Podcast: Tufts coach Kyle Dezotell on adding to the program’s championship legacy

Tufts men's head coach Kyle Dezotell joined 'The Goal' podcast. (Ryan Hunt/Getty Images)

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast was Tufts University men’s soccer head coach Kyle Dezotell.

He led the powerhouse NESCAC program to a Division 3 national championship last December, as Tufts polished off an impressive 20-1-3 campaign in 2025. 

Dezotell was hired in March 2020 as head coach of the Jumbos. Prior to his arrival at Tufts, he spent three years at Ithaca College. Dezotell was also previously the head coach at Manhattanville College (2016), Norwich University (2006-15) and at Johnson State College (2004-05).

A former Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year, Dezotell went on to star collegiately at Middlebury, before graduating in 2003. 

Dezotell joined hosts Matt Langone and Matt Doherty to discuss the experience of winning the national championship, the strength of the NESCAC, and his vision for the future of the program. 

Here are some highlights from the discussion:

On reflecting on the national championship, two months after the fact:

Dezotell: “Just an incredible season. A really fun couple of months and now we’re sort of navigating — it’s time to move forward and try to see what we can do in 2026. But, also, you should enjoy the moment, so we’ve enjoyed it and we want our players to enjoy it, because who knows if it will ever happen again — we’re going to try to make it happen again.”

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On building the program roster:

Dezotell: “We delved into the transfer portal, because we felt like we needed a proven goal-scorer and someone that was just a constant threat for us. We’ve been really good the last couple of years, but we maybe haven’t quite had an attacking player or two that actually kind of put fear into other teams. We’ve been really solid defensively and, in our opinion, have had the best midfield and the best midfield depth in the country.”

On what the championship run could mean for the future of the program:

Dezotell: “We’re the second-most storied Division 3 program. I think Messiah has won 11 or 12 — a crazy amount of national championships. At Tufts, we now have five. So, I think the players in our program, I think they felt some pressure, because it had been five years. But it’s also crazy to put that type of pressure — like, there’s 430 teams in Division 3. We were ranked No. 1 in the country in three of the last five seasons, we just didn’t win the national championship. So, you hope maybe some of that pressure is relieved. … The crazy part of this year is we played without any pressure. I think in the past we maybe felt like we had to defend our program and what the program has done in the past, and it wasn’t working out. I think that’s too much pressure, it’s too much on the shoulders of the players. This year it was like, ‘let’s just go attack everything.'”

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