Former MLS coach Schellas Hyndman will lead GCU men's soccer program

It didn't take long for Mike Vaught to make his first big coaching hire as Grand Canyon University's athletic director.

He looked up his old Southern Methodist University contacts, found Schellas Hyndman, and the two men reunited.

Hyndman, who won 466 career college games, 368 in 24 years at SMU, where Vaught once worked, was introduced Tuesday at a splashy news conference at the Student Union as the next men's soccer coach.

GCU is in its second year transitioning to NCAA Division I in sports, and the school, which also announced plans for a new 3,000-seat soccer stadium that is expected to open before the start of the fall season, wants soccer to resonate in the community the same way men's basketball does.

Hyndman was the only coaching candidate GCU interviewed after relieving Petar Draksin of his duties in early December.

"I know a little bit more about basketball than soccer, but I looked at Mike after he described him and I said, 'I guess we're talking about the Mike Krzyzewski of college soccer. Would that be the appropriate analogy?'" GCU President and CEO Brian Mueller said. "He said yes. I said, 'Well, how much does he want?'"

Hyndman's resume spans 31 years as a college coach and six years as an MLS coach, leading FC Dallas, where he coached from 2008-13 and was Coach of the Year in 2010.

He was inducted into the Eastern Illinois University Athletics Hall of Fame, coaching that school to a 98-24-11 record in seven years. He was the NSCAA Coach of the Year in 1981.

In 24 seasons at SMU, Hyndman was 368-98-38. He led his college teams to the NCAA playoffs 30 times in 31 years. Vaught, hired by GCU in October, was deputy director of athletics at SMU for six years, during which time he got to see Hyndman up close.

Hyndman said that relationship sealed it for him to return to college coaching at GCU at age 63.

"There were some great opportunities arising, coaching internationally," Hyndman said. "My wife wasn't really sure she wanted to take that same venture at the international level. Once I made my commitment to Mike, I got an offer from another college that I wasn't even looking at.

"For me to stay loyal to my commitment to Grand Canyon University, it means I really truly believe this is the place I want to be today."

Hyndman knows that GCU won a national championship at the Division II level, so he doesn't want to make it sound like he is starting this program from scratch. He takes over a program that went 9-26-4 in its first two seasons playing in Division I.

"We want to see how we can compete at Division I and find that success," Hyndman said. "I think the school itself will attract people not only nationally but internationally. In fact, I have a player I was contacted two weeks ago from one of my ex-players, asking if he could recommend a place for one of his players. I said I might be able to do that if this all works out. International players are good but it's getting the right people. Not only someone who wants to invest in being here but being part of the team."

Hyndman and Vaught aren't going to limit their goals.

They're shooting to be a top-25 program in the nation, and they want GCU to be the place top recruits in the country want to be.

"He is not only a great coach but a great person and the players are going to want to play for him," Vaught said.