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Saints name Mike Toshack men's soccer coach

Posted 6/19/15

A former Saint assistant coach who has had an outstanding career as a goalkeeper coach in professional soccer will return to St. Lawrence University as its new head men's soccer coach. Mike Toshack, …

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Saints name Mike Toshack men's soccer coach

Posted

A former Saint assistant coach who has had an outstanding career as a goalkeeper coach in professional soccer will return to St. Lawrence University as its new head men's soccer coach.

Mike Toshack, the goalkeeper coach for the Portland Timbers for the past three seasons and a goalkeeper coach in the MLS for the last seven years, will take over for Bob Durocher who was named St. Lawrence director of athletics in May. Toshack becomes just the fourth head coach in the St. Lawrence program's history. Annually ranked among the Top 25 NCAA Division III programs by the NSCAA, St. Lawrence has captured the Liberty League regular-season and tournament championship the past two seasons and has earned 26 conference championships overall, including 16 since 1995.

Toshack served as a Saint assistant coach under Durocher from 1994 until 2003 and was a member of the coaching staff for the 22-0-0 national championship team. He also coached the U20 Canadian Men's National team from 1998 to 2001 and began his professional soccer coaching career with the Montreal Impact of the United Soccer League in 2002. Saint teams went 115-20-11 during his tenure as goalkeeper coach and had a 60 game unbeaten streak. He coached Greg Sutton '99 who went on to a professional goalkeeping career and Dustin Crooker '03 who was the national statistical champion in goals against average in 2000.

A graduate of Acadia University and a native of Prescott, ON, Toshack was assistant coach and goalkeeper coach for the 2007 Major League Soccer Cup Champion Houston Dynamo and was on the coaching staff for the Major League Soccer All Star team for the match against the European Champion Bayern Munich in 2004. His Portland Timbers goaltender was named Major League Soccer Goalkeeper of the Year in 2013.

"I am grateful to Merritt Paulson, Gavin Wilkinson, Caleb Porter and the entire Timbers organization for the opportunity to coach for such a first-class club in the best soccer environment in the country," Toshack said. "As much as I will miss Portland and MLS, this opportunity with St. Lawrence was too great for me to pass up, and I am looking forward to returning to where I started my coaching career and the opportunities that await in my new role as the head coach of the Saints program." Toshack said Thursday.

Toshack will coach his final game with the Timbers at Providence Park on Saturday against the Houston Dynamo. Winning an MLS Cup with Houston in 2007, Toshack has served as Timbers goalkeeper coach since 2012, overseeing the play and development of the club's goalkeepers for three-and-a-half seasons, including an MLS Goalkeeper of the Year campaign by Donovan Ricketts in 2013.

The new Saint head coach has coached in over 500 professional games and coached in the 2001 FIFA Youth World Championship in Argentina. He was the owner and operator of Global Goalkeeping, a soccer education company specializing in goalkeeper development from 1993-2003 and was the Director of Goalkeeping for Global Premier Soccer from 2004-2005.

He was director of goalkeeping for the Vancouver Whitecaps in the United Soccer League from 2005-07 before moving to the Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer as assistant and goalkeeper coach in 2007. He held the same position with the Toronto FC from 2009 till 2012 before joining Portland in January of 2012.