Entering 2015 season
Sami B. Nedjar enters the second season of his second stint at San Diego State, and has 28 years of coaching experience under his belt. Prior to coming to Montezuma Mesa, Nedjar had been the Technical Director at San Diego United for six years.
For more than 20 years, Nedjar worked as a professional coach for Hotspurs United Soccer Association, where he developed 21 state Olympic Development Program (ODP) players, five regional and four youth national team players, including U.S. Olympic team member Sal Zizzo.
Besides his coaching duties, Nedjar expanded SDSU's recruiting efforts throughout the West Coast and the southern U.S. during his initial tenure on The Mesa, mainly focusing on the San Diego area. In the summer of 2009, Nedjar was named the ninth-most influential soccer person in San Diego County by the website XKSanDiego.com.
Nedjar, who was also the special projects coordinator and camp clinic coordinator at San Diego State, had been instrumental in organizing free clinics and seminars for players and coaches across the San Diego area.
Nedjar was the head women's coach at Cuyamaca College (2000-04) where he guided the Coyotes to two straight Pacific Coast Conference championships (2001-02). The 2002 squad went 18-3 to finish with its best record in school history, while two of his teams (2001 and 2003) ended the year ranked among the top 20 in the nation.
While at Cuyamaca, Nedjar also coached both the Granite Hills High School boy's (1999-05) and the girl's squads (1996-2004). Nedjar led the boys team to four straight CIF San Diego Section championships and put together a 66-game unbeaten streak. Nedjar's squads managed to finish among the top 10 in the nation three consecutive years and a No. 1 ranking in 2003 with a 28-0-3 record. Nedjar also led the Granite Hills girls team to six league titles.
Nedjar also worked three years at Occidental College, seeing time as the team's assistant coach (1988), co-coach (1989) and head coach (1990). In 1990, he led the Tigers to their first-ever .500 season in with a 6-6-2 mark and coached the league's most valuable player.
Nedjar got his start to coaching in 1986 when he co-founded USC's women's soccer club team. While at USC, Nedjar coached a competitive schedule with future Pac-10 rivals UCLA, Cal and Stanford.
Nedjar served as the director of coaching with Hotspurs from 1991-2007 where he supervised and evaluated a club with over 30 boys and girls teams. He also acted as a liaison between players and college coaches.
Nedjar holds a national youth license (2001), an `A' license (1994) and `B' license (1990) from the United States Soccer Federation. Nedjar was also awarded an advanced national diploma from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) in 1989.
Nedjar has received a number of accolades throughout his coaching career, including the High School Coaching Legend Award (2006) by the San Diego Hall of Champions and CIF San Diego Section, the California High School (large schools) Boys Coach of the Year (2004) by the NSCAA, and the National Youth Girls Coach of the Year (2001) by the NSCAA.
Nedjar graduated from USC in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in science and business administration.