Former USWNT head coach Tony DiCicco passes away

Former US women’s national team head coach Tony DiCicco passed away yesterday at the age of 68. His son Anthony DiCicco announced his passing with a short statement on twitter.

DiCicco was head coach of the USWNT from 1994 to 1999 and famously helped guide them to their second World Cup win, taking the tournament with a penalty shootout at the Rose Bowl. He also coached the team to a gold medal win in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, the first year women’s soccer was included as an Olympic sport.

He began as a goalkeeper coach with the WNT and the youth MNT and eventually rose to head coach, with a 105-8-8 record, presiding over a golden era of the WNT when he had the likes of Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Briana Scurry, Carla Overbeck, Tiffeny Milbrett, Michelle Akers, Shannon MacMillan, and many others on the roster.

He was head coach of the Boston Breakers in Women’s Professional Soccer from 2009 to 2011 and was involved with the founding of the Women’s United Soccer Association, the first professional American league for women’s soccer.

In more recent years he worked as an analyst for Fox Soccer and was heavily involved in youth soccer, which you can read about here. He is survived by his wife, Diane, and four sons, Anthony, Andrew, Alex and Nicholas. Our condolences are with his family and friends.