Oliver Slawson begins his first season as head coach of the Ashland University men’s soccer team.
Slawson spent the last decade on the coaching staff at NCAA Division I Akron, and served as a full-time assistant for the last six seasons. Current Major League Soccer and USA National Team players Will Trapp, Perry Kitchen, Teal Bunbury and Darlington Nagbe all have been a part of the successful Akron program with Slawson on the coaching staff, along with 2014 FIFA World Cup star DeAndre Yedlin.
Akron made nine consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances with Slawson on staff, including a national title in 2010 and a national runner-up finish in 2009, and won 10 straight Mid-American Conference championships. Over the last eight years, the Zips have won more games, have the highest winning percentage and produced more professional players than any other Division I program.
Prior to his time at Akron, Slawson spent two seasons (2003-04) at Kenyon College as an assistant. He also has coached summer clinics in Ohio and with Great Britain Buckeye Soccer, as well as in southern Maryland and in France.
Slawson also has served as a staff coach with the Under-18 and current Under-14 US Soccer Development Academy’s Cleveland Internationals club team for the past five years.
Slawson originally is from Manchester, England, and earned his Master of Science in Education at Akron in 2006. He graduated from Leeds Carnegie Metropolitan University in Leeds, England, with a degree in Business and Management, in 2003.
At Leeds, Slawson was a four-year member of the soccer team which won the Northern Universities League title three times and the Northern Universities Cup twice. Prior to that, he was selected for the Lancashire County Football Association U-19’s and represented Oldham Athletic Football Club of the English Football League at academy level.
Slawson is married to wife Michelle, who played soccer collegiately at Heidelberg. He has a stepson, Parker, who plays college baseball at Heidelberg, and a son, Carson, 1.