Zach Hanson enters his first season as an assistant coach for the VMI women's soccer program.
Hanson comes to VMI following one year with the Fredericksburg Soccer Club in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he managed teams at multiple age groups on both the boys and girls sides of the club including leading training sessions and coaching games. He led all aspects of running the club’s five annual tournaments, which involved marketing and promotions, selecting teams, scheduling and managing vendors.
Prior to his time in Fredericksburg, he served as a staff coach for the Midland Fusion Soccer Club in Midland, Michigan, from 2018-20. Hanson led all aspects of the teams including organizing and executing training sessions, coaching games, managing players and parents and scheduling games and practices.
During this time, he also served as the head varsity boys soccer coach at Mt. Pleasant High School in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, where he led all aspects of the program. Hanson implemented a culture change that included off-season commitments, dress codes and standards for on-field behavior. He also oversaw the junior varsity program and worked with the local club to develop players for high school competition.
From 2017-2020, Hanson was an assistant varsity and head junior varsity girls soccer coach at Herbert Henry Dow High School in Midland, Michigan. He directed all aspects of the JV program including making cuts and team selections, practice structure, scheduling games and tactical training.
Hanson served as a volunteer assistant varsity boys coach for Alma Senior High School (Alma, Mich.) from 2015-18 and as a camp director for the Alma Police Athletic League from 2016-18. He was also the head JV girls coach at Alma Senior HS from 2016-17.
On top of coaching, Hanson has a wealth of athletics management experience, which includes serving on the athletic communications game day staff at Central Michigan University from 2017-20. While a student at Northwood University (Midland, Mich.), he served on the athletic communications game day staff, as well. The responsibilities for these roles involved serving as an in-game statistician for multiple sports and writing game recaps and press releases for the respective athletics websites.
Since his high school days, Hanson has held several roles in the sports information field including serving as the SID at Alma High School, a student assistant at Alma College, a communications intern at the USTA Dow Tennis Classic and served two summer internships with The New York Football Giants of the National Football League. He was also the primary beat writer for the Central Michigan football team for the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun while covering the local high schools in the greater Mt. Pleasant region.
His coaching certifications include USSF C, D, and E licenses, a United Soccer Coaches Goalkeeper 1 diploma and a USC Director of Coaching diploma.
Hanson received his bachelor of arts degree in entertainment, sports and promotions management from Northwood University in 2019.
