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COACHes
Coach Dominic Stross enters his fifth season, this upcoming fall, as head coach of the women's soccer program at Southeastern University. In his first four seasons, Coach Stross had four top-five finishes nationally, including second place finishes in 2005 and 2008. In 2008, the Lady Fire made it to the NCCAA II National Championship game only to fall to Baptist Bible College, 1-0. Southeastern finished the year with a 16-4-1 record and its third straight South Region Championship. For this extraordinary team effort, Stross was named the South Region Coach of the Year in 2008. Coach Stross led the Lady Fire to its first South Region title in school history in 2006 as Southeastern went 8-0 in the region while outscoring its region opponents 25-1. Coach Stross has a four-year record of 65-17-4 and a 30-1-2 South Region record. He has led Southeastern to a 22-game unbeaten streak in the South Region. Stross joined the Southeastern women's soccer program in 2004 as an assistant coach. He is a graduate of Florida Southern College, where he played as a center mid-fielder for the Moccasins from 1993 to 1996. Stross was also a team captain and received the Best Mid-fielder award his senior year. Stross also led the Mocs in assists his senior year. He returned to Florida Southern in 1999 as a graduate assistant coach for the men's program and as head coach of the men's B team. Stross played his high school soccer at local Santa Fe Catholic High School in Lakeland, Florida, where he was an All-County selection and was twice named his team's best offensive player. He played club soccer for the local Lakeland Soccer Club, and during his junior year in high school, he was invited to train in a week-long Florida Olympic development camp. After the camp, Stross was selected to compete in a tournament that was a feeder system for German professional teams. Stross started coaching in summer camps and clinics while in college and immediately knew that working with young adults was something God was calling him to do. He changed his major from accounting to physical education, and as a college junior, he started coaching as an assistant at Mulberry Senior High School in Mulberry, Florida. The following year he received his first head coaching position at his alma mater, Santa Fe Catholic High School. He led the Crimson Hawks to a 17-5 record and their first ever victory against then-powerhouse Lakeland Senior High School. After graduating from Florida Southern College in 1996, Stross left Santa Fe Catholic and Lakeland to complete post-bachelor course work in fitness and nutrition at Florida State University. After a year in Tallahassee, he transferred to the University of Central Florida and started work on his master's degree in exercise physiology. In 1999 he returned to Lakeland to teach and coach soccer at George Jenkins High School while working as the graduate assistant coach at Florida Southern College. Stross continues his involvement with local soccer by training youth teams in the Lakeland Soccer Club and the Lakeland Highlands Soccer Club. In 2003 his Lakeland Highlands Shockers U19 boys team finished in first place in the United Soccer Association (USA) league. Stross is also the Aquatic and Wellness Coordinator for Southeastern. Stross has been married to his high school sweetheart, Teresa, since 1996. The couple lives in Lakeland and has two children: a daughter named Brenna and a son named Nicholas. "I feel blessed that God has opened this door for me to be in a situation where I not only get to help these ladies become better soccer players but I also get to be involved in their lives at such an important time in their spiritual development," Stross said.
He was named a 2007 NCCAA II Second Team All-American after scoring four goals in three games in the 2007 NCCAA II National Tournament. He ended his Southeastern career by becoming the program's all-time leader in goals scored with 37. He was also named a Second Team All-Region player in 2008. Coach Bloodworth graduated from Southeastern in May of 2009 with a degree in psychology.
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