Kicking down boundaries

Kim Wyant, of East Meadow, is the only woman serving as head coach of an NCAA men’s soccer team.

Courtesy NYU Sports Information

Wyant, who's now a coach, was the first goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s national soccer team.

Courtesy NYU Sports Information

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Kim Wyant, a 51-year-old East Meadowite, has achieved a lot of firsts in the world of soccer.

Wyant, who became head coach of the New York University Violets this fall, is the only woman who leads an NCAA men’s soccer team, and she has been told that she is the first woman to do so as well. When she was a college soccer player at the University of Central Florida, she was named the most valuable player of the first women’s NCAA tournament, in 1982. Wyant’s accomplishments even extend to the international arena: She was the first goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s national team, which was formed in 1985.

But Wyant said it all happened by accident. “My life is about being at the right place at the right time,” she said. “I met the right people — mentors, coaches and teachers — who all took an interest in my life.”

When Wyant was growing up in Miami, she was a multi-sport athlete, playing basketball, volleyball and softball. Soccer was not on her radar, she explained, because the sport wasn’t very popular in America at the time.

But when Title IX — a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity — was introduced in 1972, Wyant’s high school created a girls’ soccer team. Her basketball coach suggested she try out, but Wyant had no interest in running up and down a large soccer field. So she tried out for goalkeeper.

“That turned out to be a great decision, because it turned out that I was very good at it,” she said. “My high school team wasn’t very good, so I was very busy during the game. I never minded that type of pressure.”

Wyant further developed her goalkeeping skills as a college player at UCF. Before she graduated in 1989, she had a stellar four-year career with the Knights. As a freshman, she earned UCF Rookie of the Year honors, in addition to the accolades she received in the first women’s national tournament. She was also a First Team All-American as a senior.