Thoin Earns 200th Win as Coach

It’s been 16 years since Michael Thoin began his St. Joe’s Varsity coaching career and on September 30th Thoin earned his 200th win.

The impressive milestone victory was achieved in the form of a 2-0 shutout over their non-league opponent Aquinas. “It felt wonderful” Thoin said from his St. Joe’s guidance center office. “It felt even better to get the 200th win when we did it in Rochester against Aquinas; they’re always a good team and it’s a very tough place to play.”

Under Thoin the Marauders have claimed eight Monsignor Martin league titles, 6 playoff titles but have not achieved the allusive Catholic State Championship. Through the many years of experience, Thoin has learned to not let personal preferences hinder the team, saying “Whatever system you want to play needs to fit your players.”

In the 2011 season Thoin led St. Joe’s to an outstanding record of 15-1-3. Thanks to the impressive record, League Title and Monsignor Martin Playoff Title; Thoin received recognition from Section 6 being named the 2011 Coach of the year.

Thoin’s current and former players have also received considerable amounts of attention as 47 players have been given All-Catholic, All-WNY or All-State recognition.

2015 All-WNY selection and St. Joe’s Junior Spencer Frome had high praise when speaking of Thoin and his vital experience as coach. “It really helps in that coach knows the league really well and he knows what we have to do to win,” Frome said. “He gets us to understand that the most important thing is to raise that trophy at the end of the year with hard work in practice being the only way to achieve that goal.”

When it comes to the style of play of the St. Joe’s soccer team, one phrase is often used: “lunch bucket” which refers to the hard work that is required to win a given match. The Marauders know that defeat is certain if talent alone is relied upon, hard work and grinding it out 100 percent of the time is the only recipe for success.

Although the 2016 Marauders have achieved a record of 10-2-1 thus far Coach Thoin has his team playing an unfamiliar role of underdog. “This year [Coach] gets us to feels like the underdog and we have a strong us against the world mentality. Everyone thinks that we were going to be weak this year and it just brings us together more to prove them wrong.” This philosophy not only helps play on the pitch but also in life.

When it comes to the brotherhood that is infamous amongst St. Joe’s teams the young men of the soccer team are no different. “The lads care about each other” Thoin said “they look at it like brothers, they will do whatever they need to do to help each other and anybody associated with the team.”

The team Friday honored Thoin with a cake and tee shirts which read “Coach Thoin 200”. The was the team first opportunity to congratulate their coach as the team was not notified of the milestone until the match was over. Spencer Frome spoke for his teammates saying “We had no idea going into the game that it could be his 200th win, but when we found out we knew we were part of something big. All of those hours coach put in to the soccer and the fact that we were the team to get him 200 really meant a lot.”

With the final week of the regular season in full swing the expectation for the Marauders and Coach Thoin remain the same as they always are “Win the league, win the playoffs and win Catholic states.”