VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Photo Credit: Middlebury Athletic Communications

Soccer and Nordic Skiing

Derby

Inducted 2025

One of the state’s top scorers in soccer and an excellent Nordic skier, Kyle Dezotell also had a record setting career at Middlebury College in soccer, and has been a successful NCAA men’s soccer head coach.

At North Country Union High, he was the Gatorade Vermont Player of the Year and All-American in boys soccer for 1998. That year he scored 36 goals to set a Metro Division scoring record that still stands as he led the Falcons to an unbeaten season and their last Division I championship. The previous Metro record holder was VSHOF inductee Guy Gaudreau, also a North Country alum. 

In the winters he was the Vermont state and New England champion in Nordic skiing. He led the Falcons to their first team championship in 1999 with an individual crown in freestyle and runner-up finish in classical. He claimed the NE regional crown in classical and was Vermont’s top finisher in freestyle.

He went on to Middlebury College where graduated with men’s soccer program records for goals (34), assists (22), points (90), earning all-NESCAC first-team honors in 2002. He helped lead the Panthers to their first-ever NESCAC title in 2000 after an ECAC title in 1999 and two trips to the NCAA D3 Tournament. He remains the Middlebury goal scoring leader, and now is second in assists and points, and also played in the summer for the semi-pro Vermont Voltage. He was a member of the Middlebury Nordic ski team. 

He began as a successful Division 3 collegiate head men’s soccer coach starting in 2004. Dezotell is currently the coach of the Tufts men’s soccer team, a regional and NCAA D3 power, after stints at VTSU Johnson, Manhattanville, Ithaca, and Norwich, where he is the winningest coach in program history. As of the end of the 2024 season, his teams have won more than 200 games, two conference championships, and reached seven NCAAs.

Dezotell and his Tufts coaching staff earned 2024 NESCAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors.  He was inducted into the VPA Hall of Fame in 2022.