Kat MertzClaim this profile

Women's SoccerKat Mertz

Women's Soccer Head Coach

Metropolitan State University of Denver

5.0

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Would Recommend

Overall

5.0

Caring

5.0

Motivational

5.0

Knowledgeable

5.0

Honest

5.0

Tags

Great LeaderKnows The GameDevelops Team Beyond The FieldCreates A Great Team CultureBelieves In You

Played under Kat Mertz 4 years at MSUD - we didn’t always agree but she always cared. She made a not so successful team very successful and left the program in a better place than she found it. She cared about the players safety and prioritized mental health. She instilled a great team culture and made that a number one priority. She didn’t want to just coach good players, but help make sure we were all great people.

Women's SoccerKat Mertz

Women's Soccer Head Coach

University of Oregon

1.0

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Would Recommend

Overall

1.0

Caring

1.0

Motivational

1.0

Knowledgeable

1.0

Honest

1.0

Tags

DisorganizedOld School MentalityPoor Communication

What isn’t there to say about Kat. She pits players against each other and creates the most toxic environment possible. She doesn’t know the game of soccer and relies on other coaches hoping they know what they are talking about. If the game plan breaks down, she cannot correct her team to fix their mistakes. Once she has a game plan, she can’t adapt. She can’t develop a team on or off the field. She will tell you to your face she doesn’t believe in you. She has poor communication skills and does not know how to provide mental, physical, or emotional support to any of her athletes. She doesn’t care about supporting you academically and is vocally upset if you had school conflicts with soccer. She made some players miss their final during the summer and made them fail a class. She is not understanding and has vocalized not being able to sympathize with her players. During my time at school, the team was so toxic that we had a team therapist. Kat could not handle being a Pac-12 coach with winning just 4 out of the 22 games I played with the program. After the ‘17 season, 25 of the 30 players stepped forward to the AD and asked her to remove Kat as the head coach. The AD said no because she didn’t believe Kat was a bad person or a bad coach. She went on to have 2 more losing seasons making that 7 losing seasons in total. Every year she had a losing record. As a team bonding exercise, she bought ducks and made the players take care of them. We had to (no excuses) drive to the field to rotate the eggs at 6:30 am and 11 pm. Even if we didn’t have a car, we were expected to bike or walk to the field which was off campus. If you are questioning power dynamics, she did marry her ex-player. Unfortunately, this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg with Kat and I wish I could type more. I would not recommend ever playing for this woman.