Clarion Athletics

Sean Esterhuizen enters his fifth season at the helm of the Golden Eagles in 2018.  The veteran head coach will lead a youthful team made primarily of underclassmen this season, with 18 players either at freshman or sophomore eligibility.

Esterhuizen presided over the most successful season in program history in 2017, laying down a foundation for greater success as his team continues to jell.  Clarion tied the program record for wins with a 6-7-5 overall record, and set a new program record for conference victories with a 5-6-5 mark against PSAC opponents.  At one point the Golden Eagles went four straight conference games without allowing a goal, going 3-0-1 in that span.  Goalkeeper Krista Mosi earned All-PSAC Third Team honors in 2017, setting the program record for goals-against average (0.796) and tying the record for save percentage in a season (.866).

The 2015 squad posted a 5-12-1 record, the most wins for the program since the 2007 campaign.  That team also recorded 22 goals, the most goals in a season since the program’s inception in 2001.  Esterhuizen’s 2014 squad excelled in the classroom, winning the annual Clarion Carlson Cup Team Award, which goes to the Clarion athletic team that shows the biggest overall increase in GPA during the past calendar year. 17 members of the 2014 soccer squad were “Scholar Athletes” and achieved a GPA of 3.2 or above, and the overall Team GPA hovers at 3.5.  In addition, the squad has also been very active in the community, raising $3,892 in 2015 for the annual Relay For Life, which was first amongst 29 teams participating in the event.

Esterhuizen, who has 17 seasons of experience as a collegiate head coach and 22 seasons as a high school head coach, joined Clarion in August 2014. 
Previously Esterhuizen was the head coach at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, where he coached both the men’s and women’s NAIA teams from 2006 through 2011, leading the women to school record seasons in 2007 and 2010, and the men to school record seasons in 2010 and 2011.  He also spent three seasons in Dubuque as head girls coach at Hempstead High School, posting two record seasons of 13-6 and 18-3 as he led the 2014 squad to a 13 game winning streak, the Regional Title and runner-up in the State Championship.

At Clarke, Esterhuizen took over struggling teams. In 2006, he opened with a 4-15-1 record with the women’s program, but quickly took the team in 2007 to a school best 12-5-2 overall record and 5-2-1 in the MCC conference. This was followed by a school record 13 wins (13-5-1; 6-2 MCC) in 2010.  Overall the women’s team recorded a 23-12-5 (.638) conference record with Esterhuizen at the helm, and an average team GPA of 3.4 over the last four seasons.
 
In rebuilding the men’s program at Clarke, Esterhuizen started 6-14 in 2006, but jumped to school record seasons of 8-9-1 overall (4-4 MCC) in 2010, and 8-9-1 overall (5-3 MCC) in 2011. He posted a conference record of 19-19-2 (.500) in his six seasons.
 
Esterhuizen, a native of Florida Park, South Africa, played for the youth teams of Rangers Professional Soccer Club from 1970-76. In 1974 he was a South Africa U-16 Schools Southern Transvaal Province selection. In 1976 he came to the United States on a student-exchange program to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he played for the Serbian Soccer Club.  He returned to South Africa and continued to play for the Highlands Power Professional Soccer Club in 1978.
 
Upon returning to Milwaukee in the summer of 1978, he enrolled at University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UWP) and had a tremendous collegiate soccer career, scoring 53 goals and 35 assists.  Esterhuizen still holds the single season record for assists at UWP (17), is third in career goals (53), third in career assists (35) and second in career points (141). He was a first team all-conference selection all four seasons, team MVP in 1979 and 1983, and an All-Wisconsin 1st Team pick in 1982 and 1983. An NSCAA All-America Northeast selection in 1983, he was inducted into the Platteville Soccer Wall of Fame in 2000.
 
After graduating from UWP with a degree in Computer Science and an emphasis in Business, he worked in California and then took a job with Boeing Computer Services in Richland, Washington, where he started a strong high school coaching career in 1993.
 
Sean was the head boy’s soccer coach at Pasco High School (Pasco, WA) for 10 seasons (1993-2002) leading his teams to an overall record of 150-23 (.867), a state title (1999), a regional title, 7 district crowns, 5 league titles and was twice ranked as a top 20 program in the nation in 1996 and 1999. He was named the National High School Coaches Association “Coach of the Year” in 1999 and was selected Conference or Area “Coach of the Year” 9 times.
 
Esterhuizen also coached the girl’s soccer team at Hanford High School (Richland, Wa.) for five seasons (2001-05) and the Hanford boy’s team for four seasons (2002-2005). The girl’s teams were 84-19 (.816) and were in the state semifinals, twice in the quarterfinals, and won 1 regional, 2 district and 3 league titles. The boy’s teams were 55-18 (.753), and had 1 state quarterfinal, 2 district and 3 league crowns.
 
Overall Esterhuizen coached 22 seasons of high school soccer and has a record of 326-81 – a winning percentage of .801.
 
Esterhuizen also served as the coaching and recruiting coordinator of Worldwide Soccer Tours and Northwest All Stars from 1997 to 2001. Esterhuizen’s Northwest All Stars U-19 women’s team took second place in the 2001 Dana Cup (Denmark), competing with 86 teams from 14 different countries. In 1997 his Northwest All Stars U-16 women’s team took third in the 1997 Dana Cup.  In 2001 his men’s U-17 team won the B-Division of the Norway Cup.