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Jon Pascale
Jon Pascale completed his 16th season as the head coach of the UC San Diego men's soccer program in 2023 -- the program's last season of the NCAA Division I reclassification.
A three-time California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Coach of the Year, Pascale finished 2019 with an overall record of 130-61-40 (.649) in charge of the Tritons, including a 87-46-29 (.627) mark in arguably the toughest Division II conference in the nation. He directed UC San Diego to 10 consecutive campaigns of .500 or better, and 11 of 12 in all in Division II. The Tritons made seven successive CCAA Tournament appearances, a program record, and earned NCAA Championship berths four times since 2013 (2013, 2014, 2016, 2019). They advanced to the CCAA and West Region title matches in 2013, and all the way to the national semifinals in 2016 as CCAA regular-season, CCAA tournament and NCAA West Region treble winners.
On Nov. 1, 2012, Pascale was voted by his peers as the first CCAA Coach of the Year for UC San Diego in men's soccer. He earned a second-straight award in 2013 following the program's most successful showing at the Division II level to that point, and then again in 2016 after surpassing that performance.
Under Pascale, UC San Diego has developed into one of the toughest defenses in the NCAA Division II. The Tritons ranked in the top 10 nationally in team goals-against average (GAA) for three straight years from 2012-14, leading the country in 2012 with a then-CCAA-record mark of 0.44. They were fourth in 2013 (0.52), again pacing the league, and seventh in 2014 (0.65).
Over his first eight years in La Jolla, Pascale has produced four All-Americans in Alec Arsht, Andisheh Bagheri, Josh Cohen and Jared Kukura. His players have totaled 13 Daktronics All-West Region, 12 United Soccer Coaches (formerly National Soccer Coaches Association of America) All-West Region, 33 All-CCAA and three CCAA Most Valuable Defensive Player awards.
Pascale's teams have also excelled in the classroom, earning an NSCAA Team Academic Award for the 2014-15 (3.42), 2013-14 (3.46 GPA), 2012-13 (3.09) and 2010-11 (3.10) academic years. He has had a trio of Academic All-Americans in Arsht (2013), Bagheri (2013) and Kuba Waligorski (2015), two CCAA Male Scholar-Athletes of the Year in Bagheri (2013-14) and David Bakal (2010-11), nine CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 selections, and 74 CCAA All-Academic honorees. Bagheri was the recipient of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, leaving UC San Diego with two degrees.
Despite losing 10 standouts to graduation, UC San Diego got out to a 5-1 start and achieved return trips to the CCAA and NCAA postseasons in 2014. The squad finished in a two-way tie for third in the now-one-division conference table, largely behind the offensive exploits of senior playmaker Brandon Bauman, a Daktronics All-West Region and All-CCAA First Team choice. The Tritons hosted their first-ever CCAA tournament match in the first round.
The Tritons completed an incredible 2013 run with their most overall wins in two decades at 14-3-5, and most CCAA victories in program history at 11-2-3. The CCAA South runners-up earned their first CCAA Championship berth since 2005, and a spot in the NCAA Division II Championship field for the first time since 2003, advancing to both the conference and West Region finals. The road included a thrilling second-round NCAA tilt against Chico State in front of 985 rowdy spectators in La Jolla, with the Tritons eliminating the archrival Wildcats via penalty-kick tiebreaker. UC San Diego was up to sixth nationally at one point during the regular season, marking its highest ranking in Division II, and wound up at No. 9. Arsht, Bagheri and Cohen were All-Americans, with Cohen the CCAA Most Valuable Defensive Player for the second year in a row.
Pascale's 2012 side placed third in the CCAA South Division, falling just one league victory shy of a trip to the CCAA Championship for the third successive season. His defense ranked No. 1 in Division II with a 0.44 GAA and a 0.71 shutout percentage courtesy of 12 clean sheets over 17 matches played. Daktronics All-Americans Arsht and Cohen featured among five Tritons to garner CCAA postseason recognition. Cohen, the national leader in individual GAA (0.397), was the CCAA Most Valuable Defensive Player. UC San Diego let in only eight goals all year, its lowest total in the Division II era, and maintained separate shutout stretches of 448:05, 503:37 and 409:16.
Despite four straight victories in the 2011 run-in, UC San Diego came up a mere two points short of the CCAA tournament. At 10-8 overall, Pascale reached the 10-win mark for the second time following his 2008 debut. The Tritons were third in their division with a 9-7 league ledger.
The 2010 Tritons finished fourth in the CCAA South Division with an 8-6-4 overall record and 8-5-3 mark in conference play. Pascale's squad won five of its last seven matches and went 8-2-2 following a tough start. Kukura earned Daktronics All-America Second Team, Daktronics and NSCAA All-West Region First Team, All-CCAA First Team and CCAA Most Valuable Defensive Player distinction having anchored a UC San Diego defense as a senior that ranked third in the CCAA with a 0.89 GAA.
Pascale's tenure got off to a grand start as UC San Diego reeled off five victories in a row to open the 2008 campaign, ultimately compiling a 10-6-2 record, the program's best since 2005. An even 6-6-2 CCAA mark was good enough for fourth place in the CCAA South Division.
Pascale, the seventh men's soccer head coach in school history, joined the UC San Diego family on Jan. 23, 2008, after stops at three Division I institutions that similarly place a high emphasis on combined academic and athletic success. He spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons as an assistant coach at Stanford University, where he helped put together the Cardinal's 10th-ranked 2007 recruiting class.
That position was preceded by five years at Georgetown University, where he was the associate head coach for the Hoyas. Prior to his time in the D.C. area, Pascale was an assistant at the University of Pennsylvania for three seasons.
Since 2010, Pascale has also served as a scout for U.S. Soccer, concentrating on the Southern California region to identify potential prospects for selection to youth-level national teams.
A college soccer player while attending American University in Washington, D.C., Pascale graduated from the school in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education. He and his wife, Liza, and their two young daughters, reside in Cardiff. The couple welcomed Reagan just prior to the start of the 2013 season, and Paige on the eve of the 2015 campaign.
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