NKyTribune staff
Marquis Walker has been named the women’s soccer head coach at Thomas More College.
Walker comes to Thomas More after serving the past season as the assistant women’s soccer coach at NCAA Division I member Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. During the 2017 season, Canisius won the Big 4 Cup by defeating the other three Division I teams (University of Buffalo, Niagara University, and St. Bonaventure University) in Western New York, while making the conference tournament for the first time in four years.
Canisius also excelled in the classroom as 23 of the 24 student-athletes had a grade point average better than 3.0. The women’s soccer squad also had the highest GPA among female teams in the athletic department.
Marquis Walker
“I would like to thank President (David) Armstrong, Terry Connor and the search committee for this opportunity,” said Walker. “I’m super excited and honored to take over a program like Thomas More, that is competitive and recognized on the regional and national levels. The athletic department has a great vision and I’m honored to be a part of the department. I’m also excited for my family as this decision was made with my family. I would like to thank the staff and student-athletes at Canisius for their support as I make this move.”
Walker was the head women’s soccer coach at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford during the 2016 season. The team advanced to the conference tournament semi-finals and had five first team All-Conference selections, nine All-Conference Academic Award winners and the team earned the NSCAA Team Academic Award.
From 2002-08 he was the head men’s soccer coach at Malone University in Canton, Ohio. Walker helped the team transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II and grew the roster from 25 to 42 players with six of his players going on to play professionally at the highest level in the MLS, the European Champions League, and for their own national teams in Scotland, England and Mexico.
Walker has coached at the high school level, where he was the head varsity girls’ soccer coach at Hudson High School in Ohio during the 2015 season. He led Hudson to a 15-2-2 record with a District Runner-up finish, while finishing ranked No. 7 in Ohio Division I.
Walker also was an assistant men’s soccer coach at Hiram College for two seasons. He assisted in scouting, evaluating, training, coordinating travel and academic performance at Hiram. Walker has club experience as he has coached with the Everest Soccer Club and the Western NY Flash Academy in Buffalo, New York.
Walker played collegiately at Malone, where he was a four-year starter (85-of-86 games), was a two-time all-conference and East Regional selection as well as a two-time team MVP and team captain. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in business administration from Malone in 2002 and Master of Business Administration from Malone in 2009.
Walker also has a Master of Science in Management from the University of Akron. Walker holds a Premier Diploma, Advanced National Diploma, National Goalkeeping Diploma and a National Diploma from the United Soccer Coaches. He has also earned his National License from the United States Soccer Federation and currently working on his National D License.
Walker and his wife, Molly, have a daughter, Isabella (9), and three sons Trajan (7), Gabriel (5) and Maximus (2).
