Mean Green women's soccer head coach John Hedlund is in the middle of his 30th season after founding the program in 1995. Pearls are the traditional gift for the 30th anniversary, but rather than opening a string of pearls, Hedlund's team is working toward a string of wins to get their coach closer to another major milestone: his 400th career victory.

Already the university's all-time winningest head coach, Hedlund's win count sits at 396 at the time of this writing, but if the squad's hot start is any indicator, 400 may be well in the rearview by the time this issue hits mailboxes. In his first 29 full seasons as head coach, Hedlund won 16 conference championships and never had a losing season.

"It's been an absolute honor to be at such a great institution for the last 30 years, especially a program I started and built in 1995," Hedlund says.

"The goal this year for us is to get the program's 400th win, keep the streak of 30 consecutive winning seasons alive and obviously add to our record 16 championships. Thirty years have gone fast but there have been so many great memories over the years and as a head coach, being at the University of North Texas, I couldn't have done it at a better place. I will always bleed green and hope to continue the winning tradition here in the future for our great women's soccer program."

This fall, UNT Athletics is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the football team's 2004 Sun Belt Conference Championship. It was the last of four straight conference titles for the Mean Green from 2001 to 2004, during which the team compiled a cumulative conference record of 25-1.

"For me, the most satisfying thing of that 2004 team was seeing the guys win," says former UNT head coach Darrell Dickey, who led the team from 1998 to 2006. "Winning our fourth-straight conference championship at the Division I level was tough to do."

To celebrate, the Mean Green wore throwback helmets from that 2004 season for the Sept. 21 game against Wyoming. There was also a reunion for the 2004 team at that game.

UNT student-athletes get the opportunity to tell their own stories in meangreensports.com's "Beyond the Green" series.

Golfer Emilie Ricaud ('24) shares the story of her journey from Australia to Denton. Football senior Damon Ward writes about overcoming injuries. Recent graduate Kalei Christensen ('24) expresses the joy of living out her dream of playing college softball.

Read these stories and more from our UNT student-athletes at btg.meangreensports.com.

The highest semester cumulative GPA ever earned by UNT student-athletes was achieved in Spring 2024. Four teams achieved their respective highest semester GPA ever: football, men's track and field, soccer and softball.