COBLESKILL’S SZMARZ NAMED 2006 MOUNTAIN VALLEY CONFERENCE MEN’S SOCCER COACH-OF-THE-YEAR

SUNY Cobleskill Head Men’s Soccer Coach Rob Szmarz has been named the 2006 Mountain Valley Conference Coach-of-the-Year by the league’s coaches. The Fighting Tiger mentor was also a MVC Co-Coach-of-the-Year in 2005.

“This is a tremendous honor and one that I am very proud of but to be honest I wish that it could be called the ‘Coaching-Staff-of-the-Year’ because I couldn’t have done it without our assistant coaches and all of the hard work that they put in on a daily basis,” said Szmarz. “We had a number of freshmen starting in the line-up this year so we’re excited about our future. We didn’t win the conference this year so in my mind there is still much that we have to accomplish and still a great deal of room for improvement in the next season.”

The Fighting Tiger program also saw the conference honor four individual players with All-Mountain Valley Conference Team honors as senior defender Phil Venditti, Voorheesville, NY, Voorheesville High School, was named the 2006 MVC Player-of-the-Year, with senior striker Hugh Campbell, Bronx, NY, Evander Childs High School, and senior midfielder Gilbert Francillon, Brooklyn, NY, Midwood High School, earning spots on the all-conference team for the second consecutive season. Freshman goalkeeper Abdou Seck, Bronx, NY, Dewitt Clinton High School, was also honored by the league with all-conference status.

During the season Szmarz led Cobleskill to the best season in program history as the Fighting Tigers posted a 15-2-1 overall mark including a 5-1 record in league play which was good for a second place conference finish. Since taking the helm of the program four years ago, Szmarz’s teams have posted a 35-25-4 overall record advancing to post season play in 2005 and 2006. Under his direction the program advanced to the 2006 NJCAA Region III Championship Game for only the third time in program history.