49ers name Langan men's soccer coach

Kevin Langan has been named the 49ers’ new men’s soccer coach.

Langan, a 49ers assistant since 2009, replaces Jeremy Gunn, who resigned recently to become coach at Stanford. Langan was the program's associate head coach in 2011.

Langan inherits a program that was one of college soccer’s biggest stories last season, when the 49ers advanced to the championship game of the NCAA tournament’s College Cup, losing 1-0 to North Carolina.

Eight starters will return next season for a 49ers team that is bound to have high expectations.

“I am extremely excited and honored to become the head coach of the Charlotte 49ers soccer team,” Langan said in a statement. “I would like to thank athletic director Judy Rose, Senior Associate Athletic Director Kim Whitestone and the university for giving me the opportunity to lead the program onwards. I would also like to thank the current players, alumni and the Charlotte soccer community for the fantastic support I have received over the past few weeks; it has all been quite humbling to be honest.”

This is Langan’s first collegiate head-coaching job. He came to Charlotte in 2009 after spending four years as the head boys coach of the Classics Elite Soccer Academy in San Antonio.

Langan came to the United States in 2004 from the University of Bath in England. Raised on the Channel Island of Jersey, Langan played professionally for England’s Bristol City and represented England in two World University Games, captaining the team in 2003. He also played for England’s “futsal” (indoor) team.

Langan played for two seasons as a graduate student for Incarnate Word, a small college in San Antonio, helping the Cardinals to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in 2004.

Langan is the seventh coach in the 49ers’ 36-year soccer history. Gunn was 64-26-14 in five seasons at Charlotte.