Tony Guinn is the head coach of the men’s soccer team at UW-Whitewater. Guinn was named Wisconsin’s Co-Coach of the year by the National Soccer Coaches Association in 2015 after leading Whitewater to the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament and 14 wins, tied for the third-most in one season in program history. Guinn played at UW-Platteville from 1985-87 and graduated from Carthage College in 1989. He received a master’s from the United States Sports Academy in 1993. 

Although the soccer team lost a top goalie from last season, Duncan Morgan rises to the challenge of being the new goalie for the soccer team. 

Q: Are there any upcoming soccer games that you’re excited about? 

A: Well, the first one is this Friday at 7 p.m. and that is the first game of the year and we’re playing against Marian College so it’s been a very long time since I ever lost my first game and don’t want to do that Friday so I’m excited about it. 

Q: Do you have a mantra or motto that you’re approaching the year with? 

A: Our mantra is do what’s right, do your best, and treat others the way you want to be treated.

Q: What does Warhawk Pride mean to you? 

A: What Warhawk pride means to me is when athletes have an understanding that they represent a community, students. They represent things way more than themselves. They represent a community, a philosophy, a history, a program, student body, people who live in Whitewater. That’s truly what I think having warhawk pride is. And you represent something bigger than yourself. 

Q: What are some of your favorite memories being head coach of the soccer team? 

A: I’ve taken the team to Ireland three different times, we’ve traveled to many different states and many different places in the United States. They all have great memories with those I’ve seen guys graduate sometimes even more particularly seen guys graduate and they’re the first to graduate in their family. Having players come from all over the world so I originally came from Northern Ireland myself so I can talk to you with the accent right there cause I’m from Northern Ireland so this year we have a player from Northern Ireland so being multicultural and having people from different cultures and diversity are some of my proud moments like cause of a soccer ball and because of a game you can bring people from all over the world that’s one thing that’s unique about soccer is having players from all these different countries and it’s more common for soccer than all these other sports and i’m proud of the fact that I can bring people from many different countries to the community of Whitewater because I think that when you have diversity and you have different cultures make the community a better place. So unique coach you’re talking to right? Because I don’t care about all the championships and all that kind of stuff, there’s other things that’s more important in life to me. You’re gonna interview some coaches and all they’re gonna talk about is championships and how we did and what we won, yeah we won a lot of things but that’s not what’s important to me. 

Q: How will the team’s offense adjust to losing one of the scorers from last season? 

A: Well we have a lot of returning offense players and every year when you lose people it just gives opportunities for other people and that’s why players train so hard in the off season and work so hard to be prepared for those moments and it’s the coaches opportunity to remind them that you are prepared for this moment and you deserve this moment and you do the best with this moment so when people graduate

other people behind them will step up and they’ll rise to the occasion so that’s what I anticipate our players will do. 

Q: What are your goals for the rest of the season? Individually and as a team? 

A: My personal goal is to just do the best I can to try and make a difference in their life each day. That’s truly my goal. I want to make a difference in their life. I want them to know that I care. As far as the team’s goal, I just want everyone to stay healthy, appreciate the moments that they have, don’t take anything for granted and just do the best they can each day to be the best representation of Whitewater Athletics.

The Warhawks opened their season at Fiskum Field with a win. Will Morgan scored the only goal of the game, as the Warhawks defeated Marian 1-0. They will be on the road for the next contest against Rockford University, Monday, Sep. 4 at 7 p.m.