UMBC

UMBC Athletics Staff Bios

	Pete Caringi
	Department: Coaches Title: Men's Soccer Head Coach         Phone: 3003 Email: caringij@umbc.edu

Biography

In the summer of 2012, UMBC head men’s soccer coach Pete Caringi signed a four-year contract extension through the 2015-16 academic year.

The Retriever mentor enters his 22nd season as bench boss in 2012. He celebrated year No. 20 with aplomb, leading the Retrievers to an America East title and past No. 10 Princeton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. UMBC finished the campaign with the 25th-highest RPI out of 204 Division I teams in the nation.  

“The contract extension is an honor and I am extremely proud of the soccer program and what we have achieved,” Caringi said. “I would like to thank our administration for all their support, and hope we can continue to build on our success.”

“Coach Caringi is the longest-tenured coach in our department and his teams always represent the university with distinction on the field and in the classroom,” UMBC Director of Athletics Dr. Charles Brown said at that time. “In the past two years, his squads have had outstanding seasons and gained national recognition. I hope he continues to be successful in our quest for additional America East titles.”

Caringi has the most victories of any soccer coach in school history, and his 219 wins are the third-most of any Retriever mentor. He captured his 200th victory on the UMBC sidelines in the America East semifinal win at UNH on Nov. 11, 2009. 

Caringi has won at every level, both as a player and as a coach. In his early years at UMBC, he led the Retrievers to a pair of regular-season league titles (1991, 1993), but building a true championship team eluded him. However, after carefully reconstructing his program over time, Coach Caringi achieved that measure of success in 1999.

Like a master chef, Caringi blended experienced local talent with a couple of international standouts, and finished by adding a few impact newcomers. The result was one of the finest products in UMBC history. The 1999 Retrievers won the Northeast Conference title, gave No. 1 Duke all it could handle in the NCAA Tournament, finished the year with the nation’s best winning percentage and earned national rankings in every major soccer poll.

Coach Caringi reaped the benefits of the team’s success. He was named Northeast Conference Coach of the Year and NSCAA South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, and he was a finalist for National Coach of the Year. Moreover, UMBC’s winningest men’s soccer coach became the first soccer coach in school history to surpass the 100-win plateau.

The unprecedented success of the 1999 squad catapulted the program into the 21st century. The 2000 season proved UMBC was not a one-year wonder, despite a newfound bullseye on their uniforms, as hungry opponents attempted to knock them from their lofty standing. The Retrievers (15-5, 7-3) spent five weeks nationally ranked and bested notables Maryland (2-0) and George Mason (5-2) both on the field and in the South Atlantic Region. In 2001, the Retrievers made the four-team NEC Tournament for the fourth consecutive season, falling to eventual Elite Eight team Fairleigh Dickinson, 1-0, in a hard-fought semifinal match. UMBC suffered heavy graduation losses after 2000 and 2001, losing seven All-NEC players and six professional draftees, but Coach Caringi and his staff adapted their style to a more defensive-oriented team in 2002, and the Retrievers responded by winning a share of another regular-season title.

In 2003, the Retrievers were picked sixth in the preseason as they entered the new territory of the America East Conference. But an early tournament victory in the Battle of Baltimore buoyed UMBC, and the Retrievers lost only once (to fourth-ranked Old Dominion) in their first 16 games (10-1-5) and captured the league’s regular-season title with a 5-1-3 record. In 2004, UMBC defeated N.C. State and George Washington en route to its seventh straight winning season. The Retrievers made it eight in a row in 2005, falling just short of another regular-season league title when eventual America East champion Stony Brook nipped them in overtime in the finale, and Coach Caringi was named the conference’s Coach of the Year.     

In 2009, UMBC was picked last in the America East preseason poll, but became the only 9-0-0 team in the nation and were was in all four national polls. The Retrievers won a pair of road conference tournament games before falling at Stony Brook in the title contest. UMBC finished the season with a mark of 14-6-0. 

In 2010, the Retrievers knocked off No. 23 Penn State in University Park and lost only once (4-1-2) in America East play. The team peaked at season’s end, winning the conference title on its home field and upsetting Princeton, 2-1, in the NCAA Tournament.

In 30 years as a collegiate coach, Coach Caringi has never suffered back-to-back sub-.500 seasons.

The Baltimore native was named UMBC’s fourth head coach after 10 sensational years at Essex Community College, where he compiled an overall record of 170-27-8. He coached the Knights to the National Junior College championship game in 1984 and 1989 and was named NJCAA National Coach of the Year and Region XX Coach of the Year in both seasons.

In 1994, he was inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Hall of Fame, and in May 1998, he was inducted into the Maryland Soccer Hall of Fame. In 2009, he was a member of the second class inducted into the University of Baltimore Athletic Hall of Fame.

Not only did Caringi have success at the junior college level, but he reached the top in the professional ranks, as well. In 1990, he coached the Maryland Bays of the American Professional Soccer League to a 20-5 record and the league title. He served as assistant coach for the Bays in the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

Caringi was a two-time All-American at the University of Baltimore (1976, 1977) and is the school’s all-time leading goal-scorer with 70 goals. Moreover, the Retriever mentor is 21st on the NCAA Division II all-time goals list and is 39th in scoring with 159 points. He captained the 1975 NCAA Division II national championship team and played for the Washington Diplomats of the North American Soccer League in 1978.   

Caringi earned a bachelor’s degree from UB in 1978. He served a term on the Board of Directors of the National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCAA), the lone junior college representative on the board. He has also served on the NCAA South Atlantic Rating Board and the NCAA Men’s Soccer Selection Committee.

He and his wife, Susan, have two children, Christina, a spring 2011 UMBC gradaute, and Pete III, an America East  All-Conference selection, who enters his junior campaign in 2012.  Coach Caringi holds a USSF “A” license and is a staff coach with the ODP under-23 squad.

Caringi Year-By-Year at umbc

(1) East Coast Conference Regular-Season Champions, (2) Big South Conference Regular-Season Champions, (3) Northeast Conference Champions; NCAA Tournament; Final Rankings: #11-Soccer America; #22-NSCAA, (4) Northeast Conference Regular-Season Champions, (5) America East Conference Regular-Season Champions (6) America East Tournament Champions, NCAA Tournament Second Round

Caringi’s accolades