Jason Lockhart - Women's Soccer Coach

Jason Lockhart

Title:
Associate Head Coach
Email:
soccer@usc.edu
Phone:
(213) 740-1356

Jason Lockhart enters his eighth season at USC in 2021 and his fourth as the program's Associate Head Coach. Lockhart came to USC after previously serving under Head Coach Keidane McAlpine at Washington State.

Working together, Lockhart and McAlpine have guided their teams to the NCAA postseason each of the last nine years, including the last seven with USC and two prior to that at Washington State. Lockhart helped lead the Trojans to the program’s second NCAA Championship in 2016. In his six years with USC, the Trojans have averaged nearly 16 wins each full season, amassing a 102-29-17 record, and have reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament four times. With Lockhart on staff, USC has never finished worse than fourth in the Pac-12 and has won at least one NCAA Tournament game five of the last six seasons.

"Jason has a very good ability to simplify the game for players," McAlpine said at the time of Lockhart's hiring. "His talent as a teacher will definitely help raise the standard of our team."

Primarily focusing on the offensive side of the ball, Lockhart has helped USC average 44.5 goals per season over the past six full years (*excludes shortened 2020 season), and helped produce two Pac-12 Forwards of the Year in Tara McKeown (2019) and Penelope Hocking (2020), one Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in Hocking (2018) and one MAC Hermann Trophy finalist in midfielder Morgan Andrews (2016).

During Lockhart's final season on staff at Washington State in 2013, the Cougars tied the program record for victories with a 14-3-4 mark, while the team and players set or tied 27 school records. The Cougars finished the season ranked No. 7 in the nation defensively with only 11 goals allowed. In 2012, the Cougars went 6-4-1 in Pac-12 play and finished up 12-6-2 overall.

Prior to his collegiate coaching career, Lockhart coached at the club level with a number of clubs, including Vestavia Soccer Club and most recently Birmingham United Soccer Association, where he worked alongside McAlpine. The two Alabama natives have known each other since childhood, and have climbed the coaching ranks through the club and collegiate coaching levels as both colleagues and as rivals.

"We have been friends our entire lives, and we started coaching together just after college with youth teams, and working in the same club team," McAlpine said. "It's special to have a friend and such a quality teacher of the game come with us from WSU to USC. There's a level of comfort there that can't be matched."

At Birmingham United, Lockhart was a girls director of coaching and ECNL head coach, where he lead numerous state championship teams, one regional championship squad, and a third-place finish in the 2009 National Championship Series. In recent years he has also been a member of the Region III ODP staff and a head age group coach for girls ages 14-18.