Mizzou has found its next soccer coach. Director of Athletics Laird Veatch announced Tuesday that Paul Hart, associate head coach at Stanford, will become the third head coach in program history on a five-year contract.
Hart will stay with Stanford through the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal were ranked No. 1 nationally for much of 2026, and the tournament field will be announced Nov. 16. Mizzou will introduce Hart at a Columbia event at a later date.
The hire comes days after the program announced a leadership
change. Stefanie Golan, who had led the program for six years, and the athletic department agreed to part ways. Mizzou closed its season Nov. 1 with a 0-0 draw at LSU.
“Paul has the experience, vision and championship pedigree we were looking for,” Veatch said, citing Hart’s recruiting and player development at Stanford. Hart said he was “incredibly honored and excited” and eager to start building relationships with his players.
Hart, a native of London, spent six seasons at Stanford, where he was promoted to associate head coach after the 2025 season. The Cardinal reached three straight College Cups, finished national runner-up in 2023 and 2025, and won their first ACC regular-season and tournament titles in 2025.
Stanford also led the nation in scoring offense this year, and Jasmine Aikey won the MAC Hermann Trophy. Hart has also been the staff’s recruiting coordinator, and the program has produced 23 NWSL players on his watch.
Hart’s path to Columbia began as a playing career in goal. He was a professional goalkeeper who graduated from West Texas A&M in 2004. His coaching career started at the junior college level; in 2011 he was named the NSCAA junior college assistant coach of the year for the Far West Region while at Santa Barbara City College.
He then moved to UC Santa Barbara, where he coached goalkeepers for the men’s and women’s teams and later served as head strength and conditioning coach. He became associate head coach and goalkeeper coach at San Francisco in 2016, then went to Oklahoma, where he was an assistant and, for three months, the interim head coach.
Washington hired him in February 2020, with head coach Nicole Van Dyke calling him a great recruiter and a highly knowledgeable and experienced coach. Stanford hired him as an assistant under head coach Paul Ratcliffe in 2021.
Golan, a St. Charles, Mo., native, was hired in 2021 from Minnesota to succeed founding coach Bryan Blitz, who retired after 25 seasons. Hart takes over a program that has now had three coaches in its 30-year history.
