St. Louis U. High has historically boasted a strong soccer program on all levels. Success is often solely attributed to the depth of talented soccer players in the student body, but coaches' commitment to developing and guiding their team also plays an essential role in the success of a program. One of these dedicated coaches who contributed to the success of the team, Tom McCarthy, decided last summer to step down from coaching soccer after 37 years.

Since 1985, McCarthy has coached all levels of soccer except for varsity and was also an assistant and head track coach for 18 of those years. For McCarthy, there wasn’t one concrete reason for why he decided to step down. He enjoyed a long and fruitful tenure of coaching underclassmen soccer on the C, B, and JV teams. There was no downside to continuing as a coach, but he felt it was simply his time to step down.

“I worked with a lot of great coaches and a lot of great students, which is what made it hard for me to walk away,” said McCarthy. “It was good people, good students in a good situation that I enjoyed building teams for over a generation. But it was time. It was time to step aside and let somebody else pick up the reins.”

In building teams, McCarthy saw overwhelming success, amassing a record of 477-121-89, making him the winningest underclassman coach in SLUH history. Though his status as a St. Louis U. High coaching legend is all but guaranteed, especially with his staggering record, his more important feat was to prepare generations of underclassmen for the next level: varsity. 

The relevance of lower level teams’ contributions to an athletic program is often mistakenly overlooked. The teams act as the backbone to the program, where future varsity stars are made. McCarthy wasn’t so much worried about his record as he was about contributing to the overall program by pushing his players for a productive season, which in turn readied them for their years ahead.

“Last year with the juniors, I got to 475 (wins). But as I told Mr. Muskopf, if anybody knows me, it was never about a personal number,” said McCarthy. “I've told teams for years we're here to have a great year and see how many guys we can push up to the varsity the following year. You know, that's how you build an overall soccer program here at school.”

McCarthy's method to find success was with his meticulous coaching style and organization. Whether it be at practice or at a game, McCarthy was a voracious note-taker about team and individual performance, strategy, and any thought that would benefit the team. With these notes, he curated a detailed agenda for every practice. 

Additionally, McCarthy kept detailed accounts of data that reflected patterns and indicated to him what the team needed to do to maximize the chances of a win. From his data he put together his own “10 benchmarks of soccer excellence,” which he brought to his practices every day to ingrain into his team's playing style.

“As athletic director, one of the things I appreciated about Mr. McCarthy was I never had to worry about anything. Mr. McCarthy is an extremely detailed person,” said Athletic Director Emeritus Dick Wehner. “At the end of the year, he would give me a detailed summation of his year whether it be freshman soccer or JV soccer. He’d tell me the number of goals scored, number of goals scored against him, number of shutouts. He would let me know all of it.”

McCarthy’s coaching style was intensive and precise, yet he never failed to bring an aspect of joy to the team when needed. He operated in a happy medium between strict and easy-going as the leader of his teams.

“Coach McCarthy impacted me in many ways. He was hard on me when he needed to be, and easy or loose on me when called for,” said junior Luke Besmer, a player on McCarthy’s JV team last year. “He provided a perfect balance of a strict leader who demanded respect and a relatable coach that could have fun with us. Coach McCarthy really boosted my confidence and helped me to find my way as a soccer player.”

McCarthy has left a lasting mark on SLUH soccer history and the athletic department as a whole. Through his dedication to several generations of young athletes in both track and soccer, he shaped and enriched the lives and athletic abilities of everyone he worked with during their time at SLUH and beyond. McCarthy brought out his positive mentality of “it’s always a good day to be a Jr. Bill,” into his coaching, inspiring his players to work hard to make the most of their opportunity to be a Jr. Bill. His absence will leave a void in SLUH athletics, but his legacy will live on and continue to inspire future generations of athletes and coaches.

“He was a coach that cared about you as a person off the field as much on the field as he did off the field,” said Mike Besmer ’96, a player on McCarthy’s B-Team. “He had high expectations but trusted each of us to gel and play as a team.”