Since his arrival in 2012, David Kulik has guided the JWU (Providence) men’s soccer program to eight Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) finals appearances and five conference championships (2013-15, 2019, 2023) and twice has been selected GNAC Men’s Soccer Coach of the Year. Under Kulik’s guidance, the Wildcats have posted a 171-47-31 record (.749 winning pct.). Kulik’s career record of 274-132-54 (.654) ranks him 22nd on the active Division III men’s soccer coaching win total and second in New England only behind Jon Anderson of Babson.
Kulik came to Providence after spending 12 years as the head men’s soccer coach at Clark (MA) in Worcester, Mass, including the last six as an Associate AD. He left the Cougars program as the all-time leader in wins (103). Before he arrived in Worcester, Kulik spent nearly a decade as an assistant coach at Yale University, Boston College, and Tufts University. A two-time New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Coach of the Year (2005, 2008), Kulik was a four-year member of the NCAA Division III National Soccer Committee (2008-11) and served as the national chair of the committee in 2010 and recently completed his second four-year term on the National committee (2020-24).
A highly touted high school player, as a senior he was recognized as an Adidas and NSCAA All-America First Team pick. Kulik played in the first national high school All-America match at Army-West Point, which was broadcast on ESPN. He went on to play collegiately Yale University, where he became the first student-athlete in the history of the program to start every game of a four-year career. He earned All-Ivy League and All-New England accolades in each of his four years playing for the Bulldogs, serving as captain as a senior. As a junior, Kulik helped the Bulldogs to an Ivy League Championship in 1986 following a 30-year drought.
During his college career, he was the recipient of the Walter J. McNerney Award as the team’s most valuable player and earned the Walter Leeman Senior Leadership Trophy as the player who upholds the ideals of Leeman through sportsmanship and team play. After Yale, he played professionally for the Boston Bolts and the Miami Freedom, competing in the American Soccer League championship in 1989 against the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers. In his first professional season, Kulik was named the team's hardest-working player and was fifth on the team in scoring with four goals and an assist.
Also active in the club soccer community, Kulik led his squads to numerous league titles, state championships, and trips to regional, national, and international tournaments with FC Greater Boston Bolts and Bruno United. Outside of his college and club coaching experience, Kulik coached for one year at the St. John’s School in San Juan Puerto Rico, and for one year at Central High School in San Angelo, Texas, where he guided the team to a school-record 17-win season being named the district Coach of the Year.
Kulik holds the United States Soccer Federation ‘A’ license and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Advanced National Diploma. A 1988 graduate of Yale University with a degree in sociology/economics, he obtained an advanced degree in psychology from Tufts University in 1992.
Kulik resides in Boston, Massachusetts. He has one daughter, Sidnie, a medical school student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
