Phil Bannister will have more responsibilities with the Fordham men. (Photo courtesy of Fordham)

Fordham University men’s soccer head coach Carlo Acquista announced Thursday that Phil Bannister has been promoted from assistant coach to associate head coach.

“Having a great staff is critical to being successful,” Acquista said in a statement. “Having someone like Phil, who has been with us from the beginning, continues to be a huge asset to our program. He is someone that I trust dearly and want around our program daily. He is a leader in this industry and highly regarded as a top recruiter globally as well as a fantastic soccer coach.”

Since coming to Rose Hill with Acquista three years ago, Bannister has helped coach the Rams to the Atlantic 10 Championship semifinals in each of those seasons and helped Fordham through the adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic to capture the program’s fourth Atlantic 10 Championship in the spring of 2021. After an unbeaten spring regular season, Fordham upset Saint Louis and George Washington in the Atlantic 10 Championship to win the title and advance to the NCAA Division Tournament, where the team fell in extratime to eventual national champion Marshall University.

Fordham has had five United Soccer Coaches All-Region selections, seven All-Atlantic 10 performers, and eight Atlantic 10 All-Championship picks over the past three seasons.

Prior to Fordham, Bannister spent two seasons on Acquista’s staff at Adelphi University, which was named the 2017 East Region coaching staff of the year after Adelphi won the Northeast-10 regular season championship and finished with a No. 14 national ranking. In 2018, the Panthers again claimed the NE-10 regular season championship, while also winning the tournament championship.

Bannister spent three years at St. John’s University. He served his first two years as a graduate assistant with the Red Storm before transitioning to the position of volunteer assistant. He joined St. John’s after one season as a graduate assistant with the women’s soccer team at Bloomsburg.

Following a standout collegiate career at Loyola (Md.), the Wallsend, England native was drafted by the Colorado Rapids in the 2011 MLS Supplemental Draft. His collegiate career included four All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference selections and the MAAC rookie of the year Award.

Bannister, who owns FA Level 1 and FA Level 2 coaching badges, graduated from Loyola University in 2011 with a degree in marketing and earned an MBA in finance from St. John’s.

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.