Special to The Message
Reitz Memorial High School is proud to announce longtime head soccer coach Angie Lensing has been named 2022-23 National Soccer Coach of the Year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
With Lensing at the helm of Reitz Memorial’s girls soccer program, there’s a good chance the team is going to advance deep in the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) state tournament each year. In her 24 years as head coach, Lensing has led Memorial to 17 sectional championships, 13 regional championships and five state titles. In 2022, Lensing led the team to an undefeated 22-0-1 record, placing Memorial's squad as one of the best teams in the country that year.
Lensing has been named State Coach of the Year twice by the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association (ISCA) and earned District Coach of the Year honors six times. In 2015, the ISCA honored Lensing with the Above and Beyond Award, and she was named Metro Coach of the Year in 2021 and 2022.
A former standout athlete at the University of Evansville, Lensing was inducted into the Purple Aces Hall of Fame in 2009.
The NFHS, which has recognized coaches through an awards program since 1982, honors coaches in the top 10 girls sports and top 10 boys sports (by participation numbers), and in two “other” sports – one for boys and one for girls – that are not included in the top 10 listings. Winners of NFHS awards must be active coaches during the year for which they receive their award. This year’s awards recognize coaches for the 2022-23 school year.
The NFHS receives nominations from its member state associations, which often work with the state coaches’ association in its respective state. The state association then contacts the potential state award recipients to complete a coach profile form that requests information regarding the coach’s record, membership in and affiliation with coaching and other professional organizations, involvement with other school and community activities and programs, and coaching philosophy. To be approved as an award recipient and considered for sectional and national coach of the year consideration, this profile form must be completed by the coach or designee and then approved by the executive director (or designee) of the state athletic/activities association.
The NFHS Coaches Association has an advisory committee composed of a chair and eight sectional representatives. The sectional committee representatives evaluate the state award recipients from the states in their respective sections and select the best candidates for the sectional award in each sport category. The NFHS Coaches Association Advisory Committee then considers the sectional candidates in each sport, ranks them according to a point system, and determines a national winner for each of the 20 sport categories. For more information, visit https://www.nfhs.org/articles/2022-23-national-coaches-of-the-year-selected-by-nfhs-coaches-association/.