Erwin van Bennekom was named head coach of the IU women’s soccer program Tuesday afternoon.
The news comes less than one month after IU announced Amy Berbary would not be back next year to coach her seventh season in Bloomington.
“Erwin quickly rose to the top of an outstanding pool of candidates, and it was encouraging and exciting to have such interest in this position,” IU Athletic Director Fred Glass said in an IU release. “Erwin has demonstrated at the highest levels of intercollegiate and international soccer an ability to develop young women into strong leaders academically, athletically and personally.”
Van Bennekom, who is from the Netherlands, arrives at IU after spending four seasons with Duke University's women's soccer program as an associate head coach.
Duke advanced to the NCAA Women's College Cup twice while he was a coach there, including an appearance in the 2015 National Championship game.
He spent one season as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama prior to his time at Duke and also was an assistant coach for Sky Blue FC of the National Women's Soccer League.
Van Bennekom's coaching career in college soccer first started with a three-season spell as an assistant coach at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
“This is a tremendous honor," van Bennekom said in the release. "IU is a destination job. I am very excited to get to work and be a part of the Hoosier family. I’m going to make the most of this tremendous opportunity, and make IU and the state of Indiana very proud of the product that we put out on field.”
IU has not reached the NCAA Tournament since the 2013 season.
