Over the years, Theresa Romagnolo has been many places for soccer.
She learned the game as a girl growing up in Edmonds, and played collegiately at the University of Washington and later professionally in California, where she also began coaching. After five years as an assistant at the University of San Diego and another three as an assistant at Stanford University, she became the head coach at Dartmouth College in 2011.
Last spring she moved again, and this move was the best of all.
In March, Romagnolo was named the new head coach at the University of Notre Dame, where there is a women’s soccer tradition almost equal to the school’s proud football history. Notre Dame has three NCAA championships in women’s soccer, second only to the University of North Carolina, and with Romagnolo at the helm the Fighting Irish will be bidding for No. 4 this fall.
“These kinds of opportunities don’t come around very often,” said Romagnolo, a 1997 graduate of Seattle’s Lakeside High School who was formerly Theresa Wagner. “When I got the call (offering the job), I was shocked and excited. I mean, it’s Notre Dame.”
In an interview visit to the campus in South Bend, Ind., “the thing that really impressed me was not just the resources and the incredible facilities they have,” she said. “There’s also a great sense of community here, which some (schools) have and some don’t.
“For me, it’s the kind of place I wanted to be a part of.”
As a player, Romagnolo was a four-time All-Pacific-10 Conference selection at Washington. She helped the Huskies to a league championship and a first-ever No. 1 national ranking as a senior in 2001, and is still among the program’s all-time top five in career points (80), goals (27) and assists (26).
She spent the next three years playing for the San Jose CyberRays of the Women’s United Soccer Association, and it was then she started coaching, both with youth teams and as a volunteer assistant at Stanford.
As the end of her playing career neared, “I wasn’t sure the path I wanted to go,” Romagnolo said. “There were lot of different things I was interested in. But my dad had coached soccer, so I’d been around coaching a lot. And whether it’s (young) kids or high school athletes or college athletes, I enjoy working with them and teaching them.
“I didn’t want a desk job. I couldn’t see myself sitting at a desk from 8:00 to 5:00 every day. I like being very active. And one of the things I like about coaching is that no day is ever the same. Every day and with every team, there are always new challenges.”
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick could not be reached for comment, but in a statement released at the time of Romagnolo’s hiring he said, “We are thrilled to have Theresa join the Notre Dame family. She brings with her a demonstrated commitment to educational and competitive excellence — the values that have been at the core of our women’s soccer program’s two decades of success. Because she does, I have no doubt that Theresa will help our program to achieve even greater success in the years to come.”
Given’s Notre Dame’s prominence in women’s soccer, “the expectation for our student-athletes is that they’re going to come here and compete for a national title every year,” Romagnolo said. To reach that goal, she went on, “you want to create an environment in training and off the field that is demanding of excellence. And you want it to be a competitive culture where every day you’re having to go out and compete against each other.”
Midway through her first season at Notre Dame, the team is 7-3-1. The Fighting Irish, who are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference for women’s soccer, were on the road last week, winning against previously undefeated Virginia Tech (2-0) and Wake Forest (1-0).
“We’ve had some of the typical ups and downs you have in a season,” Romagnolo said. One of the biggest disappointments was a 3-2 overtime loss to North Carolina after Notre Dame had a 2-0 halftime lead, an outcome that was, she said, “a bit of a heartbreaker for us.”
“We have spells where we play very well and spells where we let down a little bit. For us, we’re trying to put forth a consistent performance for the duration of the game. That’s our challenge. We’ve shown we can play with the best, and now it’s a challenge of playing with the best for the full 90 minutes.”
To win a national championship, Romagnolo said, “it comes down to being consistent, getting better every day, trusting each other on the field, and keeping the belief going that we can reach those types of goals.”
And, she added, “we have all the makings to do it.”
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