Women's Soccer

The only coach to take Kansas City Kansas Community College to the NJCAA DI national women’s soccer, Shawn Uhlenhake begins his eighth season as Blue Devil mentor.

The winningest coach in KCKCC women’s soccer, Uhlenhake guided the Blue Devils to the most wins ever in 2019 and the DII national tournament in 2020. In 11 seasons as head coach at two and four-year colleges, he’s a two-time Coach of the Year.

After a school record of 13 wins in 2019, Uhlenhake earned NJCAA Region VI Coach of the Year honors after leading KCKCC to the school’s first and only Jayhawk regular season conference championship. Boasting a 12-4-1 record, the Blue Devils advanced to the 2020 national tournament in -Georgia.

Uhlenhake, 44, took over a fledging KCKCC women’s program that had managed only six wins (6-35-3) in its first four seasons. His first team in 2016 won five games (5-9-0), the most ever, and then increased the win record to seven (7-10-0) the following season.

His breakout season of 13 wins (13-4-0) in 2019 was highlighted by a pair of outstanding individual performances. Midfielder Melissa Siegel led the nation with her 21 assists while scoring leader Corrine Hughes earned honorable mention on the NJCAA DII All-America team, the only Blue Devil so honored.

 The first and only Jayhawk regular season championship came in only Uhlenhake’s fifth season in 2020 and was culminated by the national tournament berth and his Region Coach the Year awards. The Blue Devils were led by Katharina Oelshlager, who was named KJCCC Offensive Player of the Year in 2020 and again 2021. His 7-year record is 48-53-7.

Born in Springfield, Mo., Uhlenhake began playing competitive soccer in sixth grade after moving to Topeka, Kan. Also active in baseball and basketball, he gave up those sports to concentrate on soccer in middle school. He played high school soccer at both Topeka Hayden and Topeka High. The leading scorer at Hayden, Uhlenhake graduated from Topeka High where he was a defender on a team that finished second in the state tournament as a senior in 1996-97.

Uhlenhake had an outstanding college career. In two years at State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo., the Roadrunners advanced to the NJCAA national tournament for the first time ever in his freshman season and then won the national championship is sophomore campaign. A defender, he scored one goal, which happened to be in the District Championship.  The Roadrunners went on to win the National Championship that year. His final two years were played at Linderwood, where the Lions qualified for the NAIA national tournament both as a junior and senior, both years finishing in the Top 10.

Uhlenhake began his coaching career in club soccer, coaching the Olathe Youth Soccer Club (now Kansas Rush) for seven years and Blue Valley Sporting one season. In 2011, he began his collegiate coaching as women’s coach at Barton Community College. After one semester he was named head men’s and women’s coach at Western Texas in Snyder, Tex.

In his first season, the men’s team won both the district and region championships and earned a berth in the NJCAA national tournament for the first time in Western Texas history. Uhlenhake was named both District and Region Coach of the Year.

After two years as women’s coach and four as men’s coach at Western Texas, Uhlenhake was named KCKCC’s third women in the spring of 2016. The move fulfilled a goal of Uhlenhake to be nearer his family and that at of his wife, the former Tiffany Curtis, a Tipton MO high school grad now employed in the Kansas City area medical field. The couple has one daughter, 6-year-old Molly, who attends Piper elementary school.