A familiar face is back on the campus of Fort Lewis College.
David Oberholtzer was named the head coach of the Fort Lewis men’s soccer team Tuesday. The former FLC player also was an assistant coach for the Skyhawks from 2009-2012. FLC won the NCAA Division II national championship in 2009 and 2011 under former head coach Oige Kennedy, who announced his resignation in January to take an assistant coaching position at defending NCAA Division I national champion Stanford University. Another former Fort Lewis men’s soccer head coach, Jeremy Gunn, is the head coach of Stanford.
As a player, Oberholtzer was part of the 2006 national runner-up team, and Tuesday he said he was ecstatic to return to Durango in what he called a homecoming.
“It’s incredible,” Oberholtzer said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It’s been something in the back of my mind, and the opportunity presented itself.”
Oberholtzer left Fort Lewis for Dayton University, a Division I program. He had served as an assistant there since 2013. The Dayton Flyers won the 2015 Atlantic 10 Tournament championship and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
Oberholtzer thanked the FLC administration as well as the staff at Dayton for the opportunity.
Fort Lewis College athletic director Gary Hunter said Oberholtzer was the top candidate from the day Kennedy announced his resignation, calling the new head coach a proven winner.
“Every one of our soccer alums that maintains contact with Fort Lewis was on the phone and internet and texting me from the very beginning about what a good choice they thought (Oberholtzer) would make,” Hunter said in a phone interview with The Herald. “I thought we owed it to Fort Lewis College to conduct a national search, and I was very pleased with the high-quality pool from which we had to choose.
“He knows the school, the culture and the community. All the coaches we had apply were excellent Xs and Os guys and all are proven leaders, but (Oberholtzer) had extra already being a member of the family.”
Hunter said the college conducted phone interviews with five candidates.
Oberholtzer came highly recommended by Kennedy as well as Gunn and another former FLC coach Jeremy Fishbein, the current head coach at the University of New Mexico. Also in Oberholtzer’s corner was Fort Lewis soccer booster Martin Dirks.
“Fort Lewis has a tradition of appointing people who have an association with the program, and it has worked out successfully,” Kennedy said in a phone interview with The Herald. “(Oberholtzer) is extremely hard working. His philosophy is something the players will buy into real quick and be excited by, and that’s important for the transition piece.”
Oberholtzer will inherit a team that went 12-6-2 overall and 6-3-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference last season. FLC finished fifth in the conference.
The Skyhawks lost superstar talent Yannis Becker from that roster but return plenty of young talent.
Oberholtzer said he has been in contact with Kennedy during the last several weeks and already met the team and knows what kind of players he is taking over.
“I’ve done my homework and have a feel for the team,” he said. “From my understanding, they are a young but talented group. I’m excited about the possibilities, but we have to stay consistent on a day-to-day basis and stick to the process.”
As a player at Fort Lewis, Oberholtzer was named to the All-RMAC Second Team and was a member of the RMAC All-Tournament Team.
He learned from great soccer minds such as Kennedy while at Fort Lewis and said he continued to learn how to build an elite soccer program at Dayton under head coach Dennis Currier.
“I think what I learned at Dayton is really how to build a culture and how to build an identity within a group,” he said. “Managing a group and creating a purpose in what we’re doing but within the culture of the program.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
