GALESBURG, Illinois - Annie Gerdes has been elevated to full-time Head Women's Soccer Coach, announced Director of Athletics Corey Goff on Wednesday.
Gerdes served as Interim Head Women's Soccer Coach for the fall 2023 season after previously serving as Assistant Women's Soccer Coach from 2019-2022.
"We are thrilled to have Annie lead our Women's Soccer program," said Goff. "She is hard at work recruiting and supporting the development of high-quality student-athletes to establish a formidable presence in both the Midwest Conference and Region IX."
In her time as an assistant coach, Gerdes helped coach the women's soccer team to their fourth and fifth straight Midwest Conference Regular Season Championships in 2019 and 2021. She also coached goalkeepers for the men's team.
"I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to continue building this program to the academic and athletic success we have been accustomed to in the last 10 years," said Gerdes. "To be trusted with a program that means so much to me is an honor. I want to thank Director of Athletics Corey Goff and my players for their continued trust and belief in me and this program. As a member of the first Knox College women's soccer rebuild, I am excited for and confident in the next era of the program. This team has the potential to be great again. We have already set high goals for next season and years to come and are excited to show ourselves and everyone else that Knox Women's Soccer is a team to be reckoned with."
Gerdes was also a member of the 2016 women's soccer team that was inducted into the Knox-Lombard Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022. That team kicked off a run of five dominant years by the program.
"What I have learned from Coach Gerdes is to always play with heart," said sophomore women's soccer player Isabella Shubert. "I appreciate how much she cares and pushes her players to further their success for the future."
Gerdes graduated from Knox in June 2019 with a bachelor's in Psychology. She went on to earn her master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Adler University in 2023.
