Oregon
Oregon hires ‘proven winner’ Tracy Joyner as its head soccer coach
Watch: New Oregon women’s soccer coach Tracy Joyner joins the Ducks
Former UC Davis soccer coach Tracy Joyner has been named the next head coach of the Oregon women’s soccer program.
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.
A 73-year-old man was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in prison for the 1983 killing of his then-girlfriend. It was a case that went unsolved for more than 40 years.
The sentence was announced by Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield.
In July 1983, Teresa Peroni, 27, was reported missing after attending a party in the Selma area of Josephine County southwest of Grants Pass. She was last seen walking in the woods with her boyfriend Marcus Sanfratello.
Authorities deemed Peroni’s disappearance suspicious, but they lacked evidence to bring charges against anyone.
In 1997, a human skull was found on private property near where Peroni disappeared. In 2024, authorities in Josephine County reopened the case. In addition to re-interviewing witnesses, they collected new DNA evidence to build a case against Sanfratello.
With the DNA, experts at the University of North Texas confirmed the skull was Peroni’s.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Man arraigned on murder charge in Oregon for death of then-girlfriend in 1980s cold case
A grand jury indicted Sanfratello of second-degree murder, on June 27, 2025.
Police arrested Sanfratello in Chico, California the next day. He was then extradited to Oregon to face the charge of murder.
Under a plea agreement, Sanfratello pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
He will serve at least 10 years in prison, Oregon’s attorney general’s office said.
“For Teresa Peroni’s family, this has been a 43-year wait for an answer they never should have had to wait for,” Rayfield said in a news release. “Cases like this remind us of why we don’t give up. It doesn’t matter how many years have passed — if someone took a life, we’re going to keep working until we can hold them accountable.”
Oregon
100+ Women Who Care of Central Oregon Donates Nearly $20,000 to M Perfectly – The Source – Bend, Oregon
The Oregon Ducks are set for one of the biggest timelines of their recruiting cycle, as many top targets are nearing commitments. This time around, the Ducks have a ton of top targets still remaining on their board compared to past seasons, as the Ducks have eight total commitments at this time.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning and his staff still need to land a safety commitment, but three-star safety Elijah Butler out of Maryland recently included the Ducks in his final six schools.
Oregon Target Elijah Butler Makes Exciting Recruiting Announcement
Butler announced his top six schools ahead of a crucial part of his recruitment, according to a graphic by Leyton Roberts. The Ducks made the cut alongside the Maryland Terrapins, Virginia Tech Hokies, Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. The talented prospect would be a great addition for any of these teams, as they could all use a safety prospect at this point in the recruiting timeline.
Butler is from the state of Maryland, which makes the Terrapins one to watch.
It is also worth noting that he has been labeled as one of the best players in the state of Maryland, as he currently ranks as the state’s No. 9 prospect, according to Rivals. This is important as the Terrapins have always made solid attempts to land their in-state stars, including last season when they landed one of the better players in the state’s history, Zion Elee.
As of now, the prospect hasn’t been predicted to land with any of these schools, which means it is likely still a tight race entering the official visit schedule. He has yet to schedule an official visit with all of the schools he has listed in his top six, as he is still missing three key official visits. Butler has scheduled official visits with Alabama, Auburn, and Florida, according to 247Sports. This means he still needs to set one with Oregon, Virginia Tech, and Maryland if he wants to take one to each school.
If the Ducks are able to get Butler on a visit, then they would likely be in a more favorable position to land his commitment, as it currently. seems they are one of the trailing teams from this list. It seems highly unlikely that the Ducks will gain his commitment unless they get him on an official visit, which is still possible at this point, as plenty of top prospects across the nation are still scheduling their official visits.
As of now, the Ducks have 27 prospects set to take an official visit, according to 247Sports. Among all of the prospects who have scheduled a visit thus far, only one of the players is listed as a safety. That player is a three-star target, Junior Tu’upo. This leads one to believe that the Ducks could try to get Butler on a visit, or at a minimum, pitch their program to the prospect from St Frances Academy.
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