Odorisio out at Iowa Wesleyan

MT. PLEASANT - Iowa Wesleyan University announced this week that men's soccer coach Tony Odorisio has resigned from the position. Odorisio's departure comes just over one month before the scheduled start of the 2020 IW soccer season.

The school announced that Odorisio gave his letter of resignation on Tuesday.

Odorisio was entering his fifth year at the University. The team sky-rocketed to the top of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with Odorisio at the rhelm.

In his first year as Tiger head coach, in 2016, Odorisio coached the team to five wins, one more than the previous season. One year later, that win total doubled.

The 2017 squad not only finished above .500, but went 6-2-1 in the SLIAC just two years after going 1-8 in league play.

Due in part to a tougher schedule, the 2018 squad went just 9-12-1 overall, but finished 6-3 in conference play an earned a berth in the SLIAC tournament. The 2018-19 season was the school's first year eligible for NCAA Division III play, making that soccer team the first Division III conference tournament team in school history. The Tigers upset Spalding University 2-1 in the semifinals but fell 1-0 at Greenville University in the championship.

In what turned out to be Odorisio's last year as IW head coach, the Tigers went 9-8-2 overall and 8-0-1 in the SLIAC. That record would have given IW the top seed in the conference tournament, but the Tigers were banned from postseason play for eclipsing the alloted number of yellow cards allowed.

'I would like to congratulate Coach Odorisio on a successful career at Iowa Wesleyan University,” said Vice President for Advancement and Athletics Derek Zander. 'Over the past four seasons, this program has reached new heights.”

The school will immediately begin a nation-wide search for the next head coach.

IW is scheduled to begin the 2020 men's soccer season on Wednesday, March 10, when they host Fontbonne University in the first of what will be an All-SLIAC schedule. It will be the last NCAA Division III year for the University, and the last year as a SLIAC member, as the school will make the move back to full time NAIA membership over the summer.