SZMARZ NAMED MOUNTAIN VALLEY CONFERENCE COACH-OF-THE-YEAR

The Mountain Valley Conference announced today that SUNY Cobleskill Head Men’s Soccer Coach Rob Szmarz has been named the league’s Tri-Coach-of-the-Year along with Mohawk Valley Community College’s Robert Gould and Herkimer Community College’s Pepe Aragon. Szmarz guided the Fighting Tigers to one of the best turnaround season’s in the nation in the NJCAA Division III ranks taking the program from a 4-10-1 overall record with a 1-5-1 league record in 2004 to a 10-6-1 overall record with a 3-3-1 Mountain Valley Conference mark in 2005. Under Szmarz the Fighting Tigers qualified for the NJCAA Region III Division III Tournament for the first time since the 2000 season advancing to the tournament’s quarterfinal round.

“This is an unexpected honor and I think it is a tribute to the effort our players and my coaching staff have put in not only this season but during the off season as well,” said Szmarz. “Looking back on the season I think of this year as a transitional step towards becoming one of the elite programs in this region and I think that it definitely gives us a solid foundation to build on for the 2006 season. I feel from the moment we stepped on campus in the pre-season until we lost in the tournament we became a much better team each and every day we were together.”

In his three seasons directing the Fighting Tiger program the Floral Park, NY native and SUNY Potsdam alumnus has guided the Cobleskill program to a 20-23-3 overall mark with three players having earned All-Mountain Valley Conference honors with one team member earning NJCAA Academic All-American honors during his tenure at the helm of the program.