From the SEC to Southern California to the Big 10, Karen Hoppa's influence can be seen in soccer programs from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast.
In her 20th season at Auburn, Hoppa's former assistants and student-athletes are now leading teams of their own, passing along insights they learned on the Plains.
"A great sense of pride," Hoppa said. "It makes me proud to watch how all my former assistants and former players are impacting young lives. That's the best part of the job, to be able to play a role in the players at Southern Cal or Ole Miss or Indiana. That's pretty special for sure."
In addition to these head coaches, other branches of the Karen Hoppa Coaching Tree include Minnesota assistant coach Becky Fletcher, Colorado State assistant Tori Ball, Southern California assistant Sammy Towne, Spring Hill head coach Allison Whitworth, Nashville youth coach Alicen Wright and Auburn Thunder coach Jenny Zarzour Ferguson.
Here, in their own words, are memories, tributes and takeaways these former Auburn Tigers picked up from their mentor:
'She just runs a really great program'
Keidane McAlpine (Southern California head coach, won 2016 national championship; assistant at Auburn from 2006-11)
"Probably the biggest thing I took from her is how she manages the program itself. How she handles administration, dotting her i's, crossing her t's, managing what it is to run a program at a Power 5 school.
Being able to sit and watch how she took care of all the other things. Managing sports information, marketing, equipment, while still pushing to get improvements at the facility, having seen the building built while I was there.
She just runs a really great program. Being able to see and be around that day to day was the biggest takeaway for me.
Very first game at Auburn. We had probably 2,500 people against Texas, with Matt Mott being the assistant on the other sideline, whom I'd just replaced. The energy around that, with football starting the next day, it was unbelievable. Our win over Florida State at home was a huge win for the program, in terms of mentality shifts, because in the region they had been so good in our time. And then obviously our tournament win in my last year there was definitely a highlight.
Karen has an unbelievable ability to just hire good people. I knew Matt (Mott), I knew Becky [Fletcher]. I've had a chance to know James [Armstrong], Ben [Madsen], Amy [Berbary], Sammy [Towne], just really good people.
She talked about it all the time. I talk about it here. Character first people. She's got good people around her and I think it makes all the difference in the program, and how she and they affect the lives of the women who come through."
'No stone is left unturned'
Matt Mott (Ole Miss head coach, Auburn assistant from 1999-2005)
"When you think about Auburn, the consistency piece, to me, is what's been so impressive. She's had a number of different assistant coaches through there but the quality and the level continues to improve.
Auburn, when I think back to our early days of 1999-2000, and what we inherited and what she's been able to build and sustain at such a high level for so long, is really impressive.
She's very driven. She's a great coach, great leader. She's one of my mentors. I started in division one with her and she gave me a chance, and I'll always be indebted to Karen. We're very close friends as well. We have a great relationship. There's one day a year where we are competitors, and we both want to win, beat the other one, but other than that, we're very good friends. That was all built way back when. I worked with her for 11 years.
She really helped mold me into the coach I am, but also we worked really hard at Auburn to get that program up and running. The year that we won the league in four years after taking over, is really still one of my greatest accomplishments, or highlights of my career, as an assistant coach. It was all her leadership and her desire and how hard she worked every day.
No stone is left unturned. She has a good handle on every aspect of the program, whether it's marketing or media relations, or it's the way our defenders are playing, our attackers, our midfielders. She has her hands really involved in everything and has a really good pulse of the team.
I think it's why she's been so successful because she does know exactly what's going on in every aspect of the program. I think it's really important. It's something I've tried to do the same here with how I run our program here at Ole Miss, really have a good sense of what's going on.
Maybe her biggest strength, she's done a great job of hiring staff, maybe besides myself. Her staff has been really good throughout the years. She's hired the right people and been able to motivate them and get them to work hard and come together for a common goal.
She's the godmother of my first born. She was in my wedding, I was in her wedding. We are very close off the field and on the field. She's a talented professional. One of the great things about Karen in college athletics, where a lot of times, people are trying to bend the rules or work in the gray area, Karen is honest, and follows the rules to the t. That's something I really admire about her. She's always done it the right way and I think that's why she's been good for so long. If you have a tough decision, she's made the right choice and done it the right way. Super successful and very impressive."
'She's a proven winner'
Amy Berbary (Indiana head coach, Auburn assistant from 2008-2012)
"One of the biggest things I took from her is just how to run a program from top to bottom. I think a lot of times people think that being a college soccer coach is just coaching. And the way she disciplined her program made it such a professional environment for the kids so all they had to worry about was train hard and play in the games, and not have to worry about the little things, I think was a huge piece that I took.
Professionally, I think she's an extraordinary division one women's soccer coach. She's one of the greats. She's a proven winner. Me being competitive already and her competitiveness, she challenged me as a young coach coming in there every day. It made me better for that. I thought we had a great relationship where we could go back and forth, but in the end, she was very clear on her process, what she wanted, but also very open to different ideas, but ultimately could make a great decision, which I think is one of the qualities of a great leader, and why she's been so successful.
When we won the SEC Championship at the 2011 SEC Tournament. That year was an unbelievable year with what we went through during the season. We faced so much adversity especially in the goalkeeper position. For us to go on to win three games in that SEC Tournament and walk away as champions was pretty special.
I don't think there's any stop in the near future for her. Personally, I look up to her as one of my great mentors, my board of directors if you will, somebody I can call on anytime I need anything, and she's always there to give great advice to me.
She kept me in the game. Females are dropping at a great rate, and there aren't many of us in this profession. I do attribute her willingness to help guide me to keep me in the game."
'What would Hoppa do?'
Tori Ball (Colorado State assistant coach, played at Auburn from 2011-14)
"The Auburn program is so well organized when it comes to everyday operations, weekly operations and season operations. It's totally different being on the other side of things now. As a player, you show up, you play, you go to practice, you go home, you eat. But as a coach, there's so much planning that goes into it. Everything at Auburn was so consistent. The consistency of it all puts the players at ease because they know what's coming.
One thing I've taken away is having a belief in your players and expressing that to them. The season can be so up and down, especially if you're battling injuries or other things. Coach really believes in you and she'll let you know it.
That's one thing that a player can really take to heart. You look at a head coach and they're scary, they're the head coach. But Coach does have a softer side to her. I think that allows a little bit of vulnerability from her and it allows a player to open up. If a player's comfortable, they're going to play better.
That's one big thing that I've learned and that I've taken into my short coaching career that I've had so far is if you believe in somebody, you've got to let them know. Because they're going to flourish under you if they know that you believe in them and then they'll believe in you and your decisions as well.
There are so many times when I go through week to week and I'm like, 'What would we have done at Auburn in this situation?'
I was a captain for two years. We had captains meetings every week. We were able to see and hear what the coaches were thinking, whether it was our past performance or the week ahead, or ideas they wanted to throw out, whether it was tactically or organization wise. That's one thing I've taken away.
Even my coaches here who I work with, the assistant and the head coach, they ask me, 'What would Hoppa do in this situation?' I know it's not just Coach Hoppa making the decision, but at the end of the day, her final decision is what the program does."