Surprise Attack

Seamus McFadden wasn’t thrilled about making a 90-mile drive to Newport Beach for a semi-pro game, but the University of San Diego men’s soccer coach got a tip that he might see a player there worth recruiting.

McFadden wasn’t bowled over by 19-year-old Ryan Coiner, but he was definitely interested.

“I saw a raw-boned kind of kid who wasn’t backing down,” said McFadden, in his 22nd year at San Diego. “He was playing against 26-, 27-year-old guys who were pretty feisty. He was raw. But I figured if he could survive out there, he could play college soccer.”

McFadden figured right. The raw-boned kid with the big feet and the lively legs can play college soccer. Two years removed from the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League and three years removed from Santa Margarita High, Coiner is tearing up NCAA Division I soccer.

Through 16 games, Coiner, a sophomore forward, has 17 goals and seven assists (41 points) for the Toreros (13-1-2), eighth-ranked in the coaches’ poll. His 2.6-point average is third nationally and his 1.07-goal average is fourth. With one regular-season games left, Coiner is closing on the school single-season scoring records for goals (19) and points (51).

“He’s on fire,” McFadden said. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

Coiner, who already holds the school’s career record for hat tricks with three, has surprised even himself.

“I always thought I’d do well,” Coiner said. “But this is pretty amazing.”

Maybe the most amazing thing about Coiner is that he nearly quit soccer after being virtually ignored by Division I college coaches during his senior year at Santa Margarita. Santa Clara was the only school that even looked at him and Broncos were offering only a partial scholarship. That offer was withdrawn when Coiner broke his hip during a club game a month before high school graduation.

It was his second major injury in two years--he suffered a deep knee bruise as a sophomore--and it got him thinking about doing something else with his life.

“It’s not fun to be hurt all the time,” Coiner said. “I got into golf for a while and I considered giving up soccer.”

While his Santa Margarita teammates--Byron Foss, Norman Giroux and Tim Pierce--went off to Division I schools on soccer scholarships, Coiner enrolled at Saddleback College as a part-time student. He worked at a sporting goods store and played for a Costa Mesa men’s league team and trained with the A-League Orange County Zodiac’s reserve team.

Coiner was playing soccer only twice a week, but he did a lot of weight lifting and conditioning.

“That year off did my body a lot of good,” Coiner said. “I finally got my body coordinated.”

Admittedly, Coiner was a bit clumsy in high school. He entered the ninth grade at 5 feet 3 and left high school a wiry 6-1, 165 pounds. Because of his awkwardness and the Eagles’ wealth of talent, Coiner never stood out at Santa Margarita. But Eagle Coach Curt Bauer had a feeling Coiner’s time would come.

“He wasn’t the hardest worker and he wasn’t a great scorer,” Bauer said. “But I told a lot of people that he would eventually be the best player to come out of that class. He was just so strong and he had such great hops. I thought that once he grew into those big feet, he’d be pretty good.”

Both McFadden and Santa Clara Coach Mitch Murray offered Coiner a scholarship. Coiner chose San Diego, but once there, McFadden still wasn’t sure where his new recruit would fit.

As a freshman midfielder, Coiner scored six goals, three against Notre Dame, on the senior-dominated Toreros. During the off-season, McFadden moved Coiner to central defense.

“He was picked out because he was the most versatile player of the bunch,” McFadden said. “We lost so many people. We just didn’t have anybody else.”

It was about that time that Garrett Turk, a freshman sweeper from Aliso Niguel, went to McFadden and pleaded that he get somebody else to play stopper.

“Ryan just knew how to score,” Turk said. “He was always in the right place. Everybody on the team knew he should be playing up front.”

Eventually, McFadden knew he had to find himself another stopper.

“It was a moment of madness, I guess,” McFadden said.

The madness continued into the first two games of this season as Coiner started the year as a defensive midfielder. But in the third game, against Columbia, Coiner played forward and scored two goals in a 3-0 victory. He scored another in the Toreros’ only loss of the season, a 2-1 defeat to Oakland.

In the eighth game, Coiner scored three goals in a 3-2 victory over UNLV. He got his second hat trick in a 6-2 victory over UC Irvine. Many of Coiner’s 17 goals have come on headers off crosses from senior midfielder Miguel Suazo.

Ten days ago, Coiner scored his fourth game-winning goal of the year in the Toreros’ 1-0 victory over Santa Clara. Friday, Coiner had his fifth game-winner--a header in the 70th minute off an assist from freshman Scott Burcar--in a 1-0 victory over Gonzaga that moved the Toreros into first place in the West Coast Conference at 4-0-1.

“He’s got such good mechanics around goal,” McFadden said. “He’s got a nice, quick release and a hard shot.”

Bauer, who has seen Coiner play once this season, is not at all amazed by Coiner’s success.

“Ryan’s game is a power game,’ Bauer said. “Once he has the ball, it’s impossible to knock him off it because he’s so big and strong. He probably could have been a big scorer in high school, but we didn’t need him to do that.”

The Toreros, who lost eight players to graduation last year, needed Coiner, or someone, to provide offense.

“He has surprised everybody,” said Giroux, who joined Coiner at San Diego after transferring from UC Irvine. “But he’s so calm around goal and he’s such a big kid. Because of Ryan, we are where we are.”

McFadden also gets some credit for taking the time to drive up the coast.

“It just goes to show you that recruiting is certainly not a pure science.”