Long Time Macalester College Soccer Coach John Leaney to Retire
Long Time Macalester College Soccer Coach John Leaney to Retire
St. Paul, MN – 10/6/2009
Prominent longtime Macalester College soccer coach John Leaney has announced his retirement from coaching at the conclusion of the 2009 season.
Leaney will remain on staff part-time in the area of recruiting, but has decided to retire from coaching to devote more time to raising his four-year-old son Jack. John’s wife Carrie passed away from cancer three years ago and he has decided that full-time coaching has taken too much time away from his family.
Coach Leaney came to Macalester as head men’s soccer coach in 1986 and two years later also took control of the women’s program, which went on to win the NCAA Division III national championship in 1998 and finish second the following year. He gave up his men’s coaching duties to concentrate on the women’s team in 2006.
“Raising a four-year-old requires a great deal of energy, as does coaching a college team full time. Right now, my son is the most important thing in my life and he deserves my undivided attention,” said Leaney.
“However sad I feel about the decision, I know it is the right one and I look forward to T-ball, soccer, golf and basketball with somebody with a much shorter attention span. I hope it brings the same level of enjoyment I have had over the last 25 years coaching.”
Leaney’s men’s and women’s teams at Macalester were usually among the top teams in the conference and regular participants in the NCAA playoffs. He guided his teams to 17 MIAC championships and 22 national playoff berths, while coaching 19 All-Americans and an MIAC Player of the Year 14 times.
“John has made enormous contributions to both the men’s and the women’s soccer programs, the department and the college,” said Macalester Director of Athletics Kim Chandler.
“His legacy as a national champion will continue to resonate as one of the institution’s greatest moments in athletic history, but undoubtedly, John’s greatest work has been his mentoring and teaching to so many Macalester student athletes. The college and the department are grateful for his contributions and we look forward to the celebration of his induction into the Hall of Fame and to his continued work within the Athletic Department.”
The women’s soccer teams at Macalester have posted a 292-75-31 record under Coach Leaney to date and the men’s teams went 236-89-36 under his guidance. His combined record to date is 528-164-67 for a winning percentage of .740. Leaney is ranked 14th in career wins among all NCAA active coaches and sixth among Division III coaches.
Coach Leaney will be inducted into the Macalester M Club Athletic Hall of Fame later this month.
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BQ, thanks for doing this story.
I was part of John’s first recruiting class in 1989 and feel fortunate that on a recruiting visit to Rochester he somehow convinced my parents that if I came to Mac, he’d (Leaney) make sure to shelter me and keep me away from the girls and the parties. That might be the only thing John didn’t succeed at in my collegiate soccer dealings with him, but I don’t hold that against him.
Moreover, I wouldn’t have signed my first pro contract without his efforts to get me seen by the Rowdies in 1992 – he spent weeks pouring through 4 years of collegiate VHS tapes, splicing together highlight clips using two VCRs (blinking 12:00PMs and all) and overdubbing everything with a very professional sounding British-accented voice over. Sounds easy these days, but try and do that on an Apple IIe back then and you’d realize what a feat that truly was.
I count him, along with Buzz Lagos and my father, as the one of the three people who most influenced my soccer life, and wish him the best of luck moving on.
Congrats on a very successful career and thank you for all you’ve done.