Nancy Feldman

Nancy Feldman Makes Her Mark at B.U.

Soccer Coach a Success
by Eliot Schickler

Success seems to follow Nancy Feldman in her travels within the sports world. Feldman is the first and only coach in the history of the Boston University Women's soccer program, and proved that expansion teams do not need to spend time building the team before developing it nto a winner.

In her three years of coaching at Boston University, Feldman compiled a 37-14-2 record, 13-7-1 this year. She has three winning seasons in the programs three years of existence and was selected as the American East Conference Coach of the year this fall.

I appreciate my peers choosing me," says Feldman. "It's a peer reward which makes it even more meaningful because I get the respect from the people I coach against. I also feel that my players had something to do with it. They work real hard and are very coachable."

Building a winning team is not a novelty for Feldman. Before her arrival to the Lady Terriers new soccer program, she built a winning tradition at Plymouth State College (New Hampshire) in women's soccer and basketball. The Lady Panthers soccer team were a Division III powerhouse in her five year tenure, and led the Lady Panthers basketball team to their first ever Division III National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament bid in her fifth and final year (1994-95 season) as coach.

Both the Plymouth State women's soccer and basketball teams have been winning on the field after Feldman went South and to a more urban environment, mostly because of what she did to build the program into a success. In addition to being a successful coach, she wasalso a full-time athletic administrator at Plymouth State.

Even though she enjoyed unparalleled success and was happy at Plymouth State, Feldman moved on to Division I Boston University upon the inception of its varsity soccer program, which she is pleased with her career move.

"It's been a nice challenge at Plymouth, but coaching at BU gave me an opportunity to coach one team instead of two, and I want to be as good as I can and an expert in one sport," says Feldman. "I also enjoy coaching higher caliber athletes at a higher level of play. Going back to Boston and being near family also figured into the equation."

Feldman is from Needham, Massachusetts, a community 10 miles south of Boston University, and her mother still lives in Needham. One part of Needham that will always remain with her is Temple Aliyah, where she is still a member.

Not only is Boston University a Division I college that offers athletic scholarships, it is renowned for its large Jewish student population and a thriving BU Hillel community. Even though Feldman is Jewish and proud of her heritage, she is not active with the on campus Jewish life because of time constraints (recruiting, clinics and community outreach in the offseason coupled with an intense season).

"It doesn't really affect things to much," says Feldman "Working with student athletes is working with student athletes and I still spend Jewish Holidays with my family, so that doesn't change."

When Feldman coached at Plymouth, she would go home to Needham for the Jewish Holidays. Today, she tries to observe the High Holidays and tries to go to Temple Aliyah as much as possible, but being that she is now in a Division I as opposed to a Division III program, it is not always easy.

This year, the Lady Terriers had a game scheduled on Rosh Hashanah weekend at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Therefore, Feldman and her charges, two of them who were Jewish, traveled to Drexel on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

"It was different than in past years," says Feldman. "You just do what you have to do. There's not a lot of things that stops you and you have to make sacrifices andadjustments. In the spring, Christian athletes play on Good Friday. You just have to decide what your priorities are."

For Feldman, her priorities is to make sure her athletes under her are successful in the classroom, in life and on the soccer field. That is why she always builds a winning program in more ways than one.