MSU Athletics

The Elder File
Education High School: Houston Bellaire HS '80 Bachelors: Midwestern State '85 Masters: Houston '99
Playing Experience Four-year letterwinner for coach Howard Patterson (1981-84) that helped the Indians win 51 matches and finish as NAIA national runners-up on two occasions (1982, 1983). The standout defender and two-year captain was named an NAIA and NSCAA All-American following the 1984 season. He was a three-time all-area selection and was named to the 1983 NAIA All-National Tournament Team. Elder played professionally for the Houston Dynamos.
Coaching Background Head Coach at Houston North Shore HS - 1986-88 Head Coach at Houston Clear Lake HS - 1989-2000 Head Coach at Midwestern State - 2000-17
Honors
NSCAA Region Coach of the Year 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2017 Southwest Soccer Conference Coach of the Year 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year 2002, 2010, 2011 Heartland Conference Coach of the Year 2016, 2017
By the Year
Year	Record	Finish
2000	15-6-1	LSC Champions
2001	13-5-2	LSC Champions
2002	14-1-4	LSC Champions
		NCAA II Quarterfinalist
2003	17-5	NCAA II Quarterfinalist
2004	12-6	3rd, SSC
2005	13-3-2	SSC Champions
2006	18-2-2	SSC Champions
		NCAA II Region Finalist
2007	18-3-2	SSC Champions
		NCAA II Final Four
2008	19-3	SSC Champions
		NCAA II Quarterfinalist
2009	13-2-3	LSC Champions
		NCAA II Region Finalist
2010	19-1-2	LSC Champions
		NCAA II Final Four
2011	13-4-1	NCAA II Region Finalist
2012	10-2-5	2nd, LSC
2013	12-4-2	NCAA II Region Finalist
2014	13-4-2	NCAA II Region Semifinalist
2015	17-1-1	NCAA II Region Finalist
2016	18-4-1	Heartland Champions
		NCAA II Quarterfinalist
2017	20-0-3	Heartland Champions
		NCAA II Quarterfinalist
	274-56-33

Doug Elder closed his prodigious career as the winningest head coach in the storied history of Midwestern State men's soccer.

Elder ends his career as the 12th winningest coach in NCAA soccer (all divisions) history with an .800 winning percentage. That ranks as the second all-time for NCAA Division II. His 274 wins are the 30th most in D2 history.

The lore of the men's soccer program at Midwestern grew during the Elder era with winning seasons in each of his 18 seasons leading the MSU boys. The Mustangs made postseason bids a near annual rite of passage, making the championship field 13 times while advancing to the national quarterfinals on six occasions and to the Final Four in 2007 and 2010.

That's to say nothing of the nine Southwest Soccer/Lone Star/Heartland Conference titles gained under Elder's tutelage.

A 1985 alum of Midwestern State, Elder posted a 274-56-31 mark (.800) after taking the reins of the Mustangs’ soccer program in 2000. On Sept. 10, 2015, he surpassed his former mentor Howard Patterson to become the winningest coach in program history with win No. 222 following an 8-1 victory over Southern Nazarene (Okla.) at Stang Park.

Elder earned Southwest Soccer Conference Coach of the Year honors four-straight years from 2005-08 before claiming the same accolade from the Lone Star Conference in 2010 and 2011 and from the Heartland Conference in 2016 and 2017. He also collected his seventh NSCAA Region Coach of the Year plaque in 2017 after gaining the honor in 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011.

His players have claimed 27 All-America honors including NSCAA/USC awardees Josh Hill (2002), Daniel Woolard (2006), Brandon Swartzendruber (2006), Ahmad Ihmeidan (2007-08), Allen Thomson (2009), Ryan Spence (2010-11), Albert Rodriguez (2015), Flavio Guzman (2015-16), Christian Okeke (2016), Pierre Bocquet (2017) and Scott Doney (2017). Daniel Brown (2007), Robert Swann (2007), Brian Martinez (2008), Raul Herrera (2009-10), Spence (2009-11), Nathan Fitzgerald (2010-11), Nick Petolick (2013), Chase Robertson (2013) and Andrew Power (2014) have earned Daktronics national honors while Albert Rodriguez (2015), Gabriel Cavalcante (2016), Pierre Bocquet (2017), Scott Doney (2017) and Patrick Fitzgerald (2017) collected D2CCA All-America nods.

Elder has mentored 75 all-region performers and 97 all-conference standouts.

The MSU boys capped off the program's first unbeaten campaign in Elder's final run posting a 20-0-3 mark claiming a second consecutive Heartland Conference on the way to their seventh NCAA Division II quarterfinal appearance. The Mustangs battled Cal Poly Pomona to a 2-2 draw before the Broncos advanced 6-5 in a shootout.

The Mustangs put together another banner year in 2016 by advancing to the national quarterfinals for the sixth time in school history with their first appearance since 2010.

En route to an 18-4-1 overall record, the Maroon and Gold claimed the Heartland Conference regular season title with a 13-1-0 mark in their first season in the league. In the NCAA Tournament, MSU squared off against No. 15 Colorado Mesa for the third-straight season before cutting the Mavericks’ postseason run short with a 1-0 victory behind a strike from Christian Okeke in the 89th minute. The Mustangs followed with a 3-2 upset of the region’s top-ranked team in No. 7 St. Edward’s (Texas) in the NCAA South Central Region final at Triton Soccer Stadium in La Jolla, Calif.

His 2002 squad recorded the first undefeated regular season in school history when the then-Indians raced to a 13-0-2 regular season before defeating Incarnate Word, 3-2, in San Antonio for the NCAA II Midwest Regional Championships. A week later, MSU fell for the only time that season, 3-0, to eventual national champion Sonoma State (Calif.).

MSU was right back at it in 2003, winning 13 of its last 14 regular season matches after starting the season splitting its first six.

Midwestern finished the regular season at 15-4 before sweeping through the NCAA II Midwest Regional in San Antonio. The Indians defeated Northeastern State, 2-0, in the opening round before besting host Incarnate Word, 1-0, for the regional championship.

MSU hosted its first national tournament match the next week, falling to Chico State (Calif.), 3-1, in the national quarterfinals.

After failing to seal a tournament bid with a 13-3-2 mark in 2005, the Mustangs won 14-straight matches to win its second-straight Southwest Soccer Conference championship and advance to the NCAA II postseason in 2006.

Midwestern State defeated Incarnate Word, 2-0, before falling in penalty kicks to Midwest Regional tournament host Fort Lewis (Colo.) after battling the eventual national runners-up to a 1-1 tie through 110 minutes of play.

In 2007, Elder led the Mustangs to a 16-2 regular season, a third-straight Southwest Soccer Conference title and to the then-highest NCAA Division II national ranking in school history when MSU topped out at No. 2 in the NSCAA/Adidas National Poll on Oct. 9, 2007.

MSU continued its success into the postseason, claiming an 8-1 win over Metropolitan State (Colo.) before blanking West Texas A&M, 1-0, for the regional championship in Canyon, Texas. The wins allowed the Mustangs to host their second national quarterfinal in five seasons.

Midwestern State fought perennial power Sonoma State to a 2-2 draw before advancing to its first NCAA II Final Four by claiming a 5-4 result in penalty kicks, but then fell in a heartbreaker to eventual champion Franklin Pierce (N.H.) in penalty kicks after fighting the Ravens to a 0-0 draw.

MSU appeared at No. 1 for three-straight weeks near the end of the 2008 season to claim its first top seed in the NCAA Tournament while earning hosting duties for the second-straight year. The Mustangs outlasted Incarnate Word, 2-1, in overtime before blasting No. 2 Fort Lewis, 5-0, in the regional final to advance to the NCAA quarterfinal for the fourth time in program history.
 
Midwestern State suffered defeat to the eventual national champions for the second-straight season in a 2-1 loss to Cal State-Dominguez Hills in the national quarterfinals in Carson, Calif., to end the season at 19-3.  

The Mustangs returned to the Final Four in 2010, earning their second No. 1 seed and enjoying their second unbeaten regular season run after rolling to a 16-0-2 mark. MSU then bounced No. 8 Truman (Mo.) and No. 3 Colorado Mines before throttling Chico State, 5-0, in the national quarterfinals on the West Coast. The Mustangs then fell to Rollins (Fla.) in the national semifinals.

MSU rallied to win its last seven regular season matches to secure a sixth-straight postseason berth in 2011 finishing the campaign with a 13-4-1 mark.

The Mustangs shook off a 1-3 start to ride a 13-match unbeaten streak back into the NCAA Division II postseason field in 2013. MSU defeated Colorado Mines, 1-0, before falling to Regis (Colo.) in the South Central Region championship game to finish the season with a 12-4-2 mark.

MSU returned to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season in 2014 with a 13-3-2 regular season mark before falling to Colorado Mesa in the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs to end the season at 13-4-2.

In 2015, the Mustangs recorded their best winning percentage (.921) in school history with a 17-1-1 mark while posting their third undefeated regular season in the program’s 45 years with a 16-0-1 record.

MSU earned a No. 1 national ranking from the NSCAA for just the fifth time in program history on Oct. 6, 2015 following a 7-0-1 start to the season. Midwestern ranked inside the top 10 in every NSCAA regular season poll and appeared in the top five nine times during the 2015 campaign.

Elder and the Mustangs claimed their third No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2015, hosting the first three rounds of the postseason at Stang Park. Midwestern opened up tournament play with a 4-2 win over Colorado Mesa in the NCAA II Second Round before suffering a 4-3 overtime defeat to No. 8 Colorado Mines in the NCAA Sweet 16.

Elder, who played four seasons at MSU from 1981-84, helped the Indians win 51 matches and finish NAIA national runners-up on two occasions (1982, 1983).

A standout defender and two-year captain, he was tabbed an NAIA and NSCAA All-American following the 1984 season. Elder was a three-time all-area selection and was named to the 1983 NAIA All-National Tournament team.

He began his coaching career shortly after completing his degree at Midwestern State and playing a summer of professional soccer with the Houston Dynamos.

Elder’s first coaching job came at North Shore High School in Houston. There, he led the Mustangs to a pair of district championships in three seasons before moving on to Clear Lake High School.

During his 12-year tenure at Clear Lake, Elder’s teams won 11 district titles and made appearances in the 1989, 1993, 1994 and 1997 regional finals. He was named district coach of the year 11 times and earned regional coach of the year honors in 1989.

Elder holds a Class A coaching license from the United States Soccer Federation.