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After seven years at the helm of the University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team, head coach Jeff Rohrman announced his resignation Tuesday from the position.

“I just think it’s time for a new chapter in Wisconsin men’s soccer,” Rohrman said. “I think we’ve done some good things to get the program to a good level. You look at our results and where we’ve positioned ourselves in regard to the RPI and all that over the last couple years, I think we’ve done a pretty good job. I think it’s time for a change in leadership.”

Rohrman finished the 2008 season with a 9-7-3 record, bringing his total record as UW coach to 61-63-12. Though he was 12-24-6 in Big Ten conference play and had only one win in the Big Ten Championships, he has led the Badgers to seasons of at least nine wins in five of the seven years. In addition, UW was ranked in national polls four times during his tenure (2002, 2006, 2007 and 2008).

Aside from the team’s success, Rohrman’s athletes garnered many individual accolades. The Badgers have received 16 Big Ten Player of the Week awards under Rohrman, and nine athletes, including Scott Lorenz, Eric Conklin and Taylor Waspi, combined for 17 All-Big Ten honors. In 2006, Aaron Hohlbein became only the UW’s fifth All-America soccer selection, earning a spot on the third team as well as becoming the second Rohrman-coached Badger to be drafted into the MLS. This year, Colin Monasterio also became the 11th Badger to be named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team during Rohrman’s time in Madison. Encouraging off the field success as well, Rohrman saw his players receive 44 Academic All-Big Ten honors.

Before taking the head coaching job at UW, Rohrman had collected an impressive resume that included a three-year stint as a national team coordinator at the United States Soccer Federation in Chicago. A 1986 graduate of UW-Milwaukee, Rohrman took his first head coaching job at Bethany Lutheran in Mankato, MN, before making stops in Chicago and the U.S. Naval Academy. Immediately prior to coming to Wisconsin, he was an assistant coach at Maryland, where the Terrapins made six appearances in the NCAA tournament along with a College Cup appearance and an ACC title.

Despite all the success he’s had at Wisconsin, Rohrman believes what he’ll take with him from the experience will be more meaningful than any records or awards.

“Well, I would say this,” he said. “As much as you might remember the games, or the wins and the losses, it always comes down to the people. Those are the things you’re going to remember most, whether it’s a bus trip, team meetings, training — you know, all the fun and camaraderie that comes with being a part of a special group. That’s always going to be first and foremost in my mind, and certainly I’m going to take a lot of good memories with me from the experiences over the years.”

UW can take from Rohrman’s time the benefit of a program that appears to be on the upswing. Since 2002, Wisconsin has had only one season in which they finished more than one game below the .500 mark, and this past season, they only lost a single game by more than one goal. Rohrman’s work seems to have the Badgers on the cusp of getting an NCAA berth in the near future, which would be their first since 1995 when they were champions. He has high hopes his time spent coaching here will do just that and that his legacy will be that he left the program stronger than he received it.

“I’d like to think that the people who are looking at Wisconsin soccer at this time are saying it’s in better shape than maybe where it was when we came in,” Rohrman said. “If you look at where we are in the strength of the program, the caliber of the Big Ten, the strength of schedule … I think it’s pretty clear that it’s a [success], it’s a very good nationally competitive program, and it’s poised to make the next jump and get itself positioned so it’s consistently getting into the (NCAA) tournament.”

As for the future, Rohrman hopes to stay active in soccer. A coach with his laurels should be in high demand, and he is optimistic for what may lie ahead.

“Well, obviously I’d love to stay in the game; I’m going to review and take a look at all options that are available to me,” Rohrman said. “You know, I think something’s going to come my way. It’s one of those situations where you just don’t know where and when; you just have to be ready to take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself.”