Women's Soccer
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- John.Hedlund@unt.edu
- Phone:
- 940-565-3669
- Alma Mater:
- Midwestern State
Last updated April 30, 2025
Hedlund's Records (through 2024Â season):
Career (30Â years):Â 400-158-51
At UNTÂ (30Â years):Â 400-158-51
John Hedlund Year-By-Year Record
John Hedlund, the winningest coach of any sport in North Texas Athletics history, completed his 30th season as the head coach of the Mean Green women's soccer team and his 34th season overall at UNT following the 2024 year.
Hedlund started the North Texas women's soccer program in 1995 after previously serving as an assistant coach for the UNT men's soccer team. In his 30 full seasons as the women's soccer head coach, Hedlund has won 16 conference championships and has never had a losing season. He owns a 400-158-51 (.700) career record. He enters the 2025 season ranked 10th among active DI head coaches in career wins and 21st all-time. Hedlund is the only active DI head coach to never have a losing season while being at just one university for at least 20 seasons.
Hedlund's 30Â seasons at UNT makes him the 5th longest active tenured women's soccer head coach in the nation.
What has been a winning tradition program for decades, Hedlund built an even greater dynasty while in Conference USA (2013-22). In the ten seasons the Mean Green were in CUSA, they won eight league trophies. That remains more than any active or past CUSA women's soccer program in the league's history. UNT won the league regular season and/or tournament championship in each season from 2014-2019.Â
Hedlund built the program from the absolute beginning when they played their home matches at public parks but now he calls home to the North Texas Soccer & Track and Field Stadium, which is one of the premier soccer facilities in Texas. Protecting home field has always been a priority for Hedlund. The Mean Green are 217-39-23 (.818) all-time in home matches.
From Oct. 31, 2008 through Sept. 18, 2022, UNT went on a NCAA record 65-match home conference match unbeaten streak. A record that will likely never be broken.Â
In total, the Mean Green have had 121 all-conference selections, 63 all-tournament selections and 27 all-region selections. Alum Dominique James in 2018 became the program's first NCAA All-American honoree and MAC Herman Award Watch List recipient.Â
Hedlund was the only DI women's soccer coach to offer Dominique James a scholarship. A three-year captain who was the team's centerback, she played at UNT from 2016-19 and the Mean Green went 59-18-9 overall and 31-5-4 in conference during her four seasons with the Mean Green. UNT won five conference trophies and made three NCAA Tournaments over her time span. In home matches, James guided UNT to a 33-2-3 record. She played in all 86 matches and started the last 80 straight.
In 2018 the Mean Green made program history by being ranked No. 24 in the nation after a 9-2-2 start to the season. It marked the first time in program history North Texas soccer earned a national top 25 ranking. The Mean Green went on to post a 15-3-3 overall record in 2018 and win the Conference USA regular season and tournament title. They earned an automatic bid into the 2018 NCAA Tournament where they took No. 16 Texas A&M to double overtime in the first round.Â
Hedlund’s association with North Texas began in 1990 as an assistant men’s soccer coach. He served briefly as the head coach of the men’s program in 1994 before the university discontinued the sport.
In 1995, Hedlund concluded a 12-year professional playing career, in which he played defender for the United States Men’s Olympic qualifying team (1983-84), the New York Express (1984-85), the Dallas Sidekicks (1986-87 and 1992-95) and the Dallas Rockets (1988-91).
In four seasons with the Sidekicks, he scored 15 goals in 78 games over four seasons, and ranks 19th in team history in shots blocked and 33rd in games played. He was a member of the 1986-87 and 1993 Sidekicks championship teams, blocking a total of 20 shots during his playoff career, the 12th-most in Sidekicks history. He scored five goals in the 1994 CISL playoffs for the Sidekicks, and ranks 20th in club history in playoff goals.
In the outdoor game, Hedlund played with the Richardson Rockets, who won the 1991 SISL Championship and reached the 1991 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final. Hedlund helped the Rockets reach new heights in American soccer by reaching the fourth round of the 1992 CONCACAF Champions Cup. The Dallas Rockets were one of only three United States teams to reach the fourth round of the Champions Cup in the pre-Major League Soccer era (1969-1994), but fell in the fourth round to Club America in Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. He played with the United States Olympic team under Manfred Schellscheidt in the lead up to the 1984 Summer Olympics, but missed the Olympic Tournament due to injury. With the United States,
Hedlund played tournaments in South Korea, Sweden, Finland and Malaysia.
A four-year letterwinner at Midwestern State University, Hedlund was twice voted to the NAIA All-America team in college. He scored 26 goals and added 12 assists playing several different positions on the pitch. He was named the Most Valuable Player in the 1983 NAIA National Tournament, as he led the Mustangs to the championship game. He is a member of Midwestern State’s Athletic Hall of Honor. The Plano native holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Midwestern State and resides in Denton with his wife, Julie. They have two sons: Chad, who played football at Wake Forest and SMU and Cole, who kicked for the Mean Green football team and set the national high school football record for field goals made for Argyle High School in 2011.
