By: Claire McCullough
McPherson College Athletics is currently going through a lot of changes, big and small. From the sports Center being renamed to the Hoffman Sports Center to expanding on to other sports such as bowling. One new change for the 2025-2026 school year is that the campus’s Women’s Soccer Coach, Mark Olson, will not be there. Olson is planning to retire after the 2024-2025 school year.
Olson said that he has been coaching at MAC since 2015. He came to MAC because Doug Quint, his former teammate at Bethel College and the former head coach of both the Women’s and men’s team at MAC, reached out to Olson when the position of Associate Head Coach was available. After two years in that position, Olson became the Head Women’s Soccer Coach, and that is where he remains today. Olson started coaching in 1995 at Newton High School. Then for eighteen while living in the Kansas City area he coached men’s and women’s soccer teams of all ages.
Olson greatest success as a coach has been watching his players grow up. According to Olson “I like seeing players grow up. Seeing a player come in as a freshman, first year, first time away from home, scared, don’t know what to do, don’t know what to expect and then seeing them their senior year when they finally graduate”. Olson continues to watch some of his former players grow as he stays in contact with some of the players after graduation. Olson said, “I still keep in touch with several of the players that have graduated and gotten married and gone to weddings and their having children of their own”.
The aspect of closeness is what makes Olson a unique coach. According to Allyson Harrison, a sophomore whose been on the MAC Women’s Soccer team, “I feel like he’s very family orientated… like when he announced that he was leaving we were all kind of sad because he’s like our Kansas dad cause all of us are like not from Kansas”. Another player on the team, Courtney Wickham, a sophomore whose been on the team for two years, said that Coach Olson is calmer compared to other coaches she’s had in the past.
Olson stated that he’s ready for the next challenge in his life. According to Olson, “I’m excited to have time with the family and more set hours”, and that he would miss the “day to day interactions” with his players. However, Olson plans to stay in the McPherson area, and to come watch and support the team once he’s retired. One of Olsons sophomore players, Andrea Salas, whose been a part of the team for two years, said “seeing his support still there would honestly mean the world to me”.
