Sam Koch, longtime coach of the University of Massachusetts men’s soccer team, died Sunday after a two-year battle with sinus cancer. He was 59.
“We have lost a great coach and friend with Sam’s passing,” athletic director John McCutcheon said in a statement. “His wonderful spirit and caring way will be missed by all of us and we are grateful to have had Sam in our lives.”
Koch had a 222-182-45 record in 23 seasons at UMass, making him the winningest coach in program history. He led the program to four Atlantic 10 regular-season championships, two A-10 tournament titles and three NCAA tournament appearances, including an improbable run to the College Cup with an unranked squad in 2007.
The Concord native graduated from Colby College as a four-year player in 1979. He was an assistant coach at Brown and Boston College and head coach at Stanford from 1984-89, going 58-53-16.
Koch took over at UMass in 1991 for what was expected to be the program’s final season due to funding and Title IX issues. Instead, he led the once-dying program to 13 winning seasons and five straight from 1999-2003.
On Aug. 7, 2012, Koch informed his team that he had been diagnosed with sinus cancer. He coached for the next two seasons after a brief absence despite constant travel from Amherst to Boston to receive regular treatment.
Koch’s death comes less than a year after Elaine Sortino, the school’s longtime softball coach, died following her own lengthy battle with cancer.
“[Koch] was definitely the type of guy I could walk in his office and tell him I had 30 minutes to talk and we’d be in there for an hour,” rising senior captain Matt Keys told The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the school’s student-run newspaper, on Monday. “He was just the type of guy you could have enormous conversations with and he could tell stories. He was definitely more than just a coach, he was more of a friend and a father.”