Amherst Men's Soccer Coaching Staff

Coach Milton Gooding came to Amherst via Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio where, as the head assistant soccer coach in 1993, he helped lead the Lords to an undefeated season, a national No. 1 ranking and a trip to the NCAA Division III Final Four, where they fell to the eventual national champion University of California at San Diego. Kenyon rebounded with a similarly impressive 18-2 record in 1994, advancing to the Regional Championship game for the second consecutive year. In Gooding's two campaigns at Kenyon, the Lords posted a whopping 32-3 overall record. Gooding has had similar success since coming to Amherst in 1997, helping lead the Jeffs to a New England Championship and a trip to the NCAA Division III Final Four in his first season. Since then, the team has sustained its winning ways with trips to the NCAA Regional Finals in 1998 and 2002 and continued national Top-20 rankings, rising as high as No. 6 in the NSCAA national poll while leading the team to a 10-3-2 season in 2003. Under Gooding's guidance - along with his father and co-head coach Peter Gooding - the future continues to look bright for men's soccer at Amherst, as the Jeffs look to return to the NCAA Final Four in 2005. Gooding was a two-sport high school standout at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut in soccer and lacrosse, played collegiate soccer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and continued his education at Northeastern University, where he graduated in 1992 with a degree in English. For the last three years he also has been heavily involved with the Adidas Elite Soccer Program, an program designed to identify the top 150 high school soccer players from around the country. Gooding, known as a strong identifier of talent and recruiter, has amassed in his short tenure at Amherst one of the nation's highest winning percentages, ranking him in the top 30 of all active NCAA Division III men's soccer coaches nationwide according to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).

Milton Gooding's Career Coaching Record

Coach Peter Gooding has been a fixture in physical education and athletics at Amherst for more than three decades, starting his tenure as the head men's soccer coach in 1968. Over the next 22 years, he broadened his involvement to include head coach of men's lacrosse and women's squash, professor of physical education and, later, chair of the P.E. Department and director of athletics. Although he guided the men's soccer team to several ECAC Tournament appearances, the growing demands of his other positions forced him to relinquish his head coaching duties in 1989. However, with the position vacant in 1997, he returned to the Amherst sideline and has since led the Jeffs to the NCAA Regional Finals in both 1998 and 2002. Despite his wealth of responsibilities at Amherst, Gooding has devoted himself to soccer on a national scale, particularly during the early 1990s. He served as President of the NSCAA in 1990-91 and Director of Coaching and is a senior staff coach for the NSCAA Academy Program, which he helped initiate and design. He has also served in a variety of capacities for the NCAA, including appointments to the Committee on U.S. Women's Athletics and the men's and women's Soccer Rules Committees. Most recently, Gooding was presented the 2001 Honor Award by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in January 2001. The Honor Award, which is the highest distinction given by the NSCAA, marked the third time Gooding has been recognized by the national association. He also received the NSCAA Merit Award in 1990 and the prestigious Bill Jeffrey Award at the 2003 convention. Gooding and his wife Myra reside in Amherst, Mass. They have two adult children, Milton Peter, who shares Amherst head coaching duties, and a daughter, Zoe Gooding Wilmont.

Peter Gooding's Career Coaching Record

Assistant Coach Brian Hamm joins the Amherst staff after serving in a similar role at NESCAC rival Middlebury College last fall. A 2002 graduate of Middlebury, Hamm was a three-year starter in goal for the Panthers, earning both all-conference honors and all-region honors twice and captaining the team in his senior campaign. Hamm played semi-professionally for the Downton Football Club in Downton, England before taking on the assistant role at Middlebury in 2004, and followed the season at Middlebury with a stint as Director of Goalkeeping for the Vermont Olympic Development Program. A four-year starter for Middlebury's baseball team, Hamm has also served as an assistant baseball coach at Middlebury for three seasons, and is currently an Envoy Coach for Major League Baseball. Hamm is currently working toward a master's degree in sport management at UMass Amherst, and will also serve as assistant coach for Amherst Baseball.