The 2025 soccer season marked Paul McGinlay\u2019s 35th season as Trinity University\u2019s men\u2019s soccer head coach. In that time, McGinlay\u2019s team has collected 23 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference\u00a0 championships, 25 NCAA playoff appearances and 10 appearances in the Final Four. Aside from heading a successful men\u2019s soccer program, McGinlay also serves as the athletic liaison to the admissions office and aids in the \u201cSport in England\u201d class.<\/p>\n
McGinlay went to school at the University of London, and grew up in Northampton, about an hour north of London. He traveled to the U.S. during the summer months to teach an eight-week soccer camp in Long Island, NY, and from his time traveling around the U.S., McGinlay decided to pursue a master\u2019s degree and later teach at the College of Wooster in Ohio. After four years in Ohio, McGinlay applied to be the first-ever full-time men\u2019s soccer coach at Trinity in 1991 \u2014 and the rest is history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a huge ambassador for the school, not just athletically, but academically,\u201d McGinlay said. \u201cThe school was on the rise. They were looking to do something a little bit different, athletically, and I stayed. I actually met my wife, who ended up graduating from Trinity in \u201892. We met in \u201894, and my son is a senior at Trinity right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGinlay boasts one of the best records among coaches in the NCAA, with an 83.3% win percentage. He also holds the record for the fastest coach to reach 500 wins. In 2011, the Trinity soccer field was named the Paul McGinlay Field in his honor. Throughout his successful coaching career, McGinlay believes everything has continued to improve. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn every way, things have gotten better: facilities, ability, academic profile, equipment support,\u201d McGinlay said. \u201cTechnology has just changed so much. When we first started, we had balls and cones, but now it\u2019s heart rate monitors, and GPS devices and video feedback that\u2019s just on a professional level. So, it\u2019s so different from 1991. 1991 feels like 1891.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As facilities and technology have evolved, so has McGinlay\u2019s coaching philosophy. The coach\u2019s office is overflowing with books \u2014\u00a0 not only books on soccer, but other sports too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always think that the two things that can change you are the people that you meet and the books that you read. They kind of affect you more than anything else,\u201d McGinlay said.<\/p>\n
Recently, McGinlay finished \u201cHow to Win: Rugby and Leadership from Twickenham to Tokyo,\u201d a book by Clive Woodward, a rugby coach who won England the Rugby World Cup in 2003. He mentioned another one of his most impactful recent reads, a Dutch book called \u201cBrilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football,\u201d by David Winner, English journalist and writer. McGinlay said he enjoyed the book\u2019s \u201cphilosophical approach\u201d to the game. <\/p>\n
McGinlay notes that there is always a share of the team from England. The soccer team has four incoming recruits from England for 2027. As head coach, McGinlay is highly involved in the recruiting process for the team, and he looks for a strong academic and athletic profile in potential players.<\/p>\n
In collaboration with Jacob Tingle, associate professor of business administration, and Angela Breidenstein, professor of education, McGinlay has helped shape the \u201cSport in England\u201d program into what it is today. McGinlay recalled that the beginning of the program was \u201cliterally on a napkin.\u201d What began as Tingle taking 12 students to Manchester has evolved into a full-blown \u201cSport in England\u201d program, featuring a 6-hour course with room for 24 students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a great class where you start to get to know each other in the fall, and now you\u2019re living together and eating together and traveling together. So that really bonds the group,\u201d McGinlay said. \u201cThere\u2019s a few classes where there\u2019s a really strong emotional bond between the students, and we encourage vulnerability and openness \u2014 just be yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n
A lot has changed in McGinlay\u2019s program and around the university during his tenure. Still, after 35 seasons, McGinlay remains. <\/p>\n
\u201cCoaching at Trinity, it always comes down to the quality of the students. If that were any different, I\u2019d be in a different place, but they\u2019re always impressive,\u201d McGinlay said. \u201cThey were impressive back then, and they continue to be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 soccer season marked Paul McGinlay\u2019s 35th season as Trinity University\u2019s men\u2019s soccer head coach. In that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-484946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}