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Justin Wagar
Justin Wagar returned to Grambling State University as the head women’s soccer coach this summer after 18 months away and completed his fourth season with the squad this fall. Wagar led the team to a 12-8-3 record in 2022 helping the Tigers to the highest margin of victories in the conference, the most wins of any team in the SWAC, while leading the conference in shutouts with 10. GSU qualified for their 5th Conference Championship game in six years battling to double overtime before falling just short in the end.
With Wagar as the GSU head coach, the Tigers have posted a 47-34-6 overall record, the best of any SWAC team during that span. He was honored as the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) Coach of the Year in 2017, after guiding GSU to an 11-7-2 overall record (7-2-1 conference record) and to a tie in the SWAC championship game.
Prior to his departure, Wagar elevated the Grambling State women’s soccer program to its fourth highest ranking rising program in the nation by the Coaching Rank Soccer Index. In addition, the 2018 team also finished 10th in the nation with 13 shutouts. Wagar coached the conference’s Defender of the Year Haileigh Adams, who was called up to the USWNT U-19 camp that summer.
Wagar brings more than 20 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level to Grambling State. In 15 years as a head coach, Wagar has coached on the NCAA Division I, II and NAIA levels, while compiling a 158-118-23 coaching record. His teams have earned 13 playoff bids in 15 years and have made two appearances in the national tournament.
Prior to Grambling State, Wagar served as the recruiting coordinator and top assistant at Portland State University. Before PSU, Wagar coached at nearby Eastern Oregon University, where he led the team to a 26-10-4 record between 2015-2017, making him the winningest coach in EOU history.
In 2015, EOU qualified for the national tournament with a 17-3-1 record. That year, they posted the seventh-best record in the nation and had the fourth-best defense and 14th-best offense in the country. Two EOU players that year were honored as All-American selections.
From 2009-2014, Wagar was the head coach at Division II New Mexico Highlands University. In just two years, he turned the program around from one that had 16 straight losing seasons to a 12-win campaign, which featured a trip to the NCAA tournament.
He helped the NMHU Cowgirls break every record in the soccer program’s 16-year history, including records for most goals, wins, winning percentage and attendance per game. He also led the team to its first-ever playoff victory and first bid to the NCAA National tournament. Also, he was honored as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year.
In addition to coaching 18 all-conference players and the program’s first-ever All-Americans, Wagar led NMHU to five consecutive seasons with the team grade-point average above 3.0 and saw two student-athletes earn Student of the Year honors at the university. He left NMHU as the winningest coach in program history.
Prior to his time at NMHU, Wagar was the head coach for BYU-Hawaii where he was tasked to start the inaugural women’s soccer program. That squad responded brilliantly going12-4 that first year with a second-place finish in the Pacific West Conference. That same season, BYU-Hawaii recorded the 15th-best scoring offense in the nation among NCAA Division II squads and the 22nd-toughest defense in the country. In 2007, the Seasiders claimed the conference championship with a 10-2 league record and finished 13-6-1 overall and Wagar was selected as the Pacific West Coach of the Year.
Before taking the job at BYU-Hawaii, Wagar coached at Utah Valley University for two and a half years before stepping in as the interim head coach in 2005. In his first stint as a Division 1 head coach, Wagar led the team to a first-place seed in the United Soccer Conference. He has mentored seven golden boot winners (leading scorers in the conference) and four All-American strikers, as well as had four top-25 nationally ranked offenses and six nationally ranked defenses in his career.
Wagar played collegiately at BYU-Hawaii from 1998-99, where he captained the team as a sweeper and led the Seasiders to the most successful season in NCAA school history.
He also played in the collegiate club national championships as the center back for Utah Valley University, helping the team to a runner-up finish in the national title game. He ultimately earned All-America honors as a defender. Wagar also helped lead the Utah Olympic Development Program men’s team to its first-ever West Coast title and a third-place finish at Florida’s ODP Select National Tournament in 2005.
A native of Kennewick, Washington, Wagar graduated from BYU-Hawaii in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in exercise science. Wagar is married to the former Jamae Feddock and the couple have sons, Grayson, Maxtin and daughters, Beckham and Baylor.
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