UCLA Soccer Loses Fitzgerald as Its Coach

UCLA must look for a new men’s soccer coach for the second time in two years after Tom Fitzgerald resigned Friday and returned to his former job at the University of Tampa.

In 2002, as a new coach at UCLA, Fitzgerald became the first Division I college soccer coach to win a national championship in his first season. Last year, UCLA was ranked No. 1 most of the season before being upset by eventual NCAA champion Indiana in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

A longtime resident of Clearwater, Fla., Fitzgerald, 52, said he and his wife, Debi, wanted to be closer to their two grown sons and 5-year-old grandson.

Fitzgerald coached at Tampa, a Division II school, in 1987 to ’96 before leaving to coach the Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer.

“The opportunity to return to Tampa kind of caught me off-guard,” said Fitzgerald, who was 38-5-4 at UCLA. “My wife and I had always anticipated returning to [nearby] Clearwater.... Everybody is saying, ‘What are you doing?’ but people that really know me, they know why I’m doing it.”

Fitzgerald was hired in March 2002 over former U.S. national team coach Steve Sampson and Loyola Marymount Coach Paul Krumpe. He said the last few days had been emotional.

“In my opinion, this is the best college job in the country,” Fitzgerald said of UCLA. “It really had to be something pretty significant to do this.

“I think we’ve done some great work here. Someone else will be the beneficiary.”

-- Eric Stephens