Soccer
- Title:
- Volunteer Assistant Coach
Embarking on his fifth year as a collegiate coach and his third alongside Head Coach Neil Macdonald, Tony Sabio begins his third season on the Mississippi State coaching staff, serving a volunteer role for the Bulldogs in charge of goalkeeper training.
A native of Augusta, Ga., Sabio got his start in the coaching world in 2001, serving a stint with the Augusta Arsenal Soccer Club. While in east Georgia, he assisted with the coach’s education program and was charged with the responsibility of overseeing fundraising and budget management. His experience in Augusta landed him a spot with the Team Alliance Soccer Club in Winston-Salem, N.C., as the director of goalkeeping and pre-ODP training within the club.
Branching from experience obtained with Team Alliance, Sabio began a business venture of his own in 2003 when he created the United Stars Soccer Academy (USSA) which proved to be an overall success for him and surrounding club organizations. Four months after beginning the project in Winston-Salem, he was hired on as assistant men’s soccer coach at Montreat (N.C.) College, a small NAIA school just outside of Asheville in western North Carolina, prior to MSU.
Sabio served as an assistant coach alongside head coach and current MSU assistant Andy Manners at Iowa Central CC and helped lead the men to the NJCAAA Region XI championship.
A regular at several camps and clinics across the country, Sabio served as counselor at two camps in 2003 that allowed him to work alongside some of nation’s best goalkeepers, including former U.S. national team members Brad Friedel and Eddie Carvachio, and current Trinidad & Tobago technical director Lincoln Phillips, who led the 1971 Howard Bison men’s soccer team to the national title.
A goalkeeper at ICCC under former coach Neil Macdonald from 1998-00, Sabio received his associate’s degree from ICCC in 2001. He was the Starkville Youth Soccer Organization’s first director of coaching upon his arrival in early August and currently serves that role as well.
The son of Elsa and Hernan Sabio of Winston-Salem, N.C., was born August 11, 1979 in Charlottesville, Va. He has three older sisters, Elsa, Carmen and Alejandra, an older brother, Hernan, and two younger brothers, David and Daniel.
