Patrick Farmer completed his five seasons at the helm of the Cornell women's soccer program in 2016, with the team matching its best Ivy League finish since 1996 in his final two seasons. Cornell posted a 9-4-4 overall record in 2015, then went 5-9-2 in 2016 with a much more challenging non-league schedule. The nine wins in 2015 mark the most by the program since 2002, and the team's 8-0-3 start to the season was the best in program history.
In 2015, the Big Red had the unique distinction of being the final Division I across the entire nation to concede a goal when Wagner converted a penalty kick on Sept. 27. Cornell's shutout streak reached 10 consecutive games and a remarkable stretch of 1,059 minutes and 19 seconds — a program record. Juniors Elizabeth Crowell, a central midfielder, and Kelsey Tierney, a goalkeeper, became Cornell's first All-Ivy League first team selections since 1995. Crowell later earned her third career All-Ivy honor in 2016, when she was placed on the second team.
Cornell won eight games in 2014, including five of its first six. Among the victories in the team's stong start was a 3-2 come-from-behind win against Buffalo, which then went on a 14-game unbeaten streak and MAC championship. In Ivy League play, the Big Red defeated Penn for the first time since 1996 and Dartmouth for the first time since 1995.
Farmer came to the Big Red in April 2012 via the University of Wisconsin, where he served as an assistant coach with the Badgers' women's soccer team for three years. He now has 23 years of head coaching experience, amassing a 286-131-46 record at Ithaca College, Penn State, Tennessee Tech, Syracuse and Cornell. Farmer also served as a head coach at the professional level for two seasons, heading the New York Power of the Women's United Soccer Association.
When Farmer last left the head coaching ranks in 2007, he ranked 13th on the all-time wins list among active NCAA Division I women's soccer head coaches. He has been named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Coach of the Year at both the Division I and Division III levels.
Farmer took over at Ithaca in 1987, six years after the program's inception, and turned it into one of the country's elite Division III programs. The Bombers made their first NCAA appearance in Farmer's first season at the helm, then advanced to the national semifinals in 1988. A return trip to the semifinals the following year helped Farmer earn the 1989 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division III National Coach of the Year. Ithaca then won the only two national titles in its program history the following seasons in 1990 and 1991. Farmer compiled a 110-23-23 record with NCAA appearances in all seven of his seasons in Ithaca. He was then inducted into the Ithaca College Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
After his time in Ithaca, Farmer was hired to be the first head coach of a new women's soccer program at Penn State in 1994. The team posted an impressive 14-4-1 mark in its inaugural season, then played its first NCAA tournament game in 1995. The progression continued, eventually leading to Penn State's first Big Ten title in 1998 and an NCAA College Cup appearance in the national semifinals in 1999. Farmer was named the NSCAA/adidas Division I National Coach of the Year after that season, also garnering Mid-Atlantic Region coach of the year honors for a third time.
After three straight Big Ten championships from 1998-2000 with Penn State, Farmer moved on to the professional ranks for two seasons as the head coach of the WUSA's New York Power. Farmer returned to the college ranks in 2003 for one season at Tennessee Tech, then returned to New York in 2004, when he took over a Syracuse program which had started to show signs of decline. Farmer reversed that trend immediately, leading the Orange back to the Big East tournament in 2005.
Farmer's last stop before his Cornell tenure was four years as an assistant coach at Wisconsin. With the Badgers, he was reunited with head coach Paula Wilkins, who was an assistant under Farmer at Penn State. Wilkins then took over the Nittany Lions program upon Farmer's departure. Now charged with the task of rebuilding the Badgers' program, Farmer and Wilkins led Wisconsin to NCAA tournament appearances in 2009 (third round) and 2010 (second round).
Farmer is an upstate New York native, hailing from the Adirondack town of Old Forge. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from St. Lawrence, where he served as an assistant coach and then the head coach for the men's ski and assistant for the men's soccer team. He then coached at Webb HS for 10 years before latching on with Ithaca.
Armed with an array of soccer coaching credentials, Farmer holds an NSCAA Premier diploma, a Prelim badge from the England Football Association and a United States Soccer Federation 'A' License.
