Frisco Wakeland Girls Soccer Coach Jimmie Lankford Retires After Two State Titles

Cedar Park senior Meredith Koltz scored in the seventh minute of the UIL 5A Division II state championship at Birkelbach Stadium last April, and by the time Cedar Park's 3-1 victory was official, it had ended two things at once: Frisco Wakeland's 54-game unbeaten streak and Jimmie Lankford's career on the Wolverines' sideline. Lankford, who built Wakeland into one of Texas' most decorated girls soccer programs, has retired.

His record at Wakeland tells a precise story: four state tournament appearances in 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025; championships in 2022 and 2024; and a 2024-25 squad that finished 25-1-1, with that lone loss coming in the state final. Cedar Park's victory gave that program its first-ever state title, with Koltz named the game's MVP.

The 2022 season stands as the program's signature achievement under Lankford. Wakeland swept both the boys and girls UIL 5A soccer state titles that spring, a feat matched only by Richardson in 1983 and by Wakeland itself in 2018, making the Wolverines the only school in Texas history to sweep both soccer titles twice. Boys soccer head coach Andrew Holt led the parallel run.

The 2025 state tournament carried particular emotional weight. The Wolverines advanced to the final with a 3-0 semifinal win over Grapevine while honoring a teammate who had been killed in a Frisco sledding incident earlier in the year.

Lankford came to Wakeland in 2018 to replace Sid Khoury, who had retired moments after delivering the program a state title. The bar was already set high. Lankford arrived with matching credentials: back-to-back state championships at McKinney Boyd in 2008 and 2011, followed by two seasons at Little Elm before his hiring at Wakeland. His four total career state titles earned him induction into the McKinney ISD Athletic Hall of Honor in 2022.

His explanation of what made his teams click rarely resembled conventional coaching wisdom. "The goofier they get, the more they giggle; it seems like the better they play," he said. "That's just how they focus. They're a very good-natured, fun group." He credited program depth with equal understatement: "We have a JV team that hasn't lost in like six years."

Wakeland's girls program has now collected four state titles across its history, in 2011, 2018, 2022, and 2024, across six total state tournament appearances. Assistants Becca Sawers, Jim Howard, and Mike Birdwell staffed the program alongside Lankford throughout his tenure.

Frisco ISD will search for a replacement head coach. Whoever takes over inherits a program that reached the state tournament in four of the last five seasons and lost its most recent state final by two goals.