WEST POINT, – Army West Point women’s soccer head coach Tracy Chao has announced the addition of Katie Nimitz to the coaching staff. Nimitz, a Fleming Island High grad and 2013 Final Four soccer goalie, joins the staff as an assistant coach overseeing the goalkeepers.

“I just keep looking around the country keeping an eye out for openings,” said Nimitz, in a telephone interview with Clay Today. “I like the idea of being in the West Point environment and coaching soccer. I had a grandfather who was a West Point grad and, no, the Navy’s U.S.S. Nimitz aircraft carrier is not named after him.”

Nimitz comes to the banks of the Hudson after spending one season at the University of Florida as the goalkeeper coach. While with the Gators, she coached the keepers to six shutouts and finished first in the SEC in saves (96).

“I was there for about a year,” said Nimitz. “We led the conference in goalie saves and shutouts.”

West Point soccer, an NCAA Division I program, lost in the Patriot League semifinals last year to Patriot champion Boston University and Nimitz would like that to change.

“One of my goals is to get a Patriot League title and get them team into the NCAA tournament,” said Nimitz.

Before her stint at Florida, Nimitz spent the 2020 season with the North Florida Soccer Academy in Jacksonville, Fla., where she was the director of goalkeeping. In the 2019 season, she was an assistant coach at Western Kentucky University. Nimitz led the goalkeepers in finishing the season third in Conference USA’s goals-against-average (1.05), third in shutouts (7), and second in lowest total of goals allowed (19).

Prior to her stint with the Hilltoppers, Nimitz spent the 2017 and 2018 seasons as Quincy University’s graduate assistant coach. The Hawks won the 2017 Great Lakes Valley Conference regular-season title, earned 13 shutouts, and allowed just 17 goals. Quincy advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament Round of 16 and finished No. 11 in the final poll of the 2017 season. She was a part of the coaching staff at Quincy that earned 2017 NCAA Division II Regional Coaching Staff of the Year recognition from the United Soccer Coaches Association.

Nimitz earned her United Soccer Coaches Association Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma and was a presenter for the organization in January 2018 at the Philadelphia Coaching Convention. Nimitz earned her USSF “D” license in June 2019. Nimitz has also served as a staff coach for SoccerPlus for several years, an organization founded by US Soccer legend, Tony DiCicco.

Since 2016, Nimitz has served as managing director of Beast Mode Soccer where she works extensively with the founder of the program, David Copeland Smith, and manages all aspects of the organization.

A Fleming Island, Fla., native, Nimitz received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 2017 and a master’s in educational leadership from Quincy University in 2019.