BRONX, N.Y. – Former Fordham University men’s soccer head coach Jim McElderry will be honored at the NYC Soccer Gala Feb. 25.

McElderry will the seventh Ram to be honored at the event joining former coach Frank Schnur (2013) and players Mark Lugris ’83 (2014), Jack Shannon ’85 (2015), John Wolyniec ’99 (2016)\ and Chris Donovan ’92 (2017) and Chris Gonzalez ’95 (2018).

The gala was formed by the Division I men’s soccer programs of New York City.

McElderry spent 16 years as the head coach at Rose Hill, building a program into a perennial contender in the Atlantic 10 Conference, as well as into a threat on the national stage.

When McElderry took over in the spring of 2003, the Rams had come off back-to-back four-win seasons and were a few years removed from a winless 1999 campaign. He started to build a roster, bringing in star recruiting classes that featured players from overseas and the United States. Within three seasons, Fordham had it first winning record under McElderry in 2005, and the first for the team in seven years. Twenty-four players received Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team honors in his tenure.

The next building block for McElderry and the program came on a national stage, when the Rams knocked off a nationally ranked top ten opponent in South Florida to begin the 2006 season. Fordham jumped into the top 25 polls, ranking as high as No. 12, and stayed in the top 25 for half the season. The Rams had eight wins over top 25 opponents during McElderry’s stay.

The team goal of returning to the Atlantic 10 Championship tournament would wait one more season for McElderry, when the Rams qualified in 2007. Fordham made nine appearances in the championship from 2007-18, and won a share of the 2011 Atlantic 10 regular season championship. McElderry was named the NSCAA Mid-Atlantic coach of the year following the 2011 season and saw seven of his players earn All-Atlantic 10 honors. He also received the first of his four “Iron Major” awards, given at the annual Block “F” Awards Dinner as Fordham’s coach of the year.

The momentum of team success by McElderry would culminate in 2014, when the Rams won their first Atlantic 10 Championship since 1996, posting three shutouts in four days. Five Rams made the All-Championship team and the team went on to compete in the NCAA Championship.McElderryAction2

McElderry and the Rams replicated that success in 2016, winning their second Atlantic 10 Championship in three seasons in dramatic fashion, taking home the title in a penalty kick shootout over VCU, where goalkeeper Rashid Nuhu stopped three penalty kicks and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Championship.

With two appearances in the NCAA Championship in three seasons, McElderry’s final step of building Fordham’s image as a soccer program was making a statement on the national stage. In 2017, the Rams made that impact as McElderry led the team to an at-large berth into the NCAA Division I tournament and reached the quarterfinals. Fordham knocked off St. Francis Brooklyn in the opening round in extratime and followed with an upset win over No. 11 national seed University of Virginia. The Rams then came back twice and won a shootout at No. 6 Duke University to earn a match with No. 3 the University of North Carolina in the quarterfinals, falling to the Tar Heels on a goal late in regulation. The team finished the year ranked 11th in the nation.

McElderry saw countless players earn All-Atlantic 10 as well as All-Region honors. The Rams had 32 All-Atlantic 10 performers and 27 All-Region selections. Fordham had one All-American (Janos Loebe – 2017) and seven major Atlantic 10 award winners, which included three defensive players of the year (Ryan Meara – 2011; Matthew Lewis – 2017; Joergen Oland – 2018), two offensive players of the year (Janos Loebe – 2016 & 2018), one midfielder of the year (Tim Richardson – 2008), and one rookie of the year (Janos Loebe – 2015). The Rams were also a consistent recipient of the United Soccer Coaches Team Academic Award, earning that recognition in each of McElderry’s final nine seasons.

Following the 2018 season, McElderry ended his tenure at Fordham, taking on the head coaching position at Rutgers University. He finished his 16 seasons at Fordham with 127 wins, second in program history to his predecessor, Schnur.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.