NAU Women’s Soccer announced Ray Leone as the newest assistant coach for the Lumberjacks, joining the team ahead of the 2023 season alongside head coach Alan Berrios and assistant coach Chris Campbell.
Leone will join the Jacks, coming from his most recent position with the IMG Academy girl’s soccer. Leone began his coaching journey in 1986 at Berry College going 49-13-5. In 1989 Leone began coaching at Creighton through 1993, before accepting an assistant coach position at Clemson. Leone was promoted to head coach of the Clemson Tigers in 1999.
In 2001, Leone moved to Arizona to take the head coaching job at Arizona State, working with the Sundevils through 2006. Leone then moved to Harvard, serving as head coach from 2007-2015. In 2016, Leone became the head coach of the University of Maryland.
In Leone’s highly decorated coaching career, he has won six conference titles and two conference Coach of the Year awards, leading three different schools to the NCAA tournament. Leone had 24 winning seasons throughout his coaching career, and ranked in the top-25 among active Division I head coaches in career wins in his final season with Maryland. Leone’s overall record as a head coach is 309-212-64 (.583).
Leone's nine-year tenure at Harvard was highlighted by five appearances in the NCAA Tournament and five Ivy League Championships. Three Crimson players were honored as Ivy League Player of the Year under Leone with four earning Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors.He coached 22 first-team All-Ivy League selections along with 16 second team all-league players. Leone also developed 12 NSCAA All-Region selections,
Academically, Leone's teams have performed well, with two Academic All-Americans and 11 Ivy All-Academic selections during his tenure.
Leone came to Harvard after six successful seasons at Arizona State, where he posted 60 wins The Sun Devils made a pair of appearances in the NCAA Tournament and achieved a school record No. 9 national ranking in 2004. Leone coached nine All-Pac 12 honorees with his squad annually achieving the school's highest grade point average among its 22 varsity programs. The Sun Devils placed a school record 11 student-athletes on the Academic All-Pac 12 team in 2005.
Prior to his time in Tempe, Leone was a coach at Clemson from 1994-to-2000, serving as an assistant for five years before becoming the head coach in 2000 after serving as the co-head coach in 1999. That season saw the Tigers win a school record 19 games en route to an ACC regular season championship. Leone's squad broke North Carolina's 37-game ACC winning streak and started the season with 12 straight wins.
In his seven years at Clemson, the Tigers finished among the nation's top-15 teams each year and produced 20 All-ACC selections. Additionally, the 1994 Clemson squad was the first team in NCAA women's soccer history to make the NCAA tournament in its first varsity season. During Clemson's NCAA tournament runs from 1994-2000, only six other Division I programs advanced to the NCAA tournament the same number of years (7) as the Tigers.
Leone came to Clemson from Creighton, where he started the varsity program in 1989 and within five years guided the Bluejays to a top-five regional ranking. He led Creighton to a 14-3-2 record in his final season.
His coaching career began at Berry College (Ga.) in 1986 and he became the only coach to take a first-year program to a national championship game in college soccer history. The following season, Leone's squad won the NAIA national championship and he earned national coach of the year honors. Berry is considered the most successful program in NAIA history.
As a player, Leone starred from Charlotte and was a three-time all-conference selection at three different positions. He scored the winning goal in what still stands as the longest game in Sun Belt history, a seven-overtime affair in the 49ers' first conference championship title game. As a senior, Leone received the David Schlee Memorial Award given to the Charlotte player most demonstrating his desire to succeed. He earned a BA in sociology at Charlotte before receiving a masters in sports sciences from the United State Sports Academy in 1990.
