Nate Boyden, who starred collegiately at UC Santa Barbara and has played professionally around the world, has joined the Bradley Soccer coaching staff as an assistant for the 2012 season.
Boyden was a two-time All-Big West Conference selection, helping UC Santa Barbara to a national runner-up finish in 2004, as well as Big West titles in 2001, 2002 and 2004. The 2005 Big West Conference Men’s Soccer Student-Athlete of the Year, Boyden graduated in 2006 with his bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in sport management.
Boyden began his professional playing career in 2006 by joining the Seattle Sounders in the United Soccer Leagues. He also earned a spot on the reserve squad for Major League Soccer’s Chivas USA in 2006, where he met former Bradley All-American Tim Regan. Boyden was the Sounders’ 2007 Community Player of the Year and he took his game overseas in 2009, playing for Rostock FC, a semi-professional team in Rostock, Germany. He played for the Michigan Bucks this summer, helping the squad to the best regular-season record in the Premier Development League and was voted by his teammates and team management as the 14th recipient of the Paul R. Scicluna Michigan Bucks “Total Soccer” Player of the Year.
Boyden comes to Bradley from Michigan, where he was a volunteer assistant for the Wolverines’ women’s soccer team during the 2011 season while pursuing his master’s degree in psychology with a concentration in cognition and cognitive neuroscience. He also has coached the Shoreline FC U-17 and U-17 age group teams from 2007-08 and was an assistant coach for the San Marcos Boys High School from 2005-06. His camp instructor experience includes four years at UC Santa Barbara (2002-05), as well as two years each with the Seattle Sounders (2006-07) and at Michigan (2009-10).