Bindon Named Women's Soccer Assistant Coach
February 17, 2017 | Women's Soccer
Los Angeles โ UCLA women's soccer head coach Amanda Cromwell has announced the hiring of two-time Women's World Cup player and Olympian Jenny Bindon as an assistant coach.
Bindon represented New Zealand on the national team for 10 years, and her 77 career caps is the most by a goalkeeper, men's or women's, in New Zealand's history. She competed at the 2007 and 2011 Women's World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, playing every minute at the 2012 Olympics to lead the Football Ferns to a program-best quarterfinal finish. Bindon also led New Zealand to runner-up finishes at the 2008 Peace Queen Cup and 2011 Cyprus Cup.
Following her distinguished playing career, Bindon moved into coaching. She served as the assistant coach and goalkeeper coach for the New Zealand Under-17 Women's National Team, and was the goalkeeper coach for the Under-20s and the full national team. In 2016, she co-coached the Takapuna senior men's team in the Northern League Second Division, a third tier competition in the New Zealand club football pyramid, becoming just the second female to coach a men's team in the 52-year history of the Northern League competition. Bindon was also a head coach at the National Women's League level in 2014.
As a student-athlete at SIU-Edwardsville, Bindon played three sports โ soccer, tennis and basketball โ before enlisting in the U.S. Coast Guard. She finished her collegiate playing career at Lewis University, where she played soccer and basketball.
"We're really excited for Jenny to join the UCLA soccer program," said Cromwell. "She adds a wealth of experience as a player and a coach, and our players are going to reap the benefits of learning from someone like Jenny, who has done so much in her life both in and out of soccer. She's played multiple sports at the collegiate level, been in the Coast Guard, played in the Olympics and World Cup. She's done it all, and all of that experience has molded her into the coach that she is today. It's exciting for our goalkeepers to have a full-time goalkeeper coach and for our staff to add a colleague who can bring her ideas and expertise to our program."