Villanova women’s soccer head coach Samar Azem has announced the hiring of James (J) Landham as an assistant coach. Landham spent the last four years at the University of Montana where he was the associate head coach and goalkeeper coach.
“We prioritize character in every person we bring into our program and J is an exceptional representative of high-quality character,” shared Azem. “Additionally, he has the skills, experience, and the leadership to assist in elevating our program not only in the Big East but on the national stage and in our community.
He has a successful background coaching goalkeepers, recruiting, and brings a wealth of knowledge from multiple championship cultures. I’m extremely thrilled to welcome J to Nova Nation. He will join a tremendous group of coaches and support staff. We have surrounded our team with exceptional people and personnel which is extremely important to our process.”
In 2019 and spring of 2021 the Grizzlies were Big Sky Regular Season Champions and won the conference tournaments in spring and fall of 2021, to give them the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Landham’s primary include programming and coordinating all back-line and goalkeeper training sessions as well as conducting bi-weekly evaluations for all members of the back-line and goalkeeper unit. Helping research, program, and implement all full-team and group training sessions with special responsibilities focusing on the defensive and transitional phase of play as well as all attacking and defending dead-ball phases of play. Help strategize, build, and implement an effective recruiting philosophy and program.
From 2019 through 2021, Montana on average ranked 16th in the nation for shut outs and 29th in the nation for Goals Against Average. Camellia Xu, who is currently with the U20 Canadian National Team, was awarded All-Conference Goalkeeper of the year fall 2021. She also was six-time Defensive Player of the Week, Big Sky Conference Goalkeeper of the Tournament, and Big Sky Conference Tournament MVP. Xu also broke the Big Sky single season shut out record during the season. Claire Howard was awarded All-Conference Goalkeeper of the Year and was named to the All-Conference Second Team in spring 2021. Howard broke the Big Sky Conference and Montana’s shutout record in 2021.
Landham was the goalkeeper coach and volunteer assistant from 2018-19 at Vanderbilt University. In 2018 the Commodores won the SEC Regular Season title. He spent the previous two years as an assistant and goalkeeper coach at the University of Northern Colorado and got his start in coaching at his alma mater Union University. Also Landham has 11 years of youth and club coaching experience.
