After seventeen years under one coach, things will finally look different at East Bay.

On March 14, Cal State East Bay athletic director Jason Carmichael named Robin Hart the new women’s soccer team head coach.

In January, previous head coach of the Pioneers, Amy Gerace, retired after 17 years, forcing East Bay to look for a new leader for the team.

Hart becomes the eighth head coach of the CSUEB women’s soccer team and brings a ton of experience to the Pioneers.

Before joining East Bay, Hart was the head coach at Menlo College, an NCAA Division III in Atherton last season. She led Menlo to a 11-5-3 overall record and a 5-3-2 conference record in addition to a 7-1-1 record at home. This record was an improvement from their previous season where they finished 8-7-3 overall and 3-5-2 in conference play before her arrival.

Hart also spent two seasons as an assistant coach for Sonoma State, who are in the same conference as CSUEB, the California Collegiate Athletic Association Conference, which also gives her some familiarity with the competition. During her time at Sonoma, the team won a regular season CCAA championship in 2015 and were runner-up in 2016.

“I started coaching high school soccer when I was a freshman in college at CSU Bakersfield,” Hart said. “After a few years [coaching] club and working a ‘regular’ job, I jumped at an opportunity to get into the college game at my alma mater.”

Hart played for San Francisco State in 2007 and 2008 where she was a standout on the soccer team. She earned All-CCAA first and second-team honors.

Hart is going to have her hands full, East Bay hasn’t a single winning season since being in the CCAA conference in 2009 and last season they finished 4-12-2 overall and 1-9-2 in CCAA games.

“Setting a high standard particularly on the training ground is how I think I can help shift the culture here at East Bay,” Hart said. “Practice is where change is made.”