Two-time Big South Coach of the Year Brandi Fontaine is the 49ers’ women’s soccer coach. Fontaine, who led High Point University to unprecedented heights in four seasons as head coach, becomes the fifth head coach for the 49ers’ women’s soccer program.
“We are ecstatic to welcome Brandi Fontaine and her family to Charlotte,” said Mike Hill, director of athletics. “She has a championship pedigree and a proven track record of success as a head coach. We share a vision of excellence for women’s soccer and look forward to seeing our program thrive under her leadership.”
Fontaine led the Panthers to a pair of unbeaten Big South regular-season championships, a Big South Conference Tournament title, the 2021 NCAA Tournament and the highest rankings in program history.
Charlotte has reached the Conference USA Championship game in three of the last six years, winning the league title in 2016 and notching runner-up finishes in 2017 and the spring 2021 campaign. The 49ers, who have earned five NCAA Tournament bids in their history, will host the 2022 C-USA Championships.
“It’s an exciting time to be at Charlotte, and I am truly grateful, honored and very excited to be the next head women’s soccer coach for the 49ers. I would like to thank Mike Hill and Ragean Hill for this tremendous opportunity,” said Fontaine. “The community and family culture that they have built in this department was evident from my first step onto campus. I'm excited to be a part of the vision they have for this program and believe in the championship culture mindset they possess. We are going to build a high level of competitive excellence that allows our players to become the best version of themselves both on and off the field.
This past season, the Panthers won their first Big South Conference Tournament title since 2017 and earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers went 10-8-2 overall with an 8-2 mark in the Big South before claiming the league tournament title with an overtime victory over top-seed and host Campbell University.
In the 2020-21 season, played in the spring due to the pandemic, Fontaine led HPU into the national rankings. The Panthers went 10-1, including an 8-0 record in Big South play and a perfect 9-0 mark in regular-season action. High Point was ranked as high as 24th in both the Top-Drawer Soccer and College Soccer News media polls and received votes in the United Soccer Coaches poll, the highest rankings in program history. The Panthers were ranked as high as number eight in the United Soccer Coaches Southeast Region ranking.
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