Biography - Schellas Hyndman

Record at SMU: 307-81-28 (20 years)

Career Record: 405-105-396 (27 years)

Longevity in one career is rare and to be consistently successful is even more amazing. As he enters his 21st season in fall, 2004 as SMU's head coach, Schellas Hyndman (pronounced SHELL-us HIGHND-mun) has earned the respect of his coaching peers on the national level. Since taking over the SMU soccer program in 1984, Hyndman has produced a winning season each year. According to recent NCAA statistics, his winning percentage (.773) ranks second among active Division I head men's soccer coaches. His 405 victories also rank him second among active men’s Division I soccer coaches. Under Hyndman, the Mustangs have never won fewer than 10 games in a season.

For the first time in his collegiate coaching career, one of Hyndman’s current players was a member of a full national team. Sophomore defender Mynor Gonzalez was called up to the Guatemalan full national team last summer and started in a number of games in the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition.

With a 4-0 win over UT-Dallas on September 24, 2003, Hyndman earned the distinguishable title of SMU’s winningest coach, passing men’s basketball coach Doc Hayes, who posted a record of 299 wins and 191 losses as head coach from 1947-67. Nearly two weeks later, SMU’s 1-0 victory over Eastern Illinois gave Hyndman his 400th career win, becoming only the third active Division I men’s coach to post at least 400 career wins and sixth all-time.

Hyndman has also earned an unprecedented six consecutive league Coach of the Year honors (WAC: 1997, 1998, 1999; MVC: 2000, 2001, 2002), and was named the NSCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year three seasons of the last four seasons as well.

SMU looks to defend its MVC Tournament title and enters the 2004 season as the strong favorite to repeat as league champs.

In 2002, SMU captured its third consecutive MVC regular-season title (in as many seasons) and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. SMU reached the third round of the tournament and closed out the season ranked 12th in the nation.

The magic continued in 2001 as the Mustangs rattled off an undefeated regular season and held the top ranking in the nation for most of the season. The Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament champions, SMU entered the NCAA Tournament as the top seed in the 64-team field. A 2-0 loss to St. John’s in quarterfinal play, though, closed out SMU’s bid for a second straight College Cup appearance and finished the season with a remarkable 21-1 record.

Senior forward Luchi Gonzalez swept all of the major awards as the recipient of SMU’s first-ever Hermann Trophy award, the Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year honor and was named the Soccer America Collegiate Player of the Year.

The 2000 season was one to remember since the inception of the program in 1975 as the Mustangs made their first-ever Final four appearance in the College Cup. SMU finally cleared the quarterfinal hurdle in its ninth attempt. Even though eventual NCAA champion Connecticut handed SMU a loss in the semifinals, the experience will go far on the road for future seasons. SMU won a school-record 20 wins, including 14 straight victories (which tied a school record). The Mustangs scored a school-record 81 goals and led the nation in scoring the last seven weeks of the season. The accolades for Hyndman continued after the conclusion of the 2000 season. He received his second Dallas All-Sports Association College Coach of the Year award in June, 2001.

Hyndman has led the Ponies to the NCAA quarterfinals in 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997, and 2001, as well as the national semifinals in 2000. He was named the Midwest Region Coach of the Year for the first time in 1988 and received the prestigious Dallas All-Sports Association “College Coach of the Year” award in 1986. He is on the Federation National Staff, is a member of the NSCAA national coaching staff and was on the NCAA Division I men’s soccer championship committee for six years. In January of 2001, Hyndman became a member of the NSCAA Executive Committee.

A special honor was bestowed to Hyndman in January, 2003, when the NSCAA awarded him with the NSCAA Director of Coaching Emeritus title in recognition of his outstanding achievements in coaching, becoming only the fourth coach in the history of the organization to achieve such a prestigious title. During the summer of 2003, Hyndman was named Assistant Athletic Director at SMU.

It has become a tradition for at least one of Hyndman’s players to receive All-America or All-Region honors. He has coached 16 Mustangs to All-America status, including eight first-team honorees. In 2002, two Mustangs were selected as All-Americans (Diego Walsh - first team; Kevin Friedland - second team) while Walsh added his second MVC Player of the Year honors to his accolades. Walsh became the sixth consecutive Mustang to be named the Conference Player of the Year. In 2003, Ramon Nunez was bestowed with Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year honors.

In 1997, midfielder Daniel Hernandez, previously a member of the MLS’ New England Revolution and currently with Mexico’s Necaxa team, was named the NSCAA Player of the Year.

Hyndman’s success did not begin at SMU. In seven years as head coach at his alma mater, Eastern Illinois, he led the Panthers to the NCAA playoffs each season. He was named National Coach of the Year in 1981 when his team finished third in the NCAA playoffs in its first season of Division I competition. Hyndman performed well as a player, too, earning four letters and starting for the 1969 NAIA championship team. Hyndman was inducted into the Eastern Illinois Athletic Hall of Fame in September, 2001.

Born November 4, 1949, in Macau, Hyndman spent the first eight years of his life in China. His Portuguese father was the son of a merchant sailor who settled in Shanghai and married a Eurasian woman. Hyndman’s mother emigrated from Russia to China.

In 1957, the growing threat of Communism forced Hyndman’s family to flee China for Springfield, Ohio. Two years later his father died, leaving him in a new country at the age of 10. But Hyndman harnessed the challenge to excel as a student, soccer player and coach.

Academics continue to be a major focus for Hyndman’s soccer program at SMU. Luchi Gonzalez was selected as the 2001 Verizon Academic All-America Men’s Soccer Team Player of the Year while Diego Walsh earned first team Academic All-America honors in 2001 and 2002. Kevin Hudson was selected to the 2003 CoSIDA Academic All-America men’s soccer first team.

Hyndman was an outstanding student himself. He received a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Eastern Illinois in 1973 and a master’s degree in physical education and recreation from Murray State in 1975.

At Murray State, Hyndman split time as a graduate student and coach of the school’s soccer team. He added a degree in guidance and counseling from Eastern Illinois in 1977.

Hyndman played for the Cincinnati Comets of the American Soccer League in 1975. The following year, he taught at Escola Graduada de Sao Paulo in Brazil, where he received a certificate to coach and train daily with the famous Sao Paulo Futebol Clube.

While attending Butler High School in Vandalia, Ohio, he became fascinated with the sport of karate. He has advanced to the level of 10th degree black belt — the ultimate level, and now teaches a karate class twice a week. He also conducts a regional youth soccer camp each summer at SMU and frequently receives invitations to teach at various camps throughout the country.

Hyndman and his wife, Kami, have three children, Tony, Jaime and Tamara.

Biography taken from the SMU Mustangs website