| Career Coaching Accolades |
| • Overall Record of 195-43-22 (.792) in 12 seasons as a head coach |
| • 2x NAIA National Champions at Central Methodist University (2018, 2019) |
| • 2025 United Soccer Coaches Central Region Coaching Staff of the Year |
| • 2025 GAC/MIAA Coach of the Year |
| • 5x Heart of America Athletic Conference Coach of the Year |
| • 10 NCAA Division II All-America selections |
| • 27 NAIA All-America selections |
| • 78 All-Conference selections |
| • Coached the 2025 United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division II National Player of the Year |
| • Coached the 2018 NAIA National Player of the Year |
| • Coached 5 Conference Players of the Year |
| • Coached 3 Conference Defensive Players of the Year |
| • Coached 1 Conference Midfielder of the Year |
| • Coached 2 Conference Newcomers of the Year |
| • Coached a Conference Freshman of the Year |
| • Coached Fort Hays State to its highest national ranking (No. 3) in 2025 |
| • Coached Central Methodist University to a No. 1 NAIA national ranking five straight years (2018-2022) |
| • Member of the Central Methodist University Athletics Hall of Fame (Inducted 2023) |
Alex Nichols enters his third season as head coach of the Fort Hays State University Men's Soccer program in 2026. In just two years, Nichols has led the Tigers to an overall record of 33-5-7, the NCAA Tournament twice including the national semifinals in 2025, one GAC/MIAA regular season title, and a pair of GAC/MIAA Tournament titles.
A native of Kansas City, Mo., Nichols holds an impressive overall record of 195-43-22 (.792) as a collegiate men's soccer head coach with two national championships, two national coach of the year honors, and five national semifinal appearances overall (one NCAA, four NAIA). He has coached Fort Hays State to the NCAA Tournament in both of his seasons leading the program, while also guiding the program to its first ever 20-win season in 2025 when the Tigers reached the NCAA Division II national semifinals.
The 2025 season was the most successful in program history in terms of overall record and championships won as Nichols guided the Tigers to a 20-1-3 record overall. FHSU went unbeaten all the way up to the NCAA national semifinal match, going unbeaten for 23-consecutive matches. The Tigers won both the GAC/MIAA regular season and tournament titles before securing the No. 1 seed in Super Region 3 of the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers went on to win the super region championship to advance to the national semifinals for the second time in program history.
Nichols was tabbed as the GAC/MIAA Coach of the Year in 2025 and his coaching staff received Central Region Coaching Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches. Five student-athletes reached All-America status in 2025 under Nichols’ guidance, including three who earned All-America from two organizations. Elias Ovelar Semeniuk was tabbed as the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division II National Player of the Year. Ten student-athletes were all-region selections and 11 were All-GAC/MIAA selections. Tadhg Walsh was a CSC Academic All-America selection for the second-straight year, while Ovelar Semeniuk earned the distinction as well.
In 2024, Fort Hays State saw eight All-GAC/MIAA selections under Nichols' guidance, including three first-team selections. The Tigers also had five all-region selections. Midfielder Tadhg Walsh and defender Marcos German were named to the D2CCA All-America Team for 2024. Nichols guided the Tigers to a five-win improvement in 2024, tying the third-most wins for a season (13) in program history.
Nichols came to Fort Hays State from NAIA affiliate Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, Fla., where he was head coach during the 2023 season. He made an instant impact for the Lions, guiding the program to six more wins than it had the previous year by finishing 9-8-2 overall and an appearance in the Sun Conference Tournament for the first time since 2015. It was the program's first winning record since the 2016 season. The Lions had three all-conference performers in 2023. They also received votes in the NAIA Top 25 poll for the first time in program history.
Nichols produced the majority of his success at Central Methodist University (Mo.), where he was head coach for nine years from 2014-2022. He guided the Eagles to back-to-back NAIA National Championships in 2018 and 2019. Central Methodist won the 2018 national title in dramatic fashion on penalty kicks by a count of 4-3 over conference rival Missouri Valley College after playing to a 2-2 draw, then repeated as national champs in 2019 with a 3-1 win over Hastings College (Neb.) to cap a school record 25-win season. Nichols produced an overall record of 153-30-13 while at Central Methodist, including a staggering 107-7-7 record in his final five seasons coaching the Eagles.
To go with its back-to-back national titles, Central Methodist won five straight Heart of America Athletic Conference regular season titles from 2018-2022 on Nichols' watch. The Eagles were conference tournament champs for four straight years from 2019-2022. His 2018, 2019, and 2020-21 squads lost only one regular season match, while his 2021 and 2022 squads both went undefeated in the regular season before taking their only loss of each season in the NAIA national tournament. CMU had a 37-match unbeaten streak in regular season play that started during the 2020-21 campaign and lasted through the end of the 2022 regular season, going 32-0-5 in that stretch. The Eagles had no more than two losses overall in each of the final five seasons of Nichols' tenure (2018-2022), reaching the No. 1 ranking in the NAIA Top 25 poll in each of those seasons.
Nichols coached 27 NAIA All-America selections and 56 all-conference selections while at Central Methodist. He coached the NAIA National Player of the Year, Adrian Gutierrez, in 2018. He also coached four Players of the Year, four Offensive Players of the Year, three Defensive Players of the Year, one Newcomer of the Year, and one Freshman of the Year in the Heart of America Athletic Conference. Nichols and his coaching staff received National Coaching Staff of the Year honors from United Soccer Coaches in both 2018 and 2019, while he also earned NAIA National Coach of the Year honors those seasons. He was the Heart of American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five straight years from 2018 to 2022. Nichols was inducted into the Central Methodist Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
Prior to his nine-year run as head coach at Central Methodist, Nichols spent a season (2013) as an assistant coach and goalkeeper coach at Columbia College (Mo.) for both the men's and women's programs. He also coached at Rock Bridge High School from 2009-2013 and was named the MHSAA Class 3 Central Region Coach of the Year in his time leading the program. Rock Bridge spent time ranked among the top 20 nationally for all classes during his tenure.
At the club level, Nichols headed programs Sporting Columbia and Kaw Valley FC. Sporting Columbia is an affiliate of Sporting KC and was ranked No. 1 in the start of Missouri during Nichols time heading the program. Kaw Valley FC is part of United Soccer League 2. Nichols coached a pair of MLS Super Draft Picks with Kaw Valley, which included a first-round and a third-round selection. He coached Kaw Valley to its best record and single-season winning percentage in 2022.
