Banks Named NAC Coach of the Year
| Published: 11/20/2009 |
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The 2009 men's soccer season has been a banner year for the Raiders and Head Coach Jimmy Banks. In the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) preseason poll, the conference coaches predicted MSOE to finish fifth, but Banks and the Raiders exceeded everyone's expectations, completing the regular season with a 9-1-1 NAC.
The team placed second during the regular season and fell short of an automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA tournament by a 1-0 loss to nationally ranked Dominican University. For the year, the Raiders carried a school's best ever 13-6-2 mark and were ranked ninth in the Central Region by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).
The conference took notice and honored coach Banks as the NAC Coach of the Year. This was Banks' most successful season since he started at MSOE back in 1999 and he has more wins than any other soccer coach in the school's history. A great coach, Banks' success in soccer dates back to when he was a player. He was an all-state player and a high school All-American at Custer High School and an All-American while in college. Banks graduated from UWM with a degree in community education.
His strength as a soccer player was noticed at the highest level of U.S. Soccer and he was chosen to play for the US National team and subsequently play in the Pan Amercan games in 1989 and the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The international experience Banks gained helped him to enter a long professional soccer career as an All Pro with the Milwaukee Wave and eventually into coaching.
Dan Harris MSOE Athletic Director and long time soccer friend, acknowledges how lucky MSOE is to have a coach and international player of Bank's stature. " Jimmy's stature as a world renowned play maker makes him an amazing resource for our student-athletes, much as the renowned professors they have in the classroom at MSOE."
Banks, who holds a USSF-A coaching license, has proven his success both on and off the field. Luckily for MSOE , the Raider men's soccer program is looking forward to a bright future because of it.
