When she took the helm of the newly announced Rice soccer program back in spring of 2000, Chris Huston promised to create a national-caliber team that could win its conference championship and be a regular participant in the NCAA Tournament, and do so with the kind of students capable of meeting the University's elite academic standards.

She promised. She delivered.

Huston's Owls have won a conference championship and made multiple trips to the NCAA Tournament. The program enjoys a well-deserved reputation and year-in, year-out Huston is able to get the most out of her players.

Beset by a host of injuries that sidelined at least eight players (including four starters) from the roster, Huston showcased some of her best coaching yet in the 2006 season. Different players were lost for the year at different points of the season, yet that didn't stop the Owls from defeating eighth-ranked Texas in the middle of the year and earning a national ranking of their own the following week. Rice posted a .639 win percentage and set school records. Two Owls earned all-Central Region honors and six were named Conference USA Academic medalists.

""We've always tried to be the best team that we can be. We want to go out and win every game, that's what these girls are about. We're going out with the mentality that we want to keep improving and do the best we can do every game. We have to get right to work to bring another championship to Rice."

In 2005, in only the fifth year for Rice to field a soccer team since starting the program from scratch, Huston's Owls claimed Conference USA's automatic bid to the NCAAs by winning the league championship. It was Rice's second trip to "The Dance" in as many years, establishing the young program alongside the more experienced teams in the state of Texas and across the NCAA. An offshoot of Huston's exciting style of soccer is Rice led Conference USA in average attendance.

The head coach's influence on her program is easy to see. Rice has played in the championship game of its conference tournament in three of the last four years, reached the NCAA Tournament twice (2004 & 2005) and defeated opponents ranked in the region and the national Top 10.

Individually the Owl players were honored with all-conference and all-region awards, but that's only part of the story. No less than 18 Rice soccer players have earned academic honors from Conference USA in just two years. Nine soccer players have received the C-USA Commissioner's Academic Medal. Two of her former Rice players have gone on to earn prestigious NCAA postgraduate scholarships.

It was the culmination of similar success Huston established from the year before. In 2004 Rice received its first bid to the NCAA Championship, won a school-record 14 matches and reached the championship final of the Western Athletic Conference tournament. She coached six players (the most of any school in the WAC) to all-league honors, including the 2004 conference player of the year. For the incredible season of accomplishments, Huston was selected as the WAC coach of the year on a vote from her coaching peers in the league. It was her second time to earn the award in her career.

In 2003, seven Owls were named all-conference and five were selected to the league's all-tournament team. Rice won 11 games despite playing a rugged schedule that featured four games against teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament. It was no surprise a total of 12 Owls, more than can even play on the field at one time, were named to the league's all-academic team.

Huston hit the ground running to build the program since the first day she was announced as the head coach of Rice's newest intercollegiate sport on May 26, 2000. In the program's debut season a year later, the Owls went 7-9 and earned the second seed in the WAC Tournament. Soccer Buzz magazine named Rice the second-best first-year program in the nation, behind only Binghamton (which had fielded a Division II team for 16 years), and Huston was tabbed as the WAC coach of the year.

As a follow up in 2002, Huston guided the Blue and Gray through some injuries to the semifinals of the WAC tournament for the second consecutive year. It was a springboard for the success in 2003.

Huston is actually two-for-two at inaugurating women's soccer programs in the city of Houston. She joined the Rice staff after serving three years as the head coach at crosstown rival Houston, where she was hired as the inaugural coach for the Cougars' program in July 1997.

The Houston squad debuted in 1998, finishing third in Conference-USA. That was enough to earn Huston Soccer Buzz coach of the year honors, as the magazine tabbed her crew the number one new women's soccer program in the nation. The following season, Huston led the Cougars to a 9-2-2 record and a second-place finish in C-USA, which included an eight-game winning streak in the middle of the season. Her Houston teams produced one all-central region team player, two C-USA first-team players, two all-freshman team players and three additional players named to C-USA second and third teams. She also coached the 1999 C-USA defensive player of the year.

Before taking the reins at UH, Huston spent four years coaching successful club teams throughout Texas. In 1994-95, she coached the Dallas D'Feeters Soccer Club and was an Olympic Development coach for the under-14 age group for north and south Texas. During the next three years, Huston's coaching career brought her back to Houston where she was at the helm of the Challenge Soccer Club.

Huston's soccer career began at Klein Oak High School in north Houston, where she earned all-America honors for the Panthers and went on to play for legendary coach Anson Dorrance at the University of North Carolina. While at Chapel Hill, Huston - the 1988-89 rookie of the year for the Tar Heels - teamed up with current U.S. national team mainstays Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly and played a key role on the team's 1989 and 1990 NCAA championship runs. One of her career highlights was scoring the game-winning goal against Central Florida in the 1988 NCAA quarterfinals. Huston also played on the U.S. Olympic soccer sports festival team in 1989 and participated on the under-19 national team, where she earned USA all-America honors in 1986.

While injuries ended Huston's collegiate playing days, she graduated from UNC in 1992 with a degree in psychology. She returned to the state of Texas to begin her coaching career.

Now in her seventh season at Rice and her tenth as a collegiate head coach, Huston has a contagious optimism for the Owls' 2007 season. The head coach is the same leader, motivator and teacher of the game she has always been. That is a solid foundation to build a skyscraper of program.

Huston's Year-By-Year Coaching Records/Results
Year	School	Record	League Finish	Postseason
1998	Houston	11-8-0	t 2nd, C-USA	C-USA first round
1999	Houston	11-8-2	t 2nd, C-USA	C-USA semifinals
2001	Rice	 7-9-0	t 2nd, WAC	WAC first round
2002	Rice	 4-13-2	   6th, WAC	WAC semifinals
2003	Rice	11-8-1	   3rd, WAC	WAC finals
2004	Rice	14-5-3	t 2nd, WAC	WAC finals and
				NCAA first round
2005	Rice	13-7-1	t 3rd, C-USA	C-USA Champs and
				NCAA first round
2006	Rice	11-6-1	t 9th, C-USA
		NCAA first Career Totals	                        71-58-9
Rice Totals	60-49-8

Got a question for the head coach? E-mail Chris Huston here.