Pete Cuadrado, a two-time Division I Conference Coach of the Year and NCAA Tournament head coach, was named the first women’s soccer program head coach in Tarleton State University history. The program played its first games in the Fall 2022 season.
Starting in 2025, coach Cuadrado serves as the WAC Conference representative to the United Soccer Coaches Association.
In 2024, coach Cuadado led the Texans to new heights, with the Purple and White advancing to their first conference tournament appearance. He helped four athletes gain ALL-WAC honors after the regular season. Mikayla Kendall and Kaitlyn Flanagan were named to the second team and Kimberley Hjálmarsdóttir and Adelaide Wyrzynski were tabbed to the all-freshman team. Additionally, Kendall was named to the All-Pacific region second team by the United Soccer Coaches.
Cuadrado's squad set several team records on the pitch in 2024.The team's nine overall wins and three conference victories set new school records in their third season. For the first time in program history, the crew post a sub-one goals against average, 0.95. The team defense also set a new single-season high with eight shutouts across the season. The offense was at its best as well, setting a new record with 29 total goals.
After his first three seasons in Stephenville, Cuadrado has pushed his program to the most wins in the first three seasons by any team that has orginated in Division I in the past 10 years.
In Tarleton’s inaugural season, Cuadrado led the Texans to a 6-9-3 overall record and 2-7-2 WAC record. In their first game as a program, the Texans tied North Dakota State in a neutral site match held in Louisiana on Aug. 19. Two days later, Tarleton knocked off host Nicholls 1-0 for their first win as a program (Aug. 21). The Texans opened the season 4-1-1, including the first home victory in program history against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Cuadrado closed the season on a pair of wins against Stephen F. Austin and UTRGV for the squad’s first conference victories. The Texans held UTPB to just one shot on Sept. 9, the lowest shots allowed by a WAC team in 2022.
Individually, Cuadrado helped guide Mila Bettinelli to a Freshman All-WAC selection following the season. Bettinelli became the first Texan to recieve a women’s soccer WAC postseason award. She finished in the WAC top-10 in four offensive categories. Kiki Baurmann ranked third in the conference in assists and was one of four players in the league to record a three-assist game. In goal, Mikayla Kendall ranked fifth in shutouts (5) and ninth in total saves (60). As a squad, the Texans finished third in the conference in goals against average.
Before coming to Tarleton State, Cuadrado spent nine seasons as the head women’s soccer coach at North Dakota State, then spent another nine seasons at the helm at Wyoming, where he’s the school’s all-time winningest coach. Cuadrado has been an NCAA Division I head coach for the last 20 seasons between North Dakota State, Wyoming and Tarleton State. He’s led Tarleton State in their first NCAA Division I seasons and North Dakota State from Division II reclassification into NCAA Division I in 2003.
“I want to thank President Dr. James Hurley, Lonn Reisman, the entire search committee and all the wonderful people I met on my visit to Stephenville,” said Cuadrado. “I was completely impressed with how the athletic department is a family and how they are moving forward into the Division I transition. It’s exciting and humbling for me to be the first women’s soccer head coach at Tarleton.”
Cuadrado has established success in helping build two separate Division I teams into championship programs, posting a career 168-131-42 record as a head coach prior to arriving in Stephenville. At Wyoming, Cuadrado helped the Cowgirls win the Mountain West Championship in 2018, the first championship in program history. Cuadrado is the only soccer coach in Wyoming history with multiple 10-win seasons, which he has done four times in nine seasons. Cuadrado was also voted Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in 2014 after leading the Cowgirls to an 8-3 league record.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Pete Cuadrado to Tarleton as the first women’s soccer head coach in school history,” said Reisman. “As the hiring committee went through the impressive list of candidates, Coach Cuadrado’s name continued to rise to the top each time. Pete has won at every level he’s been at, winning championships in the Summit and Mountain West Conferences as a Division I head coach for almost two decades.
“He brings an immediate impact and credibility to this program and the WAC,” Reisman added. “The state of Texas has a strong reputation of producing high-quality women’s soccer student-athletes and we couldn’t think of a better time to add the program with a championship-caliber head coach to lead the way. We are thrilled to have Pete and his family join us at Tarleton as he takes us through the transition process and beyond and I have no doubt he will be tremendously successful, as he has been throughout his career.”
Prior to Wyoming, Cuadrado spent nine seasons as the head coach at North Dakota State from 2003-11 where he helped the Bison transition from NCAA Division II to I in his first season at the helm. Cuadrado left NDSU as the program’s all-time wins leader after winning a pair of conference championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2010 where they tied with No. 6 Texas A&M 1-1 in the opening round. In 2005, Cuadrado was voted as the NCAA Division I Independent Coach of the Year after a six-win turnaround in his second season at the Division I level. Cuadrado posted double-digit winning seasons in seven of his eight seasons at NDSU, including a 15-3-2 record in his final season in 2011, which is the most wins in a season in school history.
In his career as a head coach, Cuadrado has three regular season conference championships and two coach of the year awards. He has coached three defensive player of the year winners, 52 all-conference selections, 15 all-region selections, 100 conference all-academic recipients, and 17 NSCAA team academic awards.
Cuadrado got his coaching career started at Valparaiso as an assistant where he also earned his master’s degree in athletic administration. He then spent two years at Illinois State before landing his first head coaching job at North Dakota State. Throughout his time coaching he has been active in the Olympic Development Program (ODP). Cuadrado also has his USSF National “B” Coaching License, National Goalkeeping License and National Youth License.
Cuadrado played college soccer at Northeastern Illinois for two seasons before transferring to TCU. He was a member of the Horned Frogs soccer program that was ranked as high as No. 8 regionally and earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing in 2000. He is married to Dr. Babette Cuadrado, PhD., who earned a doctorate in Adult and Higher Education from University of South Dakota, and the couple has a daughter, Kami.
| The Pete Cuadrado File |
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Hometown |
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New Orleans, Louisiana |
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High School |
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Urbandale (IA) High School ('95) |
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College |
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TCU ('00) |
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Graduate Degree |
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Valparaiso ('02) |
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Family |
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Wife: Babette |
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Daughter: Kami |
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| Coaching History |
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Year(s) |
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School |
Position |
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2000 |
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Valparaiso |
First Assistant |
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2001-02 |
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Illinois State |
First Assistant |
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2003-2011 |
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North Dakota State |
Head Coach |
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2012-2020 |
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Wyoming |
Head Coach |
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2021-Present |
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Tarleton State |
Head Coach |
| Coach Award History |
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Year |
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Award |
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2005 |
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Independent Coach of the Year |
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2014 |
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Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year |
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| NCAA Head Coaching Record |
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Year |
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School |
Overall |
Note |
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2003 |
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North Dakota State (DII) |
11-3-2 |
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2004 |
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North Dakota State |
5-11-1 |
First year of NCAA Division I Transition |
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2005 |
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North Dakota State |
11-5-1 |
Independent Coach of the Year |
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2006 |
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North Dakota State |
13-7-1 |
Regular Season Summit Conference Champs |
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2007 |
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North Dakota State |
11-7-1 |
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2008 |
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North Dakota State |
5-12-2 |
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2009 |
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North Dakota State |
10-8-2 |
Regular Season Summit Conference Champs |
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2010 |
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North Dakota State |
12-5-6 |
NCAA Tournament First Round / Conf. Champs |
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2011 |
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North Dakota State |
15-3-2 |
Most Wins in NDSU History |
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2012 |
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Wyoming |
8-8-2 |
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2013 |
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Wyoming |
7-11-4 |
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2014 |
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Wyoming |
11-9-1 |
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2015 |
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Wyoming |
10-6-4 |
First Back-to-Back 10-win Season in Wyoming History |
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2016 |
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Wyoming |
10-8-2 |
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2017 |
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Wyoming |
8-9-2 |
Fastest Coach in Wyoming history to win 50 games |
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2018 |
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Wyoming |
12-4-4 |
Mountain West Conference Champs |
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2019 |
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Wyoming |
7-7-5 |
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2020 |
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Wyoming |
2-7-0 |
Spring Season due to COVID-19 |
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2021 |
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Tarleton State |
0-0-0 |
Starting new program, one year to recruit |
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2022 |
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Tarleton State |
6-9-3 |
Program's Inaugural Season |
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2023 |
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Tarleton State |
4-12-3 |
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2024 |
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Tarleton State |
9-8-3 |
First WAC Tournament appearance |
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Total |
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Tarleton: 3 yrs |
19-29-9 |
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NCAA: 21 yrs |
187-159-51 |
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