APPLETON − Sarah Hagen is coming home.
The former Appleton North soccer standout has been named the Lightning’s head girls soccer coach, according to a release from the school. Hagen was most recently head coach of the De Pere girls soccer team this past season. The Redbirds were 11-7-6 overall and finished second in the Fox River Classic Conference. They reached the regional final before bowing out to Division 1 state runner-up Kimberly, 2-0.
Appleton North was 9-3-3 this past season and finished second behind Kimberly in the Fox Valley Association. North returns soon-to-be junior Brinley Dunsirn next spring, the team’s leading scorer this season.
“The combination of Hagen’s playing experience, her passion for the game and her roots in the Appleton North program make her a great fit to serve as our next head coach,” Appleton North activities director Jere Kubuske said in the release.
Hagen, a 2008 North graduate, was a three-time Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association all-state selection, including a first-team designation her senior season in which she finished with 33 goals. She was the Post-Crescent’s girls soccer player of the year her junior season and shared the honor her senior year.
She went on to have a notable career at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she was a four-time all-Horizon League selection and a three-time league player of the year. She set the league’s freshman record with 24 goals. She also led the Panthers to four consecutive league titles, four NCAA Tournament berths and finished with 93 career goals, which at the time was the ninth-most in NCAA Division I history. She also set school marks in goals, game-winning goals (27) and total points (212).
Hagen was picked fifth overall in the 2012 Women’s Professional Soccer draft by the Philadelphia Independence. She decided to play overseas instead, joining FC Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga. She finished with 38 goals in 51 matches and led them to a league championship. Her pro career also included stints with FC Kansas City in the National Women’s Soccer League, where she helped the team win league titles in 2014 and 2015. She also played for the Orlando Pride (2016) and Houston Dash (2017) before announcing her retirement from professional soccer in 2018.
She also was on the US Women’s National Team briefly, including games against Sweden and Denmark.
