Chris Higgins enters his first season on the staff of the Loras College men's soccer program, joining the Duhawks as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in 2020. He also serves as the goalkeepers coach for the women's soccer team.
In his first season alongside first-year men's soccer head coach Steven McCarthy, the Duhawks went 5-0-3 for a second place finish in the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C), highlighted by four All-Conference players, and two CoSIDA Academic All-District honorees. An assistant on the women's team as well, Higgins helped the Duhawk goalkeepers record six clean sheets, conceding only three goals on the season.Â
Higgins joins the Duhawks after three years as the head coach of the Xavier High School girls’ soccer program in which his team won the Iowa State Soccer Championship in 2019 and he was named the Mississippi Valley Conference Coach of the Year and Private School Coach of the Year. Before leading Xavier, Higgins was a graduate assistant for the women’s soccer team at Mount Mercy University from 2016-2018, including a year as the acting head coach in 2017. While in Cedar Rapids, he also coached with the Cedar Rapids Soccer Association, working with the high school boys team.
He is also the girls’ head coach for the Olympic Development Program in Iowa where he works with premier soccer players and develops a pool of players to compete at the regional and national level.
As a student-athlete at Ashford University, Higgins was an NAIA Academic All-American and the Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2013. He also was an AII First Team All-Conference selection in 2014 in addition to earning AII Goalkeeper of the Year honors. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education with endorsements in coaching and health in 2015 before earning his master’s degree in strategic leadership from Mount Mercy in 2018.
A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Higgins lives in Dubuque with his wife.
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