Justin Wager enters his first season as the Head Coach of the New Mexico Highlands University women’s soccer program. He brings plenty of quality coaching experience to the Las Vegas, N.M. campus and will be starting his seventh year as a college women’s coach this fall.

Prior to his arrival at HU, Wager served as an Assistant Coach at Eastern Washington University and was also the head coach for two years at Brigham Young University Hawaii. At the Laie, Hawaii school he literally started the program from scratch and led the school’s inaugural squad to a 12-4 record and a second-place finish in the Pacific West Conference. That season, BYU-Hawaii had the 17th-best scoring offense in the nation among NCAA Division II squads and the 22nd-best defense.

The 2007 season saw the program reach even higher levels, as the Seasiders claimed the league crown with a 10-2 league record. The squad finished 13-6-1 overall. For the team’s success Wager was selected as the Conference Coach of the Year. Additionally, seven of his players earned All-Conference accolades, including Most Valuable Player, Goalkeeper of the Year and Freshman of the Year. One of his athletes was also named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-West District second team.

Prior to his time at BYU-Hawaii, Wager served as assistant coach for Division 1 Utah Valley University for 2-1/2 years and then stepped in as interim head coach in 2005 for and led the team to the United Soccer Conference’s championship game and a second-place finish in the league standings.
Wager played collegiately for BYU Hawaii in 1998-1999 where he was the captained the team as sweeper to their most successful season in school history. He then led the Utah ODP (Olympic Development Program) Select team to its first West Coast title ever and a third-place finish at nationals in 2005. The year before, he played collegiate club soccer at UVU for a squad that took second in the nation. Wager was named as an All-American defender on that national finals squad.

Wager is a native of Washington state and as a youth played club soccer for the Tri-City Shadow and helped lead the team to state championships in 1995 and 1997.

Wagar earned a bachelor's degree in exercise science from BYU-Hawaii in 2007.

E-Mail Coach Wagar- justinwagar@hotmail.com