Justin Wagar enters his sixth season as the Head Coach of the New Mexico Highlands University women’s soccer program and his 12th year overall coaching women’s soccer at the NCAA level. His coaching record of 74-70-9 has helped his teams earn six playoff bids in eight seasons as a head coach.
 
During his first five seasons at the helm at Highlands, he helped the Cowgirls break every record in the program’s 16-year soccer history.
 
In just his second season as head coach for Highlands, Wagar led the team to its best finish in program history, coaching them to a third-place finish in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with a 9-3-2 conference record and their first ever NCAA tournament bid. Along the way, the team also set records for most goals, wins, winning percentage, attendance per game and their first-ever playoff victory. For the team’s success, Wagar was honored with the RMAC Co-Coach of the Year award. The team was also able to boast five All-Conference selections; including their first ever Conference MVP, Region MVP and All-American player in Julissa Rodriquez - who led the RMAC with 15 goals and 9 assists on the year.

The Cowgirls followed up their most successful season on record with a second-straight playoff berth in 2011, going 10-8-1 in a year that saw their high powered offense finish 21st in the nation. The Cowgirls found the back of the net 44 times on the season, as well as a school-best defensive effort by allowing only 1.05 goals-against average per game. Highlands finished with the top two scoring forwards in the region; Julissa Rodriquez - who was again selected as the Conference and Region MVP for the second straight year - as well as newcomer and RMAC Freshmen of the Year, Janelle McGee. Rodriguez and McGee finished as the top two players in the region in scoring, helping to propel Highlands to a record seven game winning streak.
 
A star at Highlands, Rodriguez currently plays professionally in England.
 
The Cowgirls have qualified for the playoffs three of the last four years, boasting wins against nationally-ranked teams and garnering NCAA top-10 region rankings in each of those years.
 
Prior to his arrival at Highlands, Wagar served as an assistant coach for Division 1 Eastern Washington University, joining the Eagles coaching staff after two seasons at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. With the Seasiders, Wagar was asked to build a program from scratch and led the inaugural squad to a 12-4 record and a second-place finish in the Pacific West. That season, BYU-Hawaii had the 17th best scoring offense in the nation among NCAA Division II squads and the 22nd best defense in the country.
 
In 2007, the Seasiders claimed the conference championship with a 10-2 league record and finished 13-6-1 overall. For the team’s success, Wagar was selected as the Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year.

Prior to his time at BYU-Hawaii, Wagar coached for NCAA Division I Utah Valley University for more than two seasons before stepping in as their interim head coach in 2005. Wagar led the team to the United Soccer Conference’s Championship Game and a second-place finish in the league standings.

Wagar played collegiately for BYU-Hawaii from 1998-99, where he captained the team as sweeper to their most successful season in school history. After his playing days, he led the Utah Olympic Development Program Select team to its first ever West Coast title and a third-place finish at nationals in 2005.
 
In 2004-2005 he played collegiate club soccer at Utah Valley University for a squad that took second in the nation where he was selected as an All-American defender on that national finals squad.

A native of Washington, Wagar graduated from BYU-Hawaii with a bachelor's degree in exercise science in 2007. He married Jamae Feddock this past summer and has a one-year old daughter, Isabelle Marie.