Dec. 6, 2011

KANSAS CITY, KS - Head coach Leo Weilhas been named the NSCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year after guiding the Johns Hopkins women's soccer teams to one of its most successful and record-setting seasons in program history.

Under Weil's direction, the Blue Jays captured their seventh-straight Centennial Conference championship and trip to the NCAA tournament. Hopkins posted a program-best 21-1 record, not suffering a loss until the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament. The Blue Jays lost 2-0 to fellow regional Coach of the Year Jen Hughes and the Amherst Lord Jeffs.

Weil saw 17 records set by his 2011 Blue Jays, including nine team records, three career and five single-season records. The team boasted a program-best .955 (21-1-0) winning percentage while scoring 92 goals, the most in a single season, and handing out a program-best 72 assists as a team for 256 points, the most in school history. The team set a new school record of 21 consecutive wins in a season, which also set the record of most consecutive wins overall, and had a program-low one loss on the year. The Blue Jays received their highest national ranking of fourth for the second time in school history and remained there for a program-best three weeks in a row. Johns Hopkins has now spent 47-straight weeks in the national rankings, dating back to September 2, 2008.

Individually, Johns Hopkins set three career and five single-season records. Senior Erica Suter set five total records including career points (141), career goals (55), career assists (31), single-season points (53) and single-season assists (15). Freshman Hannah Kronick set the school record for consecutive games with a point, scoring at least one point in the first 16 games of her career, and consecutive games with a goal (eight). Freshman Sydney Tengset a new record for fastest goal to start a game, netting her first career goal just 13 seconds into the first game of the year against RPI. The Blue Jays went on to win, 5-1.

Weil has been the head of the women's soccer program since its inception in 1992 and boasts a .725 (268-93-28) winning percentage over the last 20 seasons and is the winningest coach in Centennial Conference history. Weil has the highest overall win total and most wins in conference action (137). Weil also has led the Blue Jays to the most wins in NCAA tournament history by a Centennial school (12) and most CC tournament titles (eight).

Over his 20 years with the Blue Jays, Weil has coached eight CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, three NSCAA All-Americans and four Centennial Conference Players of the Year, including the 2011 Player of the Year, senior Erica Suter. Weil has seen 105 players named to the All-CC teams, 52 CC Academic Honor Roll selections, 36 NSCAA All-Region selections and 25 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections.

Joining Weil as Region Coach of the Year selections are Pete Felske from Wheaton College (IL.) (Central), Aliceann Wilber from William Smith (East), Mark Batman from Ohio Northern (Great Lakes), Jen Hughes from Amherst (New England), Steve Kimble from Saint Benedict (North), Sue Patberg from Emory (South Atlantic) and Lance Key from Trinity (West). The National Coach of the Year will be named at the annual coaches convention in January.