Richie Grant
	Hometown: Dublin, Ireland Last College: Green Mountain College, '93 Position: Head Coach Experience: 17th Season Record at Memphis: 118-101-18 (13 Seasons)

Having completed his 13th season at the helm of the Tigers soccer program, Richie Grant has established himself as one of the premier coaches in Conference USA and the nation. With a strong background of developing players that move on to the professional level, as well as recruiting ties across the nation and around the globe, Grant has built a program in the Bluff City to rival any in the country.

Since taking over as the third head coach in Memphis history in 1999, Grant has compiled a 118-101-18 record. In seven of his 13 seasons, the Tigers have earned Conference USA Tournament berths, including six of the past eight campaigns.

The 2011 season was a memorable one for Grant as the Tigers head coach. On Sept. 11, 2011, Memphis defeated Wisconsin 2-1, making Grant the program's all-time winningest coach with 111 victories.

The 2011 campaign also was full of many other accomplishments. Memphis posted a six-win turnaround from 2010 en route to its sixth 10-win season under Grant. In 2011, Mark Sherrod took home Conference USA's Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year honors. Sherrod is the first Tiger to earn the league's Player of the Year and is the second to take home the C-USA Offensive Player of the Year. Former standout Dayton O'Brien is the other Grant disciple to be named the league's Offensive Player of the Year.

Grant got his start in collegiate coaching in 1995, taking over the NAIA program at Lambuth University. In four seasons at the Jackson, Tenn., institution, Grant won over 50 games and three conference championships, before getting his opportunity at the U of M.

After going 7-11-0 in his first season at Memphis, Grant's Tigers won a then-program record 14 games and finished fourth in the C-USA regular season standings. That turnaround garnered Grant his first C-USA Coach of the Year honor in 2000.

Grant earned his second C-USA Coach of the Year honor (one of four C-USA coaches with two COY awards) in the 2004 season when Memphis won a school-record 16 games, made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1993 and had the program's first All-America selection (O'Brien).

In 2005, O'Brien and teammate Andy Metcalf became the first Tigers drafted by Major League Soccer (MLS). Metcalf became a member of the D.C. United, and O'Brien joined the Columbus Crew. In 2008, Daniel Dobson caught on with the Kansas City Wizards.

The success of Grant's teams is not limited to the pitch. In four of the past five years, the Tigers were honored with a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Award (2007, 2009, 2010, 2011).

While at Memphis, Grant has overseen the move of the program's home matches from Echles Field to the Mike Rose Soccer Complex in Collierville, as well as the renovation of the Tigers outdoor practice facility on the U of M's Park Avenue Campus.

Grant also has an eye for talent and developing top-level athletes. On the current Tigers roster are two of the past four Tennessee State High School Boys Soccer Players of the Year in Sherrod and Chandler Gagnon.

As a player, Grant was a three-time NAIA All-America defender and was twice named the NAIA District V Player of the Year at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt., where he received his bachelor's degree in leisure resources and facilities management in 1993. Grant went on to play one season for the Minnesota Thunder, a semi-pro team that competes in the A-League.

After one year with the Thunder, Grant took a coaching position at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and earned his master's degree in communication studies while working as an assistant coach from 1993-95.

Grant is married to Lady Tigers soccer assistant coach Jodi Grant (formerly Fisher). The couple has two children: a son, Hayden (born January of 2009), and a daugher, Katelyn Presley (born March of 2011).