Head Men's Soccer Coach RIT - ROchester Institute Of Technology Phone: 585-475-2618 Email: bill.garno@rit.edu
Bill Garno begins his 22nd season at the helm of the Rochester Institute of Technology men’s soccer team in 2017. In that time, Garno has led the Tigers to three appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament (2000, 2001 and 2004), a spot in the 2011 Liberty League title game and three Empire 8 championships. In 2000 and 2006, Garno earned Empire 8 Coach of the Year honors.
Over the past 21 seasons, Garno’s teams have compiled a 172-161-37 record (.515). He is one of only two coaches to eclipse the 100-win plateau in RIT men’s soccer coaching history, and sits second in wins behind the late Doug May, a member of the RIT Athletics Hall of Fame, whom Garno played for.
Under Garno’s tutelage, 43 different Tigers earned All-Empire 8 honors from 1999 to 2010. Eleven Tigers have received All-Liberty League honors since the Tigers joined the conference in 2011, including Scott Fishel, Peter Cinibulk and Will Schiesswohl who were 2016 selections.
Garno has coached three different Empire 8 Players of the Year and three Rookies of the Year, along with numerous academic honorees, including Sean Coots who was a 2012 CoSIDA Academic All-Region selection and a NSCAA Academic All-Region honoree. In 2015 Fishel and Luke Dorsey earned CoSIDA Academic All-Region honors. Dorsey was also named the winner of RIT’s Ellingson Award for academic excellence in 2016, while Fishel won the prestigious honor in 2017.
Mike Lawson, who recently had a scholarship named in his honor at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, was a two-time NSCAA Academic All American (2004 & 2005) and a two-time Empire 8 Player of the Year. The Tigers placed eight players on the Liberty League All-Academic squad in 2015.
From 1983 to 1986, Garno was a defender for the Tigers, helping RIT to an impeccable 59-8-6 record, four conference titles and four appearances in the NCAA Tournament. After a successful collegiate career at RIT, Garno turned to coaching. Prior to taking over at RIT, he served as an assistant coach at the University of Rochester from 1992 to 1995.
Garno is active in the local youth soccer scene, currently coaching for FC Dynamo ROC, and also having coached in the Empire United Soccer Academy, Hilton Heat, and Rochester Junior Rhinos, soccer clubs. He also has served as a head coach for the New York State West Olympic Development Program.
A 1988 graduate of RIT, Garno was the Director of the Printing Applications Laboratory in RIT’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies for 21 years before being named the full-time men’s soccer coach in Oct., 2012. He lives in Hilton, N.Y., with his wife, Marcey. They have three children, Bailey (24), Ellie (22), and Simon (19), who returns for his second year at RIT in the fall of 2017.