March 26, 2012
GOODBYE, BILL
Stevenson, who coached Arena, Messing, Montgomery, dies at 78

Bill Stevenson, who coached Bruce Arena, Shep Messing and Bob Montgomery before the trio made their professional soccer reputations, recently passed away. He was 78.

Stevenson taught physical education at The Wheatley school in Roslyn, N.Y and Nassau Community College in Garden City, N.Y.

He also coached soccer at both schools.

Stevenson, who lived in Bay Shore, N.Y., passed away on March 16. He is survived by Alma, his sons William F., Guy and Matthew and their spouses, his grandchildren, McCabe, Atticus, Raif, Edith and Richard, and brothers Albert, Clarence and George.

He was a 1955 graduate of Cortland State. Besides soccer, Newsday reported that he also enjoyed coaching track and wrestling.

In lieu of flowers, Stevenson's family said it would appreciate donations to the charity of your choice in Bill's name.

Arena, the LA Galaxy coach, was an All-Region goalkeeper at NCC before he transferred to Cornell University. In Ithaca, N.Y. Arena played soccer and was an All-America lacrosse player. Arena went on to direct the University of Virginia to five NCAA Division I titles and eventually moved to Major League Soccer. He guided D.C. United to the first championships in league history and the Galaxy to the most current one. Arena also coached the U.S. National Team in consecutive World Cups, reaching the quarterfinals in the 2002 competition.

Stevenson coached Messing at The Wheatley and at NCC, betweem sojourns at Harvard University and New York University. Messing eventually backstopped the New York Cosmos to the 1977 North American Soccer League championship and the New York Arrows to the first four titles in the original Major Indoor Soccer League. Messing is a player agent and is a TV analyst for the Red Bulls.

Montgomery went on to coach Adelphi University, reaching the NCAA Division I tournament several times producing two U.S. National Team players in defender Mike Windischmann, the captain of the 1990 U.S. World Cup team, and midfielder Chris Armas. He is the director of Red Bulls' youth programs.

Stevenson also coached many other players who went on to become high school and college coaches.