Coach Chris Grassie watches the other team announcements while holding his daughter during a NCAA tournament selection watch party on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, inside the Memorial Student Center in Huntington.
Coach Chris Grassie watches the other team announcements while holding his daughter during a NCAA tournament selection watch party on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, inside the Memorial Student Center in Huntington.
HUNTINGTON — Most coaches likely would cherish the opportunity to experience the heartache Chris Grassie did last season.
The Marshall University men’s soccer coach led the Thundering Herd to its second national championship game in five years. Unlike in the 2020 season, played in the spring of 2021, when Marshall won the title, the Herd finished runner-up to Vermont with a 2-1 loss in the championship game.
Grassie said the sting of that defeat lingers.
“You know, 90 minutes away from a national championship is not bad for a season,†Grassie said. “So, at some point it will start to feel better.â€
Not bad? The achievement was plenty good enough for Grassie to be voted the winner of the Furfari Award as state college coach of the year by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association. The award is named for the late journalist Mickey Furfari, who covered sports in the state for 70 years.
Grassie is the second Marshall coach to capture the award in the last two years. Former Herd women’s basketball coach Kim Caldwell, now at the University of Tennessee, won the 2024 Furfari Award.
Grassie said he still thinks about the title-game defeat.
“Obviously, that’s a very tough way to lose,†he said.
Had Marshall won, it would have been Grassie’s 101st victory with the Herd and his 200th overall.
Grassie led Marshall to a 15-2-7 record and an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the 13th seed. Marshall finished second to West Virginia University in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.
Grassie, 48, recruited well. Three of Marshall’s players — Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos, Takahiro Fujita and Aleksandar Vukovic — were selected in the Major League Soccer SuperDraft in December.
A native of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Grassie will be honored at the 78th annual Victory Awards Dinner on May 4 at the Bridgeport Conference Center.
Finishing behind Grassie in the Furfari Award voting were former WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey and Mountaineers rifle coach Jon Hammond.
