CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA soccer coach Dan Tobias, was named the National Women's Coach of the Year by Soccer America magazine for his role in helping the UA program earn its first-ever Pac-10 title.

Players on the Arizona women's soccer team pulled in plenty of awards for their record-breaking 2004 season, but this time, it was the coach's turn.

UA Head coach Dan Tobias was named National Coach of the Year by Soccer America magazine in just his second year with the program.

"The credit goes to my players and assistants," Tobias said.

"It's a great honor for coach Tobias and he certainly deserves it," UA Athletic Director Jim Livengood said in a press release. "The job the Wildcat soccer team did in 2004 was tremendous and his great leadership was instrumental."

Tobias coached the team from a last-place tie in his first season to their first-ever Pacific 10 Conference championship in his second, which was shared with UCLA. This season also marked Arizona's first appearance in the Top-25 rankings, where the team was ranked as high as No. 10.

"I think the team did such a good job with their mentality," Tobias added. "They literally took it one game at a time. We certainly didn't look back on our history, and we didn't look forward."

The Wildcats set or tied 31 different team or individual records, many of them by considerable margins. The program record for most wins in a season was eight, and the Wildcats nearly doubled that with 15 this season. They won six Pac-10 games, when the previous record was two. The Wildcat defense allowed just 11 goals the entire season, compared to the previous best of 31.

In addition to winning National Coach of the Year, Tobias was also named Pac-10 Conference Coach of the Year and West Region Coach of the Year for NSCAA/Adidas and Soccer Buzz magazine. Tobias became the second coach in Pac-10 history to win coach of the year two times. He won his first coach of the year honor in 2002 when he was head coach of Washington State.

The Wildcats earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program's 10-year history, but suffered a first-round loss to Colgate, 1-0.

Looking ahead to his third season at the helm, Tobias said he is looking forward to seeing the majority of his team returning as underclassmen in the fall.

"It's reloading instead of rebuilding," he said.