Tim Carter (soccer)


Tim Carter is an association football manager who became the director of Minnesota United FC's development academy in 2016. He has spent much of his career working in youth development, working as director and head coach of the academy at Shattuck-Saint Mary's from 2005 to 2016. He worked for the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1996 to 2002, starting as a staff coach before becoming the director of youth development. He has also worked as a head coach for several clubs, most notably for Pittsburgh Riverhounds from 2002 to 2003.

Career

After graduating from the University of Southern Maine in 1979, Carter became an assistant coach at Bowdoin College. He later served as an assistant coach for the Duke Blue Devils before getting his first head coaching position for the Eckerd Tritons. He later held a head coach position for the Illinois State Redbirds. He was also a state coach for the Illinois Youth Soccer Association. In 1996, he became a national staff coach for U.S. Soccer Federation. In 1999, he became U.S. Soccer's Director of Youth Development, and worked on the development of Project 2010. He served in this role until 2002.
Carter worked as Chicago Fire SC's director of youth development from 2001 to 2002. In 2002, he joined the Pittsburgh Riverhounds as an assistant coach and the director of youth development. After the head coach Kai Haaskivi left the club on July 8, 2002, Carter became the club's interim head coach, before being made a permanent coach on September 5, 2002. Carter was replaced by defender Ricardo Iribarren on July 11, 2003, ending his term with a 10–11–5 record.
In 2003, Carter moved to Minnesota to take a position with the coaching staff of Minnesota Thunder. In 2004, Carter was recruited to serve as director of soccer for Shattuck-Saint Mary's, a boarding school in Faribault, Minnesota. The school's U18 Development Academy commenced the following year with Carter as the head coach. The academy was accepted into the U.S. Soccer Development Academy program in 2010.
On September 8, 2016, Minnesota United FC announced that they had hired Carter to become the director of their new development academy as the club transitioned up to Major League Soccer. Under Carter's direction, Minnesota's academy employs a coaching wheel system, wherein coaches are involved not just with their own team, but with the teams above and below theirs within the academy.