Feature Stories
Play Like You Mean It: A Passion for the Game
More Than a Number

Announced as Vanderbilt’s 11th head coach on Jan. 29, 2015, Darren Ambrosehas reinvigorated and reimagined a new era of championship excellence for a program that proudly helped pioneer SEC women’s soccer.

The 2018 SEC Coach of the Year has guided the Commodores to historic heights, including the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance (2024) and first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed and Elite Eight appearance (2025) among seven NCAA Tournament appearances in all. His teams have also reestablished Vanderbilt as a pacesetter in the SEC, winning two of the program’s four SEC Tournament championships (2020, 2025), in addition to the 2018 SEC regular season championship and 2019 SEC East title.

Commodores have earned All-America honors on seven occasions in Ambrose’s time at Vanderbilt. True to the university’s mission, his student-athletes have also received Scholar All-America honors on eight occasions—more than 75 percent of all such honors in program history.

Ambrose’s student-athletes have garnered more than 20 NSCAA/USC All-Region honors and more than 25 All-SEC honors, including 11 first-team selections. Sara Wojdelko and Sydney Watts were recognized as the 2025 SEC Goalkeeper and Forward of the Year, respectively, the first such honors in program history.

Vanderbilt enters the 2026 season on the heels of arguably the most successful back-to-back seasons in team history—certainly since winning the SEC’s first two women’s soccer titles more than 30 years ago.

In 2024, the Commodores eliminated No. 1 seed Florida State on the road in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the first time. In 2025, they finished second in the SEC regular season, won the SEC Tournament, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Elite Eight for the first time.

Ambrose has been laying the foundation for unprecedented excellence since he arrived.

• Navigating the adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vanderbilt won the 2020 SEC Tournament title in dominating fashion, setting a tournament record with 14 goals and defeating three top-15 opponents in the span of a week.
• In 2018, the Commodores won their first SEC regular season title since 1994 with an 8-1-1 conference record and hosted an NCAA Tournament match for the first time since 2005.
• In 2017, with a roster that increasingly reflected the coach’s recruiting philosophy, Vanderbilt won as many as 13 games for the first time in more than a decade and earned the team’s first NCAA Tournament win since 1998.
• Entering 2026, Ambrose’s teams have recorded three of the four stingiest seasons in program history, as measured by goals conceded. But his progressive possession-based philosophy has also yielded three of the program’s four most prolific goal-scoring seasons this century.

Dedicated to helping student-athletes reach their full potential, Ambrose has transformed Vanderbilt into the launch pad for professional soccer opportunities. Prior to the league reorganizing player entry, six Dores were selected in the NWSL Draft, and lessons learned in Nashville helped athletes like Simone Charley, a member of the Orlando Pride during its NWSL championship season, and Abi Brighton, a Serie A winner with Juventus, win at the sport’s highest level. Additionally, as executive officers with the NWSLPA, alumni like Charley and Haley Hopkins have helped lead the sport forward for all athletes.

Before joining Vanderbilt, Ambrose led Penn to more wins than any coach in school history. Over 15 seasons, his teams won three Ivy League championships and played in three NCAA Tournaments. He also mentored the program’s first two All-Americans.

Ambrose spent three years as the women’s and men’s assistant coach at Rhodes College, where his teams won a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship, earned three second-place finishes and made three NCAA Tournament appearances.

He also served as an assistant coach at Connecticut and Florida State, after beginning his coaching career at Rhodes as a graduate assistant.

Ambrose, who holds a United States Soccer Federation (USSF) “A” License and a National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Advanced National Diploma, has also taken an active role in soccer education programs.

Originally from near Sheffield, England, Ambrose played with the Sheffield United and Doncaster Rovers youth programs. He also represented the English Schools Regional Team before coming to the U.S. as a student-athlete at Division II national power USC-Spartanburg (now Division I USC Upstate).

A goalkeeper, Ambrose was the 1992 ISAA/Adidas Division II National Player of the Year in 1992 and the first USC-Spartanburg player to be named GTE Academic All-America. In 2002, Ambrose was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.

Ambrose earned a B.S. in management accounting at USC-Spartanburg and in 1995 completed an M.Ed. in sports administration at Memphis.

Ambrose and his wife, Sherry, have two daughters: Madison and Ainsley.

The Ambrose File
2015-Pres.	Vanderbilt • Head Coach
2000-14	Penn • Head Coach
1999-00	Florida State • Assistant Coach
1996-99	Rhodes (Tenn.) • Assistant Coach (Women’s and Men’s Soccer)
1995	Connecticut • Assistant Coach (Men’s Soccer)
1993-94	Rhodes (Tenn.) • Graduate Assistant