MARIETTA, Ohio — Our All-Decade Teams were assembled from interviews with former players, coaches and review of team records including All-Conference, All-Ohio and All-Region winners. We put players in the decade where they played the majority of their career or in cases where they played equal amount of seasons in each, where they had the most success in. Grad years on players that didn't complete their time at MC were what the expected grad year was meant to be. We tried to remain true to the positions played, but some may have been moved from one side to the other. Please understand that records are spotty, particularly in the early days and your memory may very well be correct.
The first decade plus of Marietta College Soccer saw expected growing pains that new programs often experience. Varsity status was given in 1967 and the first varsity season was 1968. The team was led by Reverend Alun Jones, who the long time soccer field at Pioneer Park was named after. Jones was only able to coach the team as a varsity program for one season as he passed away in Sept of 1969. He was replaced by Don Kelley, who doubled as the basketball coach. Games in the early days were played at Don Drumm Stadium, before moving to Pioneer Park.
The first winning season in the program came in 1973 under the leadership of Phil Roach. Roach, who replaced Kelley as the College's basketball coach in 1970, is the Coach of the Decade compiling a 43-53-4 record. He was the programs' winningest coach until Patrick Holguin won his 44th game in 2003.
1974 saw the decade's best finish of 7-3, which was later matched by the 1977 team. The 1977 team finished in third of the Southern Division of the Ohio Athletic Conference which tied with the 1976 team for the highest finish in the conference for the decade. From 1974 till 1983 the OAC was divided into two divisions and Marietta was in the Southern Division with Muskingum, Denison, Wittenberg, Ohio Wesleyan and Capital. The 1977 team set multiple records including fewest goals allowed (11), most shutouts (6) and most consecutive wins (4).
Roach's last season as the head soccer coach was in 1979 when he was named the school's Athletic Director and made the decision to hire a former player, John Blair, as the soccer coach. Blair, a member of the 1967-79 All-Decade Team, took the program to new heights into the next decade.
