Bloomfield College

Bloomfield College Athletics
467 Franklin St Bloomfield, NJ 07003

Division 2 New Jersey Northeast

Private Small Competitive team

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Coaches

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Giovanni Soto

Giovanni Sota takes over as head coach for the Bears men's soccer program in 2023. Coach Soto is a native of Englewood, NJ and has been coaching a total of 18 years. Soto has 10 years of experience coaching the high school level and 8 years at the junior college level. Most recently, he was the Head Men’s Soccer Coach at Bergen Community College (BCC) where he helped win 2 regional titles, 1 regular season title and had two National NJCAA Tournament berths finishing 7th and 8th in the nation respectively. In 2022, the BCC team was ranked as high as 3rd in the nation (highest in program history) in the NJCAA National Polls with a record of 14-3 and reached the Region 19 NJCAA final.

Coach Soto commented, ”I really enjoy working with young athletes at the collegiate level as I strive for them to reach their maximum potential as students and as athletes. Without sacrifice and love there is no success”.

In 2020, he received his M.S. in Soccer Coaching from Ohio University while also having a B.A. in Education and a B.S. in Exercise Physiology from William Paterson University. He is a former 3 year high school starter at Dwight Morrow High School where he was an all league player, all county and all state standout. He was a 4 year starter and all conference player in the NJAC of Division 3 soccer at William Paterson University as a midfielder. After college, he played a couple of years at the semi-pro local level in NY/NJ.

Coach Soto has soccer coaching licenses with the United States Soccer Federation, the United Soccer Coaches, International Professional Scouting Organization in Scouting and Analysis, TOVO Institute and a Football Coach Evolution Certification in Periodization.

Soto is very excited and honored to coach the game he loves at Bloomfield College of Montclair State University and wishes to bring much success to the program both on and off the field as he strives to develop responsible, confident and intelligent student athletes.

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Joshua Merchan

Joshua Merchan stays on as an assistant coach for the Bears men's soccer team in 2023. Merchan is in his third year at Bloomfield and starting coaching in 2015 at the high school and club soccer level in NJ and Brooklyn, NY.

He currently coaches youth academy soccer at STA in Morris County, NJ. Merchan's goal in coaching is to motivate and challenge student-athletes to achieve their life goals on and off the field. He graduated from Bloomfield High School in 2017 and was born and raised in Bloomfield. Merchan is a graduate from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a Bachelors degree in Sports Management in 2021 and Masters in Sports Management in 2022. He currently holds a United States Soccer Federation D License.

Merchan is very excited to be a part of the men’s program at Bloomfield. He looks forward to developing our student-athletes as citizens and athletes, continuing to strive for excellence, and competing for conference titles.