A day after being announced as the fifth Oregon head coach to lead the women’s soccer program, Tracy Joyner debuted Tuesday morning in Eugene, where took time to answer questions about her new role.

When asked what attracted her to the job, Joyner said that Oregon should be a “nationally ranked team.”

“…The prospect of what this program can achieve was highly desirable,” she said. “I think that Oregon soccer, is just the ceiling is so high, and the potential is so great with the right people, the right staff, the right resources.”

Oregon is coming off a 5-11-2 campaign, 1-8-2 in its inaugural season in the Big Ten Conference. Joyner replaces Graeme Abel, who resigned in late October following the season. Under Abel, the Ducks were 22-44-23 overall and 11-31-13 in conference games.

Cloe Chase, who led Marist Catholic to a Class 4A state title in 2022, was a true freshman for Oregon this fall. She was among the top local talents signed by the Ducks, who have since received a verbal commit from another Sheldon’s Lexi Cockerill-Gonzalez for the 2025 season.

“Tracy is a proven winner with the energy and the experience it will take to elevate Oregon Soccer into contenders both in the Big Ten Conference and nationally,” UO director of athletics Rob Mullens said in Monday’s press release. “She has successfully built programs at every level from junior college to Division I and we are excited to have her lead the Oregon Soccer program forward.”

Joyner has spent the last five seasons as head coach of the UC Davis’s women’s soccer program, where she helmed the Aggies to a 13-5-2 mark this season, setting a school record for wins in a season as a Division I program. The Aggies went 49-37-8 overall under her guidance. Joyner was the Big West Conference coach of the year in 2023.

Joyner explained that the initial call to start the process with Oregon was right after the Aggies’ final loss of the season earlier last month. In her mind, is was an immediate yes.

“It was really good for me to get out of that funk,” Joyner said. “But just the future of soccer here is incredible. So, you know, Oregon is somewhere that I’ve always had my eyes on, is just being a major contender. Like I said, so much potential, and there’s just a really big opportunity to be a powerhouse here.”

Who is Tracy Joyner?

The Moraga, Calif., native brings an extensive head coaching resume that spans 12 seasons for a career record of 127-77-27. She spent nine of those seasons as a NCAA head soccer coach with a mark of 85-62-20 and the other three coaching at the junior college level.

Along with her coaching accolades, Joyner (formerly Tracy Hamm) earned significant recognition as a soccer player, named freshman of the year during her time at California from 2002 to 2005. She was a Pac-10 all-conference honoree in 2005 after helping Cal to a 16-4-1 record and helped Cal to three NCAA Tournament berths.

Joyner started her coaching career at Cal as an assistant coach in 2009 and went on to coach at Santa Rosa Junior College from 2012 to 2014, leading the program to a 42-15-7 mark. During her first year at Santa Rosa, she was named the Big 8 Conference coach of the year and coached the Bear Cubs to a conference title and consecutive berths in the second round of the CCCAA playoffs.

For Oregon to reach that level of success, Joyner hopes to implement her own style of play.

“Style of play is winning,” Joyner said in a laughing manner. “So, I do whatever is necessary. Really for me, it’s about building the right relationships with players, finding the right 11 players to be on the field at the right time, getting depth and big personalities. I really like big personalities, whether that’s leading by example of by voice or performance. So, style of play, I think I just look for ways to exploit teams and, you know, build a system and make decisions based off how the best get the desired outcome.”

Evaluating the Oregon soccer team

Joyner noted that come January the team will hit the ground running in evaluating their own film as well as recruiting, using the transfer portal and possibly scheduling spring scrimmage games.

“I like to do a lot of individual development and position specific functional training in the winter, she said. “You know, championships are won in the offseason. Everyone says that and they’re not wrong.”

During her first team meeting Tuesday morning, she said they discussed the vision for the program.

“So really, the message from me this morning to the players was we get the opportunity to start fresh,” she said. “We get the opportunity to build what we want to build and make it ours. I empower the student-athletes to be a part of that, creating a value system that we feel really good about.”

Joyner’s vision to grow soccer more in the state of Oregon extends beyond the hotbed of Eugene with hopes of gathering support from the state’s women’s professional soccer team, the Portland Thorns.

“This is just a powerhouse, a gold mine waiting to happen,” she said. “I think that the support from a professional level and the dynamics of what makes Oregon, not University of Oregon, but like Oregon soccer so powerful is how much passion there is around the game here.”

Edith Noriega is a sports reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at ENoriega@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Noriega_Edith.