Dr. Dave Masur

				Position: Head Coach, Associate Athletic Director Experience: 22nd season Alma Mater: Rutgers, '84

Dr. Dave Masur enters the 2011 season having reached unprecedented success in collegiate soccer throughout his 20 years at the helm of the St. John's program. In his tenure, St. John's has won a national championship (1996), made four appearances in the NCAA College Cup (1996, 2001, 2003 and 2008) and reached 17 NCAA Tournaments, including 15-straight from 1992-2006. A testament to the program's consistent success, the Red Storm was the only program in the nation to reach 10 consecutive NCAA Tournament Rounds of 16 from 1996-2005. With Masur on the sidelines, the Red Storm has also won a conference-record eight BIG EAST Tournament titles, six BIG EAST regular season crowns and has qualified for 20-consecutive BIG EAST Tournaments.

Masur has instilled a team-first focus and an emphasis in group leadership and overall preparation to a St. John's program that has risen to the upper echelon of collegiate soccer. The Red Storm has garnered numerous team, individual and academic achievements, and Masur has guided the squad to an average of nearly 15 wins per season.

St. John's won its conference-record eighth BIG EAST Tournament title in 2009, reaching the NCAA Tournament for the 17th time in program history and finishing with a 9-3-9 record. In addition to having five All-BIG EAST selections, including one first team honoree and four second team choices, the squad earned the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Award for the sixth time. In a 2-0 win against Georgetown on Sept. 18, the night St. John's unveiled its new mascot Johnny Thunderbird, the attendance of 2,518 set a new Belson Stadium record.

Individual accomplishments are as varied for Masur as they are for the many highly decorated players he has coached. The Montclair, N.J., native has twice been named national coach of the year - by the NSCAA in 1996 and by Soccer America in 2001. He is also a two-time collegiate All-American, three-time BIG EAST Coach of the Year and a six-time Northeast Region Coach of the Year. Masur is also a member of the St. John's University, Rutgers University, Columbia High School, New Jersey Soccer and Columbia Soccer halls of fame.

Chris Wingert won the 2003 Hermann Trophy as the nation's top collegiate player to highlight an impressive list of individual student-athlete honors with Masur at the helm. Red Storm players have combined for 92 All-BIG EAST, 14 All-America and 34 Regional All-America nominations in the last 19 seasons, and 12 different players have earned selections in the Major League Soccer SuperDraft.

In addition to his work on the sidelines, Masur has also practiced what he has preached and delivered a positive message in the classroom. He holds a doctorate in education administration supervision from St. John's, an M.A. in physical education from Montclair State and a B.S. in sports management from Rutgers and has instilled his value of education to each of the hundreds of players he has coached. Team leaders Wingert and Matt Groenwald have embodied the St. John's philosophy of "win, graduate, serve", as both have been named the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-American of the Year. In nine seasons since CoSIDA began awarding Academic All-America and Academic All-District honors, Red Storm players have racked up 17 All-District and nine All-America selections. Wingert and Groenwald earned Academic All-America honors three times each, while most recently, Jeff Stepan earned Academic All-America accolades twice. As a team, the squad has earned the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Team Academic Award six times.

A stellar run of success immediately followed Masur's arrival in 1991, as the Red Storm won a then-program record 12 games in his first season. In 1992, St. John's won its first ever BIG EAST Tournament championship and made its first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Red Storm followed that up with BIG EAST Tournament titles in 1993, 1994 and 1995 as part of a run of four-straight tournament crowns.

The next season, the 1996 team set new single-season records for wins (22), goals (80), assists (88) and points (248) on its way to the first national championship in St. John's University history. The Red Storm won the BIG EAST regular season title, but fell in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. St. John's ran through the tournament field with five-straight wins and handled Florida International, 4-1, in the championship game to cap a 22-2-2 season with a national title.

A second straight BIG EAST regular season title followed in 1997 when the team went 18-4-2 and 9-1-1 in conference play. While the 1996 national championship team won with the most dominant offensive effort in school history, the 1997 team did it with a stellar defense. The Red Storm posted a school-record 15 shutouts and allowed just 13 goals in 24 games on the way to the second-highest win total (18) in school history.

Records continued to be broken in 1998 when the Red Storm set a BIG EAST Conference mark with the fifth tournament championship in program history.

After the program's eighth and ninth-straight NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000, the 2001 team won the BIG EAST Tournament championship and advanced to the College Cup. The Red Storm won six-consecutive postseason contests and defeated then-No. 1 Southern Methodist to advance to the national semifinals against Indiana. The Hoosiers prevailed, 2-1, in overtime to avenge a 1-0 season-opening win by St. John's and advance to the national championship game. In 2002, the opening of Belson Stadium marked a season in which the Red Storm also earned the first No. 1 national ranking in program history. St. John's played then-No. 1 Wake Forest to a 1-1 tie in front of a sellout crowd of 2,242 in the first game at Belson and went on to earn the No. 1 national ranking.

For the third time in eight seasons, the Red Storm made a run to the College Cup by posting a 17-6-3 overall record in 2003. With wins over perennial national powers UC-Santa Barbara, Creighton and Maryland, St. John's faced familiar foe Indiana again in the national championship. The Hoosiers scored twice in the first 20 minutes of the match and held on to win by a final score of 2-1.

A trip to the quarterfinals of the 2004 NCAA Tournament was the end result of a challenging regular season schedule. The Red Storm played seven contests against nationally ranked teams, and defeated No. 6 UCLA, 2-1, on the road in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. St. John's again went on the road in the quarterfinals, falling at No. 3 Maryland, 1-0.

The 2005 team posted a 4-1-2 record against ranked teams and went on to finish the year with an 11-6-5 overall record and a 10th-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament Round of 16. The Red Storm led the BIG EAST with five All-BIG EAST selections, including three first team choices and two second team honorees, and Jason Landers became St. John's first-ever BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year.

In St. John's run to the 2006 BIG EAST Championship, the Red Storm established new school-records with seven-straight shutouts and defeated then-No. 2 West Virginia, 1-0, with 4.4 seconds left in overtime to earn a 15th-consecutive bid to the NCAA Tournament. The win over the Mountaineers was the Red Storm's fourth of five-straight wins over nationally ranked competition. St. John's advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but fell, 2-0, on the road to seventh-ranked Maryland in a fourth-consecutive postseason trip to College Park, Md.

The Red Storm had one of its most memorable seasons in 2008, reaching the College Cup for the fourth time in program history, winning a BIG EAST regular season title and finishing the season ranked No. 4 in the NSCAA poll. Joel Gustafsson earned All-America honors, All-Region honors and was the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, while Nelson Becerra earned All-Region honors and was named the BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year. A total of six players earned All-BIG EAST honors to pace the squad to a 19-3-3 mark. Stalwart defense and stellar goalkeeping gave the team a school-record and nation-leading 16 shutouts. Capped by three home wins in the NCAA Tournament, the Red Storm finished the year with a 12-0-0 record at Belson Stadium. St. John's earned a trip to the College Cup after rallying to erase a 2-0 deficit with less than ten minutes in regulation to defeat then-No. 12 Indiana, 3-2, in overtime.

Prior to his remarkable success at St. John's, Masur began his career as a head coach at Montclair State in 1987. As a rookie coach, Masur nearly doubled the Redhawks win total from the season before, finishing with a 7-5-2 overall mark. Montclair State went 17-4-3 and won the ECAC New York-New Jersey Regional Championship in 1988 and followed that up with a 13-8-1 record, a New Jersey Athletic Conference championship and an NCAA Tournament berth in 1989. In his final season at Montclair State in 1990, Masur led the Redhawks to a 16-4-0 overall record and its second berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Masur began his coaching career at his alma mater, Rutgers University, in 1984. He was an assistant to his former coach, Bob Reaso, for two seasons, before taking the job at Montclair State in 1987.

As a player at Rutgers, Masur was a two-time All-American and just the third soccer player in school history to be inducted into the Rutgers Olympic Sports Hall of Fame. The only Scarlet Knight player to be named an All-American in back-to-back seasons, Masur earned national distinction in 1983 and 1984, as well as all-region honors from 1982-84.

Following his graduation from Rutgers, Masur was drafted by the New York Cosmos and went on to play professionally with the Chicago Sting, Toledo Pride, New Jersey Eagles, Penn Jersey Spirit and New Jersey Imperials.

Masur's most recent Hall of Fame induction came at Columbia High School, where he was a Parade All-American and New Jersey State Player of the Year, in May 2006. Prior to that, Masur was inducted into the St. John's Athletics Hall of Fame in May 2004 and saw his jersey retired by Rutgers University in 1989.

Masur, and his wife, Shannon, have three daughters, Samantha, Jessica and Sidney, and a son, Christopher David. They reside in Montclair, N.J.