| Robin Confer |
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Confer Bio in PDF
When Patrick
Baker announced
the hiring of new
assistant coach
Robin Confer he
hoped she would bring the program to new
levels due to her experience as a National
Champion during her playing days at North
Carolina. The planned worked better than
expected as within six months of her step-ping
foot on campus the Seminoles played
in the program's first College Cup as they
advanced to the final four of the 2003 NCAA
Tournament.
Confer now enters her second season
at FSU as she continues to serve as recruit-ing
coordinator and assistant coach under
Baker. Confer has also spent the last two
years serving on the Region III ODP staff at
Montevallo, AL.
She joined the Seminole staff after a stel-lar
career in the ACC and successful coach-ing
stints in both the Big 12 and SEC. The
former National Player of the Year and three-time
National Champion at North Carolina
has seven years of collegiate coaching ex-perience.
She also returns to her home state
as she grew up in Clearwater, FL and played
at Central Catholic High School.
Before arriving at FSU, Confer was an
assistant coach at Mississippi State for three
years under head coach Neil McGuire. While
with the Bulldogs, she not only coached and
trained players but she served as recruiting coordinator, which put her in position to
scout and evaluate players. She also assisted
in game strategies, overall team planning
and arranged team travel.
Before her stint in Starkville, MS, Con-fer
served as a second assistant at one of the
top women's soccer programs in the nation
at Texas A&M. While working with Aggie
head coach G. Guerrieri, Confer and Texas
A&M advanced to the Sweet 16 in back-to-back
NCAA Tournaments. Confer's first
coaching experience came at her alma mater
as she served as a volunteer assistant under
coaching legend Anson Dorrance at North
Carolina.
A four-year starter at North Carolina
from 1994-1997, Confer helped the Tar
Heels to three national championships
(1994, 1996-1997). During her senior sea-son,
Confer was named the National Player
of the Year by both the Soccer News and
SoccerBuzz. She was also a finalist for the
Hermann award, which recognizes the
nation's top collegiate soccer athlete and a
semifinalist for the Missouri Athletic Club
Sports Foundation Player of the Year award
in 1998.
Confer currently ranks fourth on UNC's
career scoring list behind such great names
as Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and U.S.
Women's National Team coach April
Heinrichs. She is the fifth-best goal scorer in
Tar Heel history with 77, and her 55 career
assists are the third most in North Carolina soccer history.
In North Carolina's run to the 1997
National Championship, Confer was named
the Most Valuable Offensive Player of the
NCAA Final Four, as well as being named a
first team All-American. She is one of just 11
former North Carolina players to have had
their jersey retired.
A former captain of the U-21 U.S. Na-tional
team, Confer made her international
debut January 18, 1996, against Ukraine and
has since played with the national team on
seven other occasions. She played profes-sionally
in 1998 as a member of the W-League's
Raleigh Wings and collected MVP
honors in the league's championship game
in her rookie season.
In 2001, she was drafted in the fifth
round of the WUSA's Global Draft as a mem-ber
of the Boston Breakers in the league's
inaugural season before a back injury cut her
playing career short.
Confer was a standout forward at
Clearwater (FL) Central Catholic High School
where she scored a state record 227 goals,
including 80 during her senior season prior
to being named a Parade All-American. Her
record was eventually broken by former
Florida State standout Cindy Schofield who
scored 238 goals at George Jenks High
School just an hour away from where Con-fer
played high school soccer. Confer re-ceived
her bachelor's degree in exercise and
sports science from North Carolina in 1998.
