UMBC recently promoted former associate head coach Anthony Adams to the top job for the Retrievers men’s soccer team, making Adams just the fifth head coach in program history.
Adams takes over for legendary head coach Pete Caringi, who announced his retirement after leading the Retriever soccer program for 32 years. The duo worked together on UMBC’s coaching staff for 26 years, and Caringi believed in Adams from the start.
“I was two years removed from playing and during the first year I was still learning and figuring things out. He was putting me in charge of things right from the beginning,” Adams said on Glenn Clark Radio Feb. 7. “He made me the recruiting coordinator my first week on the job. I think within a few months he put me on a plane to England and said come back with two players. And fortunately, we hit two home runs with two guys being all-conference and one is in our Hall of Fame.”
Caringi knew Adams a few years before hiring him. A Dundalk native, Adams attended soccer powerhouse Calvert Hall before playing college soccer at UMBC under Caringi from 1992-1995. Adams was a solid player for the Retrievers, starting in the backfield during his final three seasons.
Adams called Caringi a good friend and mentor.
“He was my coach, but I think for me, he is Baltimore soccer,” Adams said of Caringi. “You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who has more pride in Baltimore soccer, from youth all the way up than he does. I think he’s one of the best coaches our country has ever produced, so I’m really lucky to have been around him this long.”
The program will be in good hands under Adams, as a good portion of the 2022 Retrievers roster will return next fall and no undergraduate player entered the transfer portal.
UMBC is coming off another successful season, compiling a 10-6-2 record. The team scored 44 goals, tied for the 12th-highest mark in the nation. Junior forward Taylor Calheira, the Retrievers’ second-leading goal scorer, will return for his senior season. He earned America East Striker of the Year honors in 2022 after scoring 11 goals as a junior.
Adams plans to keep assistant coaches Pete Caringi III and Sam DeBone on his staff, creating even more continuity for the Retrievers.
“I think culture wins,” Adams said. “I think if you have a good culture and if you give kids a reason to stay, that if they really feel a true connection to you, your program and the university, they’re not going to go anywhere … and that’s in any sport, any program.”
Since joining the Retrievers’ coaching staff, Adams has served as the program’s recruiting coordinator. Adams has been a big part of UMBC’s success during the last two and a half decades, recruiting 113 players who earned all-conference honors and 32 who went on to play soccer professionally.
Next year’s squad will bring back three all-conference players in Calheira, junior forward Alek Wroblewski and sophomore defender Hans Nesheim. The latter two earned second-team all-conference honors in 2022.
“As I told my players, we are not going to reinvent the wheel. The culture is here, the tradition is here,” Adams said. “… We scored a ton of goals, second most since I’ve been there, but we only had two shutouts and I think in the end that’s why we didn’t win as many at the end. … My message to the team is that we’re going to have to be more balanced if we want to meet our goals.”
For more from Adams, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of UMBC Athletics