Coach's Message
Head
Coach Martin McGrogan: It gives me great pleasure
to introduce you to the Irvine Valley College men's soccer team.
As always, we have two major goals. First, to help our student athletes
achieve their educational goals, and second, to play competitive
soccer. At IVC we understand that long after the drama of victory
and defeat have been forgotten, your education has not. With that
in mind, we continually strive to emphasize the importance of education
to our student athletes. We have been fortunate in the past 10 years
to have many of our student athletes transfer to four-year institutions
(several with athletic scholarships) such as the University of California,
Irvine; University of Denver; University of Portland; California
State University, Bakersfield; California State University, Fullerton;
Cal Lutheran; Chapman University; Concordia University; California
State University, Los Angeles; University of California Santa Barbara;
and Vanguard University, just to name a few.
In addition to the student athletes who have continued their educational
goals, we have also had two players who played professional soccer
in Major League Soccer: Brad Wilson (Los Angeles Galaxy), and Ryan
Tinsley (Kansas City Wizards and Chicago Fire). IVC has also been
represented in the professional indoor soccer league by Matt West
(Anaheim Splash). West, who is now playing for the Utah Blitz in
the USISL, has joined on as an assistant coach with the IVC program
this year. We sincerely hope that this year's team can continue
in this tradition.
As in any endeavor, there are many people who we have to thank
for their continued support of the men's soccer program. Our deepest
gratitude goes out to Dr. Phil Stanley, IVC's founding athletic
director; Beth Clary, athletic department secretary; Janet
Olsen, trainer; Sheryl Kempkes, counselor; Andy Weekes, equipment
manager; Brent Shaver, sports information direcor; John Lowe, professor;
Lewis Long, professor; Judy Vinland, senior information processor;
Clyde Best, former assistant coach (currently, the National Coach
of Bermuda); Jovan Stojanovsky, former assistant coach and current
supporter; and Laurie Abrahams and Matt West, assistant coaches.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of the student athletes who have
taken pride in representing the Irvine Valley College Lasers over
the past 10 years. They have all shown class on and off the
playing field. May they always achieve their goals.