CLU’s Kuntz to Coach Soccer for Pepperdine

George Kuntz, coach of the Cal Lutheran men’s and women’s soccer teams, has been selected to coach the newly formed Pepperdine women’s soccer team next season.

Kuntz, who started the Cal Lutheran women’s soccer program four years ago and led the Regals to the NCAA Division III playoffs the past two seasons, will attempt to engineer the same success for the Division I Waves.

“It was a career thing,” Kuntz said of the move. “It’s not about anybody at Cal Lutheran. It’s about my wife and my family and my family’s future.”

Bob Doering, the Cal Lutheran athletic director, said he is unsure if Kuntz’s successor would be asked to coach both the men’s and women’s teams, or teach broadcasting and physical education classes, as Kuntz did.

“When you put a position together at a small college, you have to put a number of areas together to make a full-time position,” Doering said. “George’s position straddled the communication arts department and our department. We’ll have to see what’s out there, but we’re starting to work on that right away.”

Kuntz was hired as the men’s soccer coach in 1988 and guided the Kingsmen to a 60-27-10 record, including a 15-5-2 mark last year--their best record--and NCAA Division III playoff berths the past two seasons. He started the women’s program in 1989 and posted a 51-24-1 record in four seasons. Last season the Regals were 17-4.

Kuntz, who will pursue his doctoral degree in education at Pepperdine, said starting from scratch at a Division I school will be difficult.

“There’s going to be so much hard work,” Kuntz said. “You can’t have high expectations. I may go flat on my face the first year--maybe the first five years.”

Kuntz said he would have input in deciding whom the new coach or coaches would be at Cal Lutheran.