LEXINGTON, Va. – Chris Bergmann has been named the new VMI women’s soccer head coach, VMI athletics director Dr. Dave Diles announced Friday. Bergmann becomes the third coach in program history and will begin his duties on approximately Jan. 1, 2015.
“VMI women’s soccer will be in great hands with Chris Bergmann leading our program,” stated Diles. “His record as a head coach is outstanding, and I’m equally impressed with his vision for moving our women’s soccer program forward. In addition, he has recruited and coached at exceptional academic institutions and I am confident that he will be a great representative of the Institute. The cadet-athletes in our program deserve great leadership, and we have found that in Chris.”
Bergmann comes to VMI after six years as the head coach at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Ill. There, he coached the school’s men’s team to back-to-back conference championships in 2012 and 2013 and earned Midwest Conference Coach of the Year honors both years. After the second of those championships, he took his team to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 1981.
Bergmann posted a 60-31-5 overall record at Lake Forest, including a 54-18-4 mark over his last four seasons there. He coached eight NSCAA North All-Region players, including Mahir Mameledzija, a three-time conference player of the year and the 2012-13 CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-American of the Year.
Also at Lake Forest, Bergmann served as the athletic department liaison to the Career Advancement Center, where he created The Forester Game Plan, a personalized mentoring program for the student-athletes at Lake Forest College.
“I’d like to thank Gen. Peay, Dr. Diles and the search committee,” said Bergmann. “I appreciate this opportunity and respect everything that these cadet-athletes stand for. I look forward to investing in their lives and being a part of the Virginia Military Institute’s mission to produce well-rounded, outstanding student-athletes.”
Prior to working at Lake Forest, Bergmann was an assistant coach for the women’s program at Northwestern University for the 2008 season, where he helped the team to a quarterfinal berth in the Big 10 tournament.
Bergmann spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons in Deerfield, Ill., working as the head men’s coach at Trinity International University. There, he was responsible for all facets of the program and saw his team get votes in both the 2006 and 2007 NSCAA and NAIA national polls, reaching as high as 23rd overall in the ‘06 campaign. He also served as the athletic advancement liaison at Trinity, where he was responsible for meeting with the school’s advancement team to develop various fundraising concepts to enhance athletic programs.
Bergmann got his start in the college ranks at Hope International University in Fullerton, Calif., where he served as men’s coach during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. He was the 2005 NCCAA West Region Coach of the Year, as he guided his team to a seven-win improvement and a fourth-place finish at the national tournament. His squad finished that season ranked ninth in the country at the NCCAA level, all while Bergmann served as an assistant AD and an adjunct professor in the kinesiology department.
Prior to college coaching, Bergmann spent several years with the United Soccer League’s Chicago Eagles Select Premier Development League (PDL) team, serving as the general manager, and was also involved with the Southern California Seahorses PDL team.
Over the past four-plus years, the new Keydet coach has served as the director of coaching for the Lincolnshire Lightning Soccer Club, where he was responsible for all facets of the day-to-day operations for the U8-U18 travel team. He has also served in the club ranks for Pegasus, Lindenhurst Soccer Club, the Chicago Eagles club team, Kopion F.C. and the SURF Soccer Club, along with the Southern California Development Program.
Away from the field, Bergmann and his wife, Kelly, founded AIM Academic Mentoring Services, an academic support service focusing primarily on middle and high school-aged students. The couple has two children, Aidan and Mackenzie.