Armed with over 25 years of coaching experience, Ken Pollard is back with the Wesleyan men’s soccer team for his second season as an assistant coach in 2025.
In his first season at Wesleyan in 2024, the Cardinals qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012, winning their First Round game 2-0 against St. Joseph (CT).
Pollard most-recently served as the assistant and associate head coach of Columbia University from 2012-23. With the Lions, Pollard coordinated and assisted with all recruiting, practice sessions, and training. He helped lead Columbia to the Ivy League Championship in 2016 while the Lions earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament in 2017, winning a first round game against William & Mary.
Early in his coaching career, Pollard was an assistant for Duke University for two seasons (2002-03) while he helped lead his alma mater Southern Connecticut State University to back-to-back NCAA National Championships as an assistant coach in 1998 and 1999. In his three-year tenure as an assistant at SCSU, the Owls went 61-3-2 from 1997-99.
Pollard was a head coach for the women’s soccer team at Purchase College for two seasons (2009-10) and has been a performance consultant since 2005.
Following his two-year stay at Duke, Pollard went on to serve as an assistant coach for the USA U-19 Women’s National Team at the FIFA World Cup. The US went on to win the bronze medal in that competition.
He also coached at the professional level, serving as an assistant for the New York Metro Stars (Major League Soccer) in 1999-00 while he was an assistant for the Philadelphia Charge (Women’s United Soccer Association) from 2003-04.
Pollard graduated from SCSU with a bachelor’s degree in human performance in 1994 and he earned his master’s degree in exercise science from SCSU in 2001. He resides in Guilford, Connecticut.
