Shawn Gibbs isn’t backing down. The primary-year head coach of North Carolina A&T soccer could also be inheriting a program picked useless final within the 2025 Coastal Athletic Affiliation (CAA) preseason ballot, however don’t count on any excuses from the person now on the helm of one among HBCU soccer’s proudest traditions.
“That is residence,” Gibbs stated after being launched as head coach in December. “We’re not afraid to say it: we need to be the very best. And we imagine the CAA provides us an opportunity to indicate the world what HBCU soccer is admittedly about.”
That quiet confidence isn’t simply coach-speak—it’s rooted within the legacy he helped construct.
From Celebration Bowl Glory to CAA Rising Pains
From 2015 to 2019, A&T dominated the HBCU soccer panorama. Underneath head coach Rod Broadway and later Sam Washington, the Aggies gained 4 MEAC championships and took residence 4 Celebration Bowl trophies in 5 years. Their floor sport, powered by stars like Tarik Cohen, was elite—and Gibbs, because the workforce’s operating backs coach, helped engineer it.
Nonetheless, after leaving the MEAC for the Huge South in 2021 after which the CAA in 2023, A&T’s golden period light. In a controversial transfer, the college parted methods with Washington. Selecting to go in a “totally different route” from the Rod Broadway teaching tree by hiring former NFL linebacker Vincent Brown. In two years below Brown, the Aggies gained simply two video games and didn’t notch a single CAA convention win—a far cry from their dominance only a few years prior.
With Gibbs returning to Greensboro, this system is doubling again to the inspiration that introduced nationwide success.
Dealing with the CAA — and the Critics
Shawn Gibbs is aware of the CAA isn’t the MEAC. However he additionally doesn’t purchase into the doom-and-gloom.
“We get to play nice groups week in and week out,” he stated at media day. “And we get to indicate ourselves in a area of the nation that in all probability doesn’t know a lot about HBCU soccer. So let’s go do this.”
Whereas the CAA was as soon as thought of an FCS juggernaut, latest exits by James Madison, Delaware, Richmond, William & Mary, and Villanova (in 2026) have thinned its ranks.
Some now query whether or not A&T’s transfer from the MEAC—the place they had been a dynasty—to a CAA that’s shedding status was price it.
That debate flared once more after HBCU Gameday reported on the 2025 CAA preseason ballot, the place A&T landed ultimately at No. 14. The Fb feedback? Brutal, with some blaming HBCU Gameday articles for stoking a flame of discourse that they need extinguished. Whereas many followers are nonetheless asking: Ought to A&T come residence to the MEAC? Others need to transfer ahead and make peace with their place within the CAA.
However for now, Gibbs is targeted on constructing—not debating.
Extra Than a Job: A Objective
Shawn Gibbs made it clear that his mission isn’t simply to win video games. It’s to revive Aggie Satisfaction as a lifestyle.
“Aggie Satisfaction is what’s going to assist these guys graduate, be nice fathers and husbands, and leaders locally,” he stated. “That’s my function. My job is to win soccer video games.”
Regardless of being underfunded in comparison with their CAA friends, Gibbs isn’t fazed.
“We’ve at all times needed to discover a approach to be nice with much less,” he stated. “We’re going to do essentially the most with what we’ve got—and we’re going to get gamers who imagine in what we’re constructing.”
The Street Forward
North Carolina A&T opens its season on August 30 at Tennessee State, one other HBCU with a proud custom, that performs soccer in a non-HBCU convention. It’s a becoming place for this new period to start.
A&T could be on the backside of the preseason ballot—however with Gibbs again on Benbow street, you shouldn’t guess on them staying there for lengthy.
