Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Rockhurst University Athletics

Tony Tocco

Men's Soccer

Tocco becomes second coach to reach 700 career wins

Tony Tocco became the second college men's soccer coach to win 700 games on Oct. 5.
When Tony Tocco became the head coach of the Rockhurst University men's soccer team in 1970, the Kansas City Chiefs were coming off a victory in Super Bowl IV and the Kansas City Royals were in their second year as a franchise.

More importantly for Tocco, his focus was on continuing the winning tradition in soccer at Rockhurst. The Hawks had played in three NAIA national tournaments in the 1960s after the program got off the ground in 1964 under Gene Hart.

"Rockhurst had a history of winning. Coming from St. Louis University where they also had a history, it was important for me to keep up that tradition," said Tocco, who played goalkeeper at SLU and served two years as an assistant coach under Hart at Rockhurst.

In his first 10 seasons, Tocco guided the Hawks to 126 wins and five NAIA Final Four appearances. Tocco, now in his 48th season as the head coach at Rockhurst, became the second men's college soccer coach to win 700 career games at William Jewell on Oct 5.

"It's been a lot of fun getting to know so many different people and becoming good friends with them after their playing days are over. It's very gratifying over the last 40-some years. The 700 victories is more a tribute to the players than it is to me," said Tocco, who has also been teaching accounting at Rockhurst for the past 50 years.

Tocco credits his first recruiting class in 1970 as one of the biggest keys to his success. Tocco said he got to know his players well in the early days and some of them are his best friends today.

"It's all about recruiting players and the development of those players," Tocco said. "I hope that most of the players that we recruited we've helped develop them in a lot of different ways. One is soccer, and another one is to develop a mental attitude toward winning, but also to lose gracefully in a certain way."

Tocco built up a strong pipeline with St. Louis in his first 20 years at Rockhurst. He has recruited a large number of players from the St. Louis area, which has produced some of the strongest high school teams in the Midwest during the past five decades.

"St. Louis was light years ahead of everybody back then. The schools that dominated in St. Louis were predominantly Catholic schools. It made my recruiting so easy from a parent standpoint. For the first 20 years, it was the ability to recruit St. Louis and get great players out of the city.

"Also, the development of soccer with the local kids of Kansas City and the surrounding areas around Kansas City helped me in that regard, too. We had a tradition and kids wanted to come to Rockhurst because of that tradition. The majority of our players in the first 30 years were all local kids."

Rockhurst was the premier soccer program in the NAIA for over 25 years. Tocco won an NAIA-record 437 games over 27 seasons and Rockhurst was the NAIA national runner-up in 1973, 1976, 1979 and 1997.

Tocco admits getting into postseason play in the NCAA has been more difficult since the Hawks made the move into the NCAA in 1998. "The reason I liked the NAIA was they gave you more of an opportunity to make postseason. With the number of teams in the NCAA, it's so much harder," Tocco stated.

The Hawks only advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times in their first 10 seasons in the NCAA. Since 2008, Rockhurst has been one of the elite Division II soccer programs in the country. The Hawks have played in seven of the past 10 NCAA Tournaments and advanced to the national semifinals four times over the past five years.

"I would rather be consistently good than to have won a championship and never go back to the playoffs. Our consistency has been phenomenal. I thought we were the better team in 2013 and 2017," said Tocco, referring to the Hawks' near misses in the national semifinals against Southern New Hampshire in 2013 and Lynn in 2017.

Giorgio Antongirolami has seen all sides of Tocco as a player, assistant coach and currently an associate head coach at Rockhurst.

"Tony is one of the best motivators we have ever played with, coached with or worked with. His passion for teaching and coaching is contagious with and for all the players and students," Antongirolami said.

"I have been fortunate enough to have played and coached for him, so I know the feeling to go on the field after his pregame or halftime incredible speeches .... you feel like want to break the wall in the locker room and run to the field with so much adrenaline in you."

Tocco has enjoyed his phenomenal run over the past half-century at Rockhurst. "I don't know what I want my legacy to be. I will say this," Tocco added, "I would like for our program to be viewed as one of the best in the country."

Milestone Wins:
#1 Oral Roberts 6-1 Kansas City, MO 1970
#100 Hardin-Simmons 5-2 Abilene, TX 1979
#200 Siena Heights 5-0 Spartanburg, SC 1985
#300 Columbia (MO) 3-1, OT Kansas City, MO 1991
#400 Oklahoma City 3-0 Kirksville, MO 1996
#500 Tampa 3-2 Tampa, FL 2003
#600 Northern Kentucky 2-0 Kansas City, MO 2011
#700 William Jewell 3-1 Liberty, MO 2018

Career Highlights:
  • 44 winning seasons
  • 8 20-Win Seasons
  • 27 Postseason Tournaments
  • 17 NAIA National Tournaments
  • 10 NCAA National Tournaments
  • 15 Final Fours
Print Friendly Version