The College of Staten Island recently completed what was their final turn through the City University of New York Athletic Conference in 2019-20, and will be fully integrated into the East Coast Conference with an NCAA Division II schedule in 2020-21.  Leaving behind a tremendous wake as one of the CUNYAC's founding members, day-by-day we will be looking back at each of CSI's programs, notably the CUNYAC Championship teams spanning over 40 years in our spring CUNYAC retrospective entitled, "Remember the Legacy."  This historical look back will chronicle the amazing achievements of CSI athletics programs, complete with championships, milestones, and amazing performances.

Our next sport spotlighted will be Men's Soccer, a program that has enjoyed a host of recent success and boasts a pair of CUNYAC Championships in the late 90's.  While those CUNYAC titles have been elusive of late, the program is one of the best-situated for the Division II landscape ahead as one of CSI's most respected and successful programs.

THE START
The College of Staten Island became a Division III member institution in the fall of 1977, and Men's Soccer was right there at the start, making their debut late-September that year.  They played a modified seven-game season in 1977, and although the CUNYAC did not support an official Championship to that point, they joined several other CUNYAC schools to support men's soccer, boasting Brooklyn College, Medgar Evers College, Baruch College, and Queens College on their schedule that year.  Brooklyn would later move to NCAA Division I in 1982, and Queens would join the Division II ranks the following year, and so it took some time for the CUNYAC to materialize into what it is today.  The CUNYAC began supporting a postseason tournament in 1990, before that, Regular Season Championships marked CUNYAC excellence, with CSI taking one of those titles before Tournament play.  James Donlan was CSI's first Head Coach, having guided several nationally-prominent junior college teams with Staten Island Community College beginning in 1964.  CSI took a two-year pause to get ready for Division III, and Donlan eased that transition, enough to build a winner fairly early on.

THE FIRSTS...
First Game:  September 28, 1977 - CSI visited LIU-Southampton, a Division II institution which closed in 2006.  The Colonials beat the Dolphins, 3-0.
First Home Game:  October 1, 1977 - In what was also their CUNYAC-opener and first program win, CSI defeated Queens College, 2-1.
First Coach: James Donlan, who had an unprecedented four terms with the Dolphins.  He started as head coach at SICC from 1964-1974, then at CSI from 1977-78, again from 1982-1985, and finally again in 1994-1996, each time resurrecting the program from obscurity.
COMING FROM EXCELLENCE
When CSI entered into the Division III ranks, and the CUNY Athletic Conference, Men's Soccer joined Men's Basketball and Baseball as the school's foundational, highest-achieving sports.  Head Coach James Donlan's SICC units attended NJCAA National Championship Tournaments in the early-1970's in Miami, and appeared primed and ready for that next step.  Still, CSI's program was suspended for two years in 1975 & 1976 to get ready for the D3 move, and so Donlan's task was to ease that transition and he did just that.  In 1977, CSI achieved just a 1-6 overall record, and although the team only scored four goals that year, all four were against CUNYAC sides and rather than look at the season as a relative failure, the Dolphins approached it as a solid foundational effort, and a bolstered 1978 campaign reaped the benefits.  

In 1978, Lehman College, John Jay College, Hunter College, York College, and City College of New York joined the soccer schedule, and CSI, with that intro year behind them, used the experience to whip through a 10-7 campaign, a mark that included a 6-3 record through CUNYAC.  Practically overnight, CSI went from a rebuilding team to a conference power.

THE PINNACLE - 1979
Just three years into their Division III adventure, CSI reached the apex of the CUNYAC.  Donlan left the Men's Soccer team on capable footing to new coach Hugh Rainey, and the Dolphins suffered just one conference loss in 1979, winning the CUNYAC Regular Season Championship.  That loss to defending champs Medgar Evers came early in the season, but beyond that, CSI reeled of seven wins inside conference play, outscoring their brethren, 26-3 in the process.  CSI finished the campaign undefeated in five-straight games, a run that they would extend to nine games when starting the 1980 season.

CSI had another superior effort in 1980, recording a program-best 11 wins, a mark that included two wins over NCAA Division I & II schools.  Part of their exceptional season was a 2-1 win over CCNY.  The Beavers, however, would go on to win the CUNYAC Regular Season that year, as CSI would finish 6-2 in the standings, while CCNY finished 6-1-1.

SECOND-PLACE BLUES, 1981-1985

After the 1980 season, CSI suffered through a pair of rough campaigns, as Donlan was called back to the team for the first of his two resurrections.  It did not take long, as in 1983, CSI equaled an 11-game win total in only his second year back.  CSI, however, would have to settle for the Runner-Up trophy that year, dropping an overtime loss to undefeated CCNY, their only CUNYAC blemish that year.  A year later, CSI was primed for another run at a title, and went 10-3-2 in another dominating campaign.  The one CUNYAC loss, however, was a 3-1 defeat to CCNY, who again went undefeated, leaving the Dolphins frustrated.  In 1985, CSI slipped to third in the standings with a 5-3 CUNYAC mark, but still recorded nine wins.  Donlan stepped away from the program at that time, again leaving the unit on capable footing.

REGAINING STEAM, 1987-1993
Things went downhill fast for Men's Soccer after the 1985 campaign.  The rich program could not find numbers to even field a team in 1986.  Thankfully, CSI brought the program back in 1987, but CSI was worse for the wear, going 16-21-1 over the next three seasons, plodding through mediocrity.  

The teams had a nice reprisal in 1990 & 1991, coinciding with the CUNYAC's introduction of a postseason tournament.  CSI did not qualify for the tournament in 1990 despite a 4-2-1 CUNYAC campaign, but in 1991 the team advanced to the CUNYAC Championship, falling to powerful-CCNY again, 3-1.  

Despite a program-best 12 wins that season, the departure of a large collection of players, including goal-scoring machines Vito Lasalandra and John Liantonio under Head Coach Nick Kvasic, led to a huge drop for the Dolphins.  In 1992, CSI finished with just three wins, and in 1993, the Dolphins suffered through their worst season, going 2-15.  The Dolphins needed a change, and with the departure of Kvasic, in stepped James Donlan for his final go-around with the team.

 

FINALLY 1994-1998
It didn't take long for CSI to reestablish itself under Donlan.  Guided by soccer star Jackie Sousan, CSI powered for a 10-win season in 1994, and again made it to the CUNYAC playoffs before falling to CCNY.  In 1995, CSI was stymied again in the Semifinals by CCNY, until finally, CSI hit paydirt in 1996. 

In the CUNYAC's seventh year of sponsoring a tournament, and CSI's 20th year as a program, they would lift a championship trophy on the CUNYAC's final day, soaring past Medgar Evers, 3-1, to complete an 11-win season, powered by Goni Lazoja's MVP performance.  Donlan again walked away from the program, back on capable footing.

CSI just missed a repeat in 1997.  Despite a MVP season from Sousan and Rookie of the Year honor for Thomas Consolmagno, CSI was upset in the semifinals under first-year coach Carlo Tramontozzi, but left plenty on the table for 1998.

Tramontozzi's first order of businesses was the recruitment of CSI Hall of Famer Nedgy Nazon.  Nazon would turn out to be CSI's all-time leading scorer, but not before 1998 saw CSI plow through another 11-win season, that by the end saw them defeat Hunter College, 1-0, raising the Championship Trophy, with Consolmagno earning the MVP nod.

THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM
The 1998 season was CSI's last as a CUNYAC Champion.  The Dolphins were a high seed the following year but were inexplicably upset in the opening round, and CSI then struggled from there, hitting a few subpar seasons.  Rookie Head Coach Marc D'Orazio led CSI to what was then a program-best 13 wins in 2003, but again CSI was upset come tournament time, falling to Hunter in the Semifinal round, 2-1.

CSI rebounded for a pair of promising seasons and appeared in a pair of championships from 2003-2007, but after that, CSI was daunted by a series of coaching changes, early defections, limited roster numbers and the like. CSI ultimately posted six-straight losing seasons from 2006-2011.  Needing a change, CSI turned the program over to a young upstart named John Tardy, one of the nation's youngest coaches at the time at 22, and from there, the program has swung back to prominence.

THE RETURN OF CSI MEN'S SOCCER

One of Tramontozzi's calling cards in 1998 was bringing in Nedgy Nazon to help CSI get back to the top.  Nazon left one year of eligibility on the table, and it would not be realized until 2012, when Tardy was named coach.  Nazon was named the conference's MVP at 33 years of age, and CSI won 11 games in Tardy's debut, almost as much as the past four years combined.

Tardy's tenure has served to put CSI back into the class of the CUNYAC.  After a 9-11-2 season in 2013, CSI has since rattled off six-straight winning seasons, a mark that includes a CUNYAC-best 29-7-4 rip through conference, a record that does not include an 8-0 run against CUNYAC teams in 2019, a season where CSI was not eligible for postseason play.  In 2018, CSI finished the CUNYAC season undefeated, falling in penalty kicks in the CUNYAC Championship game.  Despite the frustrations associated with being denied a crown since 1998, CSI leaves the conference as the only school in history to record back-to-back 8-0 regular seasons, and the Dolphins haven't lost a CUNYAC game since the 2017 postseason.

In their final CUNYAC game in history, the Dolphins defeated defending-Champion Baruch College, 3-0, on October 26, 2019.

REMEMBER THE LEGACY
First Season:  1977
All-Time Record: 320-336-45 (.456)
All-Time CUNYAC Record:  167-123-17 (.544)
CUNYAC Postseason Championships: 2 - 1996, 1998
Hall of Famers:  James Donlan (2014), Nedgy Nazon (2018)


Cover Photo from left to right: Asmir Dzemovski, Nedgy Nazon, Philip Lefkowitz