College of Staten Island Athletics

If there is a theme that follows Head Coach James Donlan’s career it is quite simply his ability to shift the momentum of the school’s men’s soccer program.  On four different occasions, the skipper, who would also spend time as an assistant coach for women’s basketball in the late-90’s, took over a fledging soccer program at the College, and turned it into a bona fide winner.  He stands as the only coach in Dolphins’ history to be the all-time wins leader in their respective sport at both SICC and CSI.

Donlan’s coaching career commenced in 1964, when he was hired to take over the SICC men’s soccer unit.  At the time, the sport was in its infant stages and the goal was quite simple: to field a competitive team.  Donlan immediately surpassed expectations.  By 1967, SICC Men’s Soccer was a regional NJCAA power and by the turn of the decade, SICC teams went on to win NJCAA Regional Championships and moved on to National Championship competition in Miami.

In 1970 & 1971, the Dolphins finished with identical 16-2-1 records, placing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the double-elimination national championship tournament.  In 1972, SICC finished 12-1, the only loss coming at the Regional Championship, and in 1973 the team again dominated the field in a 10-1-2 campaign.  Those four years remain unparalleled as the greatest four-year cycle in the history of the sport at the College.

From there began the first of many transitions, the Dolphins finished 5-3-6 in 1974, its last season as a junior college, and the sport was not sponsored in 1975-76 as the school made the transition to the NCAA.  When play did resume in 1977, Donlan was tasked to quarterback the team into the NCAA and he helped the inaugural CSI unit gather its legs.  The next year he led the team to a 9-win improvement and a 10-7 record.  Donlan decided that with the success in 1978, he would step away from the program, his legacy surely intact.

That was, however, until 1982, when Donlan was called back to guide a team that had fallen into obscurity and into dead-last in the CUNY standings.  Just a year later, in 1983, the team improved to 11-2, and in the next two years CSI finished a combined 12 games over .500 and amassed an 18-5-1 record within the conference.  At the conclusion of the 1985 season, Donlan walked away again, and in his absence in 1986, CSI did not even field a team.  Play resumed in 1987, and once again, CSI found themselves cellar-dwellers.  After a brief reprise the team went a combined 5-28-1 in 1992 and 1993, so folks at CSI once again reached out to Donlan.  Despite a near 10-year hiatus from the sport, he accepted, and in 1994 he led the team to a 10-8-1 record.  The next year, he took the team all the way to the CUNYAC Final, and in 1996, his final season, he went one better.  The Dolphins tied the record for the second-most wins in school history and won the CUNYAC Championship.  The magical 1996 run helped him finish his CSI career with a 74-50-1 record, adding to the documented 70-29-10 record he amassed while at SICC, easily the highest marks in both schools’ history.