By Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
Thirty years ago, Jeff Bezos sold the first product on the newly launched Amazon.com, Pixar released its first animated film and iPhones were yet to exist. But what did exist — newly founded and preparing for its first season of intercollegiate competition — was the Baylor soccer team.
Before Betty Lou Mays Field and before Baylor University had a single national championship trophy to its name, Baylor soccer was born.
Now, three decades later, the Bears sit at No. 1 in the Big 12 and No. 4 in the nation — the highest ranking in program history. What began as a small and often overlooked program in a newly formed conference has grown into one of the most consistent and competitive teams in college soccer.
Rooted in a legacy few truly know, Baylor joined a Big 12 Conference that included only three other women’s soccer programs at the time: Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. After its inception in 1995, the program fielded its first team a year later under head coach Randy Waldrum and quickly made noise on the national stage.
“You’ve got to go all the way back to the beginning,” former head coach Paul Jobson said. “Randy Waldrum started the program and people forget that Baylor’s story began with guys who just believed in what women’s soccer could be back in ’95 and ’96.”
Building the program from scratch, Waldrum would go on to lead the Bears to the school’s first Big 12 championship in any sport in 1998. He earned Big 12 Coach of the Year honors as Baylor finished the season 9-0-1.
The parallels to 2025 are hard to miss, as this season’s 9-1-2 record feels like a reflection of the steady climb that carried Baylor to its first Big 12 crown.
When Waldrum left for Notre Dame three seasons following the championship run, the program entered a lull. As new schools added women’s soccer and competition across the Big 12 intensified, Baylor endured 10 years without a winning season.
It wasn’t until 2008 that Jobson and his wife, Marci — a former U.S. National Team player — arrived in Waco and began rebuilding Baylor soccer from the ground up. After turning around a struggling program at Northern Illinois, the Jobsons inherited a Baylor team searching for direction and belief.
“It was definitely what God wanted for us,” Jobson said. “We walked into a room of girls that told us they wanted to win, because they hadn’t won in forever, and we told them it was going to be difficult, but we thought we could do it.”
The reality set in quickly.
“That first year was tough,” he said. “We didn’t win many games, but it was the first and only losing season we ever had at Baylor.”
Paul Jobson joined as associate head coach while Marci took the lead role, guiding the Bears through a complete cultural reset and their most successful season in a decade, finishing 15-4-3. The two later shared head-coaching duties in 2013 and 2014 before Paul assumed the full-time role in 2015. Within three seasons, Baylor was back in the NCAA Tournament — a turnaround that laid the foundation for the Elite Eight runs that would define the decade ahead.
Under his leadership, 2017 and 2018 became defining years for Baylor soccer. The Bears captured back-to-back Big 12 titles and made consecutive NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearances, marking one of the most successful stretches in program history.
“We were first recruiting players who believed in a vision,” Jobson said. “They were athletic and bought in — maybe not the most elite soccer players, but they knew how to win, work together and really bought into our culture. Then, as we started to win, we began recruiting better soccer players, but our goal was to never lose that culture of great people. We really saw that come to fruition in 2017 and 2018.”
It was that culture that came to define Baylor soccer for years to come — and one that has continued even after Jobson’s tenure.
“I think what we were able to do was take Baylor’s mission and really implement it into a team,” Jobson said. “We brought Christ into the core of everything we did. When that’s your foundation, you’ve always got something steady to fall back on — through the ups and downs of a season, when talent or ability alone won’t carry you.”
Faith, Jobson said, wasn’t just part of the program — it was the program. It shaped the way Baylor competed, connected and carried itself long after he stepped away, evident by the success under current head coach Michelle Lenard.
“You play this game because you want to compete and want to win, and wins are awesome,” Jobson said. “But at the end of the day, if Baylor’s still losing games but they’re strong in their faith, that’s what matters. I know Michelle and her entire staff do a great job of that as well.”
In 2021, after 14 years with Baylor soccer, Jobson stepped away as the program’s all-time wins leader. His 97-57-26 record, including 40-28-12 in Big 12 play, reflected more than numbers — it marked a culture rebuilt and a standard set. When Lenard took the reins that spring, she inherited that foundation and began carving her own chapter in Baylor’s story — a chapter that’s already cementing its own place in program history.
Lenard has built on Baylor soccer’s deep-rooted culture while imprinting her own vision and style on the program. Four seasons later, the Bears are ranked No. 4 in the nation and lead the Big 12 with a 9-1-2 record, a reflection of both the tradition she honors and the standard she continues to raise.
Thirty years later, Baylor soccer isn’t just honoring its past — it’s living out the promise of it. What began with a vision and a handful of believers in 1995 now stands on the edge of a championship-hopeful season, fueled by the same faith that started it all.
