Mike Friesen Position: Head Coach Experience: Fifth year Alma Mater: Sonoma State (1996)

E-mail Mike Friesen at wsoccer@mail.sdsu.edu.

Bio entering 2011 season.

After spending three years as an assistant on the San Diego State coaching staff, including two as associate head coach, Mike Friesen enters his fifth season as the Aztecs' head coach.

The Somona State graduate enters 2011 with arguably his most experienced squad during his tenure and as a result, San Diego State is the preseason favorite in the Mountain West. Friesen returns 14 letterwinners and seven starters off a 2010 team that finished 8-10-3 overall after playing one of the most difficult schedules in America. The Aztecs finished strong, going 5-2 in Mountain West action and only allowing more than one goal just twice in their final 10 outings. At season's end, senior Michaela DeJesus and junior Megan McQueeny were named to the all-MWC first team, while Haley Palmer was tabbed as the league's freshman of the year. Palmer, who was also a second-team all-MWC performer, was joined on the second team by senior Aubree Southwick and freshman Soledad Gomez.

In addition to the return of McQueeny, Palmer and Gomez in 2011, Friesen has the pleasure of welcoming back the 2009 Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year in redshirt senior midfielder Cat Walker and redshirt junior Tiffany Hurst, who was a starter on the 2009 MWC championship squad.

In the aforementioned 2009 campaign, Friesen guided San Diego State to one of the best seasons in school history. SDSU finished with a 15-4-5 record, the school's best mark since 1998 and the most victories since 1999. After going 3-3-1 to start the year, Friesen's Aztecs went on a 16-game unbeaten run, including winning their final eight to propel them into the second round of the NCAA tournament. During its magical run, San Diego State went unbeaten in Mountain West Conference play (5-0-2) for the first time in school history, won the school's first MWC tournament title, earned the program's first NCAA tournament berth since 1999, and defeated cross-town foe San Diego to record its first NCAA tournament victory since 1998. All of this led to San Diego State becoming the sixth-most improved team in NCAA Division I, while its nine-win improvement was tied for second best in the nation.

Following the conclusion of the conference campaign, Friesen became SDSU's first head coach to be named Mountain West Coach of the Year. He was not the only Aztec to garner awards as he helped Walker, Aubree Southwick, Megan McQueeny, Michaela DeJesus and Niki Fernandes all pick up postseason awards. Friesen also signed a new three-year contract in January 2010, that will keep the rising head coach on Montezuma Mesa through the 2012 campaign.

In 2008, Friesen and San Diego State enjoyed one of its best offensive seasons in recent memory scoring 32 goals, the most in one year since 2002. The offensive production led to many early-game leads, but with a youthful team and a season-ending injury suffered by starting goalkeeper Aubree Southwick, San Diego State was unable to hold off opponents en route to a 6-10-3 record.

Despite a subpar season, Friesen helped Walker and Jessica Gordon earn all-Mountain West Conference honors. Under Friesen's tutelage, Walker had a team-high 10 goals and 23 points to earn first-team accolades, while Gordon was named to the second team after finishing with five goals and 12 points.

In his first year at the helm of SDSU women's soccer, Friesen led the Scarlet and Black to a runner-up finish in the MWC with a 4-2-1 record, marking the Aztecs' most league wins since the 2000 campaign. After the successful season, Friesen had four players earn all-conference honors, including Southwick, who became the first player in MWC history to earn two individual awards when she was tabbed the defensive player of the year and freshman of the year. Southwick also became the fourth Aztec in school history, and first since 2000, to be named to the Soccer Buzz freshman All-America team.

Friesen, the fourth head coach in SDSU history, has played a significant role in bringing excitement back to Aztec soccer. Over the past six seasons, Friesen's offense has combined to score 159 goals, including 36 in 2009, 32 in 2008 and 28 in 2005, the three-highest figures by an Aztec team since 2002. In fact, the 36 goals scored in 2009 is the most since 1999.

Friesen teamed with former Aztec head coach Dr. Mike Giuliano to bring an up-tempo, in-your-face style of defense, which was successful as evidenced by the team's 12 shutouts in 2004, the second most in school history. The Aztecs allowed just 18 goals in 21 games that season, the program's fewest since the 1990 squad gave up 12 goals in 13 games. SDSU, which surrendered just three goals in MWC action, also had a stretch of five-plus games where it went 595:44 without allowing an opponent to score. The stellar season culminated in the Aztecs' first appearance in the MWC championship game since 1999.

Friesen helped with the development of four 2004 all-conference selections, including MWC Defensive Player of the Year Alexis Solovij.

Prior to coming to San Diego State, Friesen spent five years working with the UC Santa Barbara women's program.

Friesen's responsibilities with the Gauchos included coaching the team's offense, recruiting, community outreach and academics.

Upon arriving in Santa Barbara, Friesen helped turn the Gaucho program around, going from a 7-29-2 mark and scoring just 27 goals the two seasons prior to his arrival, to a 24-11-6 mark in 2002-03, tallying 105 scores. Friesen also was integral in signing and developing three straight Big West Conference offensive players of the year in Jennifer Borcich in 2001 and 2003 and Krystal Sandza in 2002.

Friesen has a great deal of experience coaching at a variety of levels. Before his time at UCSB, he guided the under-19 Santa Rosa United Aftershocks to the 1999 girls' California State Cup championship. In 1997, he directed Ursuline High School in Santa Rosa, Calif., to the CIF North Coast Section championship game.

As a student-athlete, Friesen was an offensive standout at Point Loma Nazarene (1988-89) and Sonoma State (1993-94). He played two years for the Sea Lions before transferring to Sonoma State, where he was a member of an NCAA Division II quarterfinalist squad in 1993. Friesen was also the second-leading scorer in the Northern California Athletic Conference as a senior.

Friesen completed his degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in biomechanics in 1996, before continuing his soccer playing career with the North Bay Breakers of the USISL. The Breakers reached the regional finals in the team's final year of existence. For the next several seasons, he played for Juventus in the California Premier Soccer Alliance before signing with the Greek Americans Soccer Club, based in San Francisco, which won two U.S. Open Cup championships in the 1990s.

Friesen and his wife Jamie, who was a former basketball letterwinner at UCLA, have a son, Cole Jamey (8), and a daughter, Emily Mychael (5).