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

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

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

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 Mountain West Conference 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 goalkeeper Aubree 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 freshman All-America team.

Friesen, the fourth head coach in San Diego State history, has played a significant role in bringing excitement back to Aztec soccer. He was an offensive standout in his playing days at Point Loma Nazarene (1988-89) and Sonoma State (1993-94).

Over the past three seasons, Friesen's offense has combined to score 68 goals, with 28 netted in 2005, the most by an Aztec team since 2002.

Not only did the Aztec offense score 11 more goals in 2005 (28) than it did in 2004 (17), but it also improved in most other offensive statistical categories, including assists (27 in 2005, 15 in 2004), points (83-49), shots (265-239), shots on goal (116-108) and shot percentage (10.6-7.1).

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 nine 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 Mountain West Conference action, also had a stretch of five-plus games from Oct. 3-30, 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 played two years at Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego 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 (5), and a daughter, Emily Mychael (2).