minimum of five years in the league.
She has coached eight Patriot League Rookies of the Year, 15 Offensive, Midfielder and Defensive Players of the Year, one Goalkeeper of the Year, more than 130 All-League selections, 29 NSCAA and United Soccer Coaches All-Region picks and one two-time All-American.
Brawn’s overall record stands at 307-187-50 (.610).
Brawn’s classroom achievements prove her value reaches far beyond wins and losses. The head coach’s emphasis on the “student” end of student-athlete is evidenced by the 165 players she has coached who have been named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll, including 14 during fall 2018.
In recognition of her commitment to excellence both on and off the field, Colgate has bestowed on Brawn the Howard Hartman Award as Colgate Athletics Coach of the Year in 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2009. Brawn has been named Patriot League Coach of the Year three times, winning the award in 1993, 1994 and 2014. In 1994, she was also named the Northeast Region Coach of the Year by the NSCAA and received the same honor from socccerbuzz.com a decade later in 2004.
The Raiders were unbeaten and untied in the league in the 1996 and 1997 seasons. The 1996 team, possibly Colgate’s best ever, posted a 19-2 mark and won both the Patriot League and ECAC titles in dominant fashion. The only two losses that season came at the hands of nationally-ranked Connecticut and Virginia. From 1997-99, Colgate posted a 22-2 record in the Patriot League, winning the conference title each year and advancing to the NCAA tournament.
In the 1997 NCAA tournament, the Raiders fell 4-1 to Hartford. In 1998, Colgate hosted the first NCAA tournament game played on Van Doren Field in a 4-1 loss to Syracuse. The Raiders appeared in the tournament again the following season, drawing Dartmouth in the first round. Despite the 3-0 loss to the Big Green, Colgate had become a familiar face in the national tournament picture.
In 2004, the Raiders were successful in regaining the Patriot League crown, the 10th title for Colgate. The win gave the team yet another invitation to the NCAA tournament. The Raiders upset 13th-seeded Arizona in the first round with a 1-0 shutout for the first NCAA tournament win by a Colgate women’s team and first in Patriot League history.
In 2009, Colgate returned to the Patriot League title game and earned its 11th conference tournament championship to go along with the regular season title. The win gave the Raiders their fifth bid to the NCAA tournament, where they faced No. 20 Penn State. Freshman goalkeeper Ashley Walsh earned the Patriot League’s Rookie of the Year award, marking the first major award for Colgate since Jessica Bitsack won the same honor back in 2006.
Brawn led the 2011 team to yet another Patriot League regular season title with a 4-1-2 league mark. Brawn had four players named to All-Patriot League teams, including the Offensive Player and Rookie of the Year, as well as an Academic All-Patriot League Team and an NSCAA All-Mid-Atlantic Second Team selection.
In 2018, Brawn led Colgate to its best season in four years with an 11-4-3 overall record. The Raiders finished league play 7-1-1 and earned the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League Tournament behind a program-record tying 11 shutouts. Brawn orchestrated the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year, Midfielder of the Year and an Academic All-Patriot League honoree in the stellar season for the Raiders.
Brawn’s scholastic coaching career began in 1984, when she guided the junior varsity team at Paramus (N.J.) Catholic High School. After three seasons at Paramus Catholic, she moved on to the collegiate coaching scene as an assistant at Yale. After one season at Yale, Brawn went back to the high school ranks for a year before heading to Princeton as an assistant in 1989. She followed Princeton with a year at Cornell. Both Cornell and Princeton were ranked in the top 20 nationally during her one-year stints.
Brawn earned a USSF “A” license in 1995 and has served as an Olympic Development coach in both New York and New Jersey. She has always been committed to giving back to the soccer community, organizing camps and clinics since 1978. In 1981, Brawn founded and directed the Franklin Lakes Soccer Camps in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. At Colgate, she began the Colgate Soccer Fit Academy.
In the spring of 2000, Brawn represented Colgate as a speaker on the coaches panel as well as serving as a facilitator at the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. Brawn is extremely active in shaping the academic and athletic landscape at Colgate as well. She served on the Academic Affairs Board and was the chair of the Admissions Liaison Committee. She is also one of the founders of P.L.A.Y. (Promoting Life-long Activity for Youth) in Hamilton.
Formerly a member of the NCAA Tournament Regional Selection Committee, Brawn also has served as vice president representing all women’s programs on the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America Executive Board. She has been involved in the ISAA regional and national rankings as well as a member of the coaching staff at the NCAA’s YESClinic in 1994, 1997 and 1998.
