Head Coach - Caleb Porter

One of the most successful coaches in NCAA history, Caleb Porter was named the Portland Timbers head coach on Aug. 29, 2012, and joins the club following seven seasons at the University of Akron from 2006-12. He finished his time at Akron with a career mark of 123-18-17 and owned the highest winning percentage (0.832) among all active Division I coaches.

Porter, 37, built Akron men’s soccer into a perennial national championship contender, leading the Zips to five consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament’s Round of 16 (2008-12), back-to-back NCAA College Cup appearances in 2009 and 2010, and the school’s first national title in any sport in 2010.

In all, he guided Akron to seven Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular-season championships and five MAC Tournament titles. Porter set multiple NCAA records at Akron, including a 48-match, home unbeaten streak (44-0-4) from 2008-11 and a 47-match unbeaten streak (44-0-3) in conference play from 2006-12.

From Kalamazoo, Mich., Porter garnered numerous honors while at Akron, including NSCAA National Coach of the Year in 2009. He was a three-time NSCAA All-Ohio Coach of the Year (2008-09, 2011) and received MAC Coach of the Year honors six straight years from 2007-12.

Porter became the fastest coach in program history to reach 100 career wins, accomplishing the feat in just 126 matches. He is also among the fastest all-time in NCAA history to the century mark, reaching the milestone in fewer games than collegiate Hall of Fame and current MLS coaches Bruce Arena (140; Virginia) and Sigi Schmid (136; UCLA).

While at Akron, Porter recruited and developed more than a dozen Zips players who have gone on to professional careers, many plying their trade in Major League Soccer. He had an MLS-record five former players selected in the first round of the 2011 MLS SuperDraft and seven selected overall that year. Among the players selected in 2011 was Timbers midfielder/forward Darlington Nagbe as the No. 2 overall pick in the SuperDraft. Under Porter’s guidance, Nagbe and former Akron standout Teal Bunbury were recipients of the MAC Hermann Trophy, awarded to the nation’s top collegiate player.

Porter also served as the head coach of the U.S. U-23 Men’s National Team during 2012 CONCACAF Olympic qualifying and spent three years as an assistant coach on the U.S. U-18 National Team from 2009-11. Prior to joining Akron, Porter was an assistant coach for six years (2000-05) at Indiana University, helping the school make six NCAA tournament appearances, win back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004 and claim five Big Ten Conference titles.

As a player, Porter was the 27th overall pick by the San Jose Clash in the 1998 MLS College Draft. He spent time with San Jose and the Tampa Bay Mutiny before a knee injury ended his playing career in 2000. Porter also played for the U.S. National B Team from 1996-97, winning a bronze medal at the 1997 World University Games.

He had a successful collegiate playing career at Indiana, where he was a three-year captain, a three-time All-Big Ten honoree and a four-year letter winner. Porter led the Hoosiers to four conference titles, four NCAA tournament appearances – twice advancing to the College Cup. As a senior, Porter captained IU to 23 consecutive wins before losing to eventual national champion UCLA in the national semifinals and was the runner-up for the 1997 Hermann Trophy.

Porter graduated from Indiana in 1998 with a degree in sports management. He and his wife, Andrea, have three children – two sons, Colin and Jake, and a daughter, Stella Jane.