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Rockhurst University Athletics

Tony Tocco and Giorgio Antogirolami
Kit Doyle

Men's Soccer By John Dodderidge

Tocco has built success on and off the soccer field

Tony Tocco and Giorgio Antongirolami, right, have combined to coach 79 years at Rockhurst
Around 100 former men's soccer players are returning to the Rockhurst campus this weekend to celebrate 60 Years of Men's Soccer at Rockhurst University.

Head coach Tony Tocco coached most of those players over the past five-plus decades. Tocco takes great satisfaction in the number of players who graduated and became successful in their professional careers.

"When you talk about 60 years, the players are the 60 years," Tocco said. "They are the ones who made Rockhurst what it is. The better the players I had the better the coach I was. We've had some great representatives for Rockhurst both on and off the field."

Tocco ranks second on the all-time men's soccer collegiate coaching list with 736 victories. Twenty-seven of his teams played in NAIA and NCAA national tournaments, and 14 of his teams reached the national semifinals. He produced 65 All-Americans, including 24 first team All-Americans.

When Tocco arrived at Rockhurst in the fall of 1969, the Hawks had already played in three NAIA national tournaments under head coaches Gene Hart and Jack McNally.

Rockhurst appointed Tocco as the head coach in 1970. It only took him three years to guide the Hawks to the NAIA national championship game (losing to Quincy). After taking off the 1974 season to get his PhD at the University of San Francisco, Tocco has spent the past 50 years at Rockhurst teaching accounting and coaching soccer.

"It's been a great ride. I always tell people that my plan was to stay here a couple of years, go back to St. Louis to get my PhD and then teach in St. Louis," Tocco said.

"College soccer was in its infancy back then. It was a game that I loved and I loved coaching. I didn't think long term. I never planned on leaving Rockhurst. I had a recruiter ask me about a D1 coaching job in North Carolina and my wife asked me if I was going to commute."

Tocco coached his first 27 years in the NAIA. The Hawks won 437 games and played in four NAIA national championship games. Rockhurst ran into tough luck in those championship games, suffering losses in 1973, 1976, 1979 and 1997.

"It was disappointing," Tocco said of falling short of winning a national title. "You always reflect more on losses than wins. Those losses stand out in my mind. Sometimes we just couldn't put the ball in the net. We deserved to win two of the final games we were in. It just happens. You feel sorry for the players. That was a great time playing those games."

Tocco thoroughly enjoyed the NAIA years in the first half of his coaching career. The Hawks' biggest rival was Benedictine. Rockhurst posted a 41-8-7 record against the Ravens. The Hawks also had natural rivalries with Park, Baker and Avila.

"Every game was a big game and we loved that," Tocco said. "When we play now, we have great games but we don't have that sense of rivalries that we had in the NAIA. We would get packed crowds when we played Benedictine and Park. It was fun. Those were great days. When we went to the national tournament, it was a five- or six-day tournament."

Associate head coach Giorgio Antongirolami has been a player and coach at Rockhurst for the past 26 years. He said Tocco didn't want to attempt to win after a championship once and then disappear from the map.

"He wanted to build a winning program year-in and year-out. I think that's what has been created, a program that is recognized among the best in Division 2."

The Hawks made the move to the NCAA in 1998 and have played in 10 NCAA national tournaments. Rockhurst reached the national semifinals four times over a five-year period from 2013 to 2017.

"Soccer has changed a lot in 60 years," Antongirolami said. "To be able to stay on top is a tremendous accomplishment. I think what he knew in the mid-1980s was that he needed to have a lot of blue-collar players and a couple of big-time players. Those blue-collar defenders were a common denominator of every player at Rockhurst. The way he has adapted to every decade has been the secret to be competitive."

St. Louis was one of the top soccer hubs in the country in the 1960s and 1970s. Tocco built his NAIA teams around St. Louis players. One of his players from St. Louis, Greg Herdlick, earned All-American honors as a defender in 1991 and has been the head women's soccer coach at Rockhurst since 1999.

"St. Louis is still strong and a lot more D-1 schools are recruiting out of St. Louis. Kansas City grew up as a soccer town so we have players coming out of Kansas City that we can also recruit," added Antongirolami.

While the success on the soccer field has been impressive, Tocco considers his graduation rate to be more important. Whether he impacts a student in the classroom or a player on the pitch, he takes pride in what they have achieved after they have left Rockhurst.

"A lot of our former players may not come back to our games, but they still want to know how we are doing," Tocco said. "They have loved their experience and that's all you can ask. The camaraderies and relationships you build are the most important elements in the program. You learn teamwork and it teaches you to compete every day."

Currently at 54 years, Tocco has the longest active coaching tenure of any sport in the NCAA. He will tie legendary Grambling State football coach Eddie Robinson on the list next year.

Rockhurst currently ranks 15th in the history of NCAA Men's Soccer with 792 victories (see graph below).

Longest Coaching Tenures in NCAA History
64 – John Gagliardi (Football D-3 – retired in 2012) – 2 institutions; 60 years at Saint John's (MN)
59 – Gordie Gillespie (Baseball D-2 - 2011) – 3 institutions
57 – Amos Alonzo Stagg (Football D-1 – 1933) – 3 institutions
55 – Eddie Robinson (Football D-1 – 1997) – 1 institution
54 – Tony Tocco (Men's Soccer D-2 – Active) – 1 institution
54 – Tony Rossi (Baseball D-1 – 2023) – 1 institution
54 – Bob DeFelice (Baseball D-3 – 2022) – 1 institution
54 – Herb Magee (Men's Basketball D-3 – 2022) – 1 institution

Top 20 NCAA Most Career Wins—Men's Soccer
1 UCLA 1026
2 Ohio Wesleyan 914
3 Elizabethtown (PA)    905
4 Penn State 889
5 UConn 859
6 San Francisco 843
7 Saint Louis 838
8 Virginia 833
9 Indiana 829
10 North Carolina                 809
11 East Stroudsburg (PA) 807
11 Cortland (NY) 807
13 Maryland 805
14 Stanford 799
15 ROCKHURST 792
16 Akron                 788
17 Duke 778
18 Springfield (MA)     774
19     Wheaton (IL) 772
20 Drew (NJ) 758
20         Loyola (MD) 758

 
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