Year at JMU:  25th
JMU Record:  312-127-46 (.691) (24 yrs.)
Career Record:  431-162-56 (.707) (33 yrs.)
Playing Career:
* NAIA National Champions (1968, 70)
* NAIA National Runners-up (1969)
* Davis & Elkins Team MVP (1968, 70)
Coaching Career:
* NCAA Tournament (1992, 93, 94, 95, 96, 2000, 01, 05)
* CAA Tournament Titles (1992, 93, 94, 2001)
* CAA Regular Season Leader (1990, 91, 93, 94, 95, 2000)
* Head Coach, East Team, Senior Bowl (1984)
* NAIA National Titles (1984, 85)
Coach of the Year:
* NSCAA National (1984, 85)
* NAIA National (1982, 84, 85)
* NSCAA/Met Life South Region (1989)
* Soccer News South Atlantic Region (1995)
* Colonial Athletic Association (1986, 89, 93, 2000)
* Virginia Division I (1989, 93, 2000)

For evidence of Tom Martin's coaching abilities, one merely has to look at the numbers.

He's the winningest active coach in NCAA Division I, with more than 430 career victories.  His teams have made eight NCAA tournament appearances and won two national championships, and his squads have recorded 29 winning seasons in his 33 years of coaching.

Martin's coaching career has been one of consistency, and that may be the feat most difficult to achieve in sports.  But year in and year out, Martin's teams have been successful.

His West Virginia Wesleyan sides won back-to-back NAIA national championships in the mid-1980s.  And when Martin stepped up to NCAA Division I when he came to JMU in 1986, he didn't miss a beat.  His JMU soccer teams have been steady winners over the years, and he guides a program that has attained the highest level of achievement in the history of JMU soccer.  Among the accomplishments of soccer at JMU under Martin:

- Sixth-winningest NCAA program of the 1990s
- Top five national ranking
- Eight NCAA tournaments, including two quarterfinals
- Four conference tournament titles
- Five conference Player of the Year recipients

In recent years JMU has consistently been ranked among the nation's top programs.  Eight of Martin's last 17 teams advanced to the NCAA tournament, and his 1994 and 1995 squads were NCAA quarterfinalists.  His teams won three straight Colonial Athletic Association tournaments and set a CAA record with a 32-game unbeaten streak that spanned four seasons (1992-95). 

In addition to ranking first among the winningest active NCAA Division I coaches by victories (431), Martin also ranks fifth by winning percentage (70.7%).  His JMU program ranked sixth among the winningest NCAA Division I programs in the 1990s; that list includes six schools in its top 10 that have combined to win 26 national titles.

Martin attributes the JMU program's success to several factors, including team chemistry.

"Chemistry is so important in a team sport. We haven't had an 'all-world' player or a 20-goal scorer, but we have had a successful combination of 18 to 20 players every year.  We've also been very fortunate to have the right blend -- good players, good competition and not too many injuries at the wrong time," says Martin.

"The challenge we face is to stay at the same level of success and competitiveness.  Ironically, it's easier to get there than to stay there."

A winner from the start
The JMU program has been successful since Martin's first year with the Dukes in 1986.  That year he won CAA Coach of the Year honors after guiding JMU to a 12-3-3 record and its first winning season in eight years.

Martin earned CAA coaching honors again in 1989 following his team's 15-1-3 campaign.  JMU's only loss that year was in overtime to eventual NCAA champion Virginia.  That season Martin was also voted National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/Met Life South Region Coach of the Year and Virginia Division I Coach of the Year.

In 1992 the Dukes climbed to fourth in the Soccer America rankings, won their first CAA tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Martin was again honored as CAA Coach of the Year and Virginia Division I Coach of the Year after his 1993 Dukes won another CAA title and again qualified for the NCAA tournament.  JMU, appearing in the CAA finals for the third straight year, was the first team in the history of the league to complete regular-season play unbeaten (7-0-0).

Can you top that?  The 1994 Dukes did, winning their third straight CAA tournament and advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals.  It took a loss to eventual NCAA champion Virginia in front of a record crowd of 7,807 to end JMU's stellar season.  Midfielder Kaarlo Kankkunen was named CAA Player of the Year and became the fourth of Martin's players to win that award, following Chris Simon (1989), Ivan Sampson (1991) and Brent Bennett (1993).

Amazingly, after the loss of five starters (including the team's leading scorer and two All-America and conference player of the year honorees), JMU returned to the NCAA quarterfinals in 1995.  Soccer News named Martin its South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.

A year later the Dukes received another NCAA tournament bid after playing in the CAA title game for the fifth time in six years.

Martin began the new millennium by guiding the Dukes to first place in one of the nation's premier soccer conferences and an NCAA tournament berth, and he was honored as 2000 CAA Coach of the Year and Virginia Division I Coach of the Year.  In 2001 his team won its fifth CAA tournament title and played in yet another NCAA tournament.

In 2005 the team received an at large bid to the NCAA tournament, its eighth postseason appearance during Martin's tenure.

The Dukes have had only three losing seasons in 24 years under Martin, whose overall JMU coaching record stands at 312-127-46 (.691).

A history of success
Martin came to JMU from a successful eight-year stint at West Virginia Wesleyan, where he coached the Bobcats to back-to-back National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championships in 1984 and 1985.  He was named NAIA national Coach of the Year in 1982, 1984 and 1985 and was honored as national Coach of the Year by the NSCAA in 1984 and 1985.  Martin also coached the East Squad in the 1984 Senior Bowl Soccer Classic.

He was also honored as an NAIA District 28 Coach of the Year six times, West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) Coach of the Year five times and as NAIA Mid-Atlantic Coach of the Year three times.

In addition to the two national championships, West Virginia Wesleyan also won three WVIAC titles, two NAIA Area 8 titles and two NAIA District 28 championships under Martin.

In 1999 Martin was honored with induction into the West Virginia Wesleyan Hall of Fame.

Martin, who also coached one year at Tri State University in Angola, Ind., has a 33-year career coaching record of 431-162-56 (.707).  His teams have had only three losing seasons in that span.

The Lancaster, Pa., native earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from Davis & Elkins College (1971) and was inducted into the D&E Hall of Fame in 1995.  He was a two-time team MVP and earned WVIAC all-conference honors at D&E, where he played on two NAIA national champion teams (1968 and 1970) and a national runner-up team (1969).  In 1972 Martin earned a tryout with the NASL Dallas Tornado and the Pittsburgh Miners of the ASL.

Martin earned a master's degree in professional physical education (1974) and a doctorate in physical education (1977) from West Virginia University.  He also holds a USSF "A" coaching license.

He and his wife, Cherylen, have a son, Sean, a 2007 JMU graduate.