Calabrese has a history of winning, wants to continue streak with FIU

Reinaldo Llerena // Staff Writer

The FIU Men’s Soccer team impressed last season, winning the Conference USA tournament and advancing to the NCAA tournament before losing in overtime to Tulsa University in the first round.

The man leading the upstart Panthers is Head Coach Scott Calabrese, who was in his second year at FIU after coming over from East Tennessee State University, where he won two conference titles.

Born Louis Scott Calabrese in 1972 in Connecticut to an Italian-American family, Calabrese was called by his middle name at an early age. Calabrese said that his mother did not like the name “Louis,” so she called him “Scott” instead.

Calabrese said in a phone interview with Student Media: “She named me after my father, but she refused to call me Louis. The only person that called me by my real first name was my best friend in high school. He called me ‘Lewy.’”

Calabrese first started coaching as an assistant in 1995 at Western Connecticut University after a short playing career as a goalkeeper. He got his first shot at a Division I school when he joined the Stetson University Hatters in 1998 as an assistant coach. From there, Calabrese joined North Carolina University again as an assistant head coach.

He got his first head coaching job at an upstart East Tennessee State University in 2007. He won his first conference title in 2010.

Calabrese said: “When I was hired, we started out with only three scholarships. 2010 was one of the most enjoyable years of my coaching career. To take a program that just started to the conference tournament and win was unbelievable.”

Calabrese won his second conference title with East Tennessee State in 2013 with a more mature team than he had in 2010.

“We had a bunch of veteran players that were there in 2010,” Calabrese said. “It was the last chance for that team to win one more championship before restarting the team.”

After winning his final title at East Tennessee State in 2013, FIU hired Calabrese in 2014 to replace Kenny Arena, who took a job as an assistant coach to his father, Bruce Arena, for the Los Angeles Galaxy Major League Soccer team.

Calabrese said: “Kenny did a great job in setting up this program for success. Of course, there were some areas to improve, but the pressure was on me to improve the program. We started on the little things first, such as a good night’s rest and proper nutrition. When we adjusted the little things, the coaching staff noticed an improvement in play immediately and the players bought into it. They started policing themselves this year and made sure they had enough rest and ate correctly.”

The 2016 FIU Men’s Soccer season begins Aug. 26 in Charleston, South Carolina, when the Panthers face NCAA-tournament regular Furman University. The two teams will face off in the Nike/Aaron Olitsky Memorial Soccer Classic, which runs from Aug. 26 – Aug. 28. Newly named Gatorade Player of the Year, Esteban Calvo, will likely make his debut for the Panthers in the tournament.

“Esteban is an excellent player,” Calabrese said. “We found him before he was named the Gatorade Player of the Year, and it reinforces that we have a deep talent pool of players at FIU.”