Steve Simmons

Steve Simmons is in the fifth year of his second tenure as Linfield women's soccer coach. He is also in the midst of his sixth year as Linfield Assistant Athletic Director and Director of Soccer.

Simmons brings 15 years of Division I coaching experience at Oregon State and Northern Illinois, in addition to serving five years as head coach of the Linfield men’s and women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse programs from 1996 until 2000.

Simmons, who owns a career record of 190-166-31 in 20 seasons as a collegiate head coach, oversees the men’s and women’s soccer clubs, and serves as an advisor to the women’s lacrosse coaching staff.

Simmons will also have an influence in the areas of alumni and donor relations, with the goal of re-energizing the soccer and lacrosse alumni and ultimately modernizing and enhancing the Linfield soccer/lacrosse facility’s playing surface, team areas, pressbox and grandstand.

During his first tenure at Linfield, he took over a men’s team that went 1-15-0 in 1995 and led the Wildcats to three seasons of double-digit wins, including a 21-1-1 mark in 2000. That team knocked off top-ranked Ohio Wesleyan in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals losing in the NCAA Division III semifinals to eventual national champion Messiah College. On the women’s side, the Wildcats rose from ninth place to fourth place in his final season as coach.

Most recently, Simmons spent nine years as head coach of the Oregon State men’s soccer program. During his OSU tenure, the Beavers produced three MLS SuperDraft first round picks, including No. 1 pick Danny Mwanga in 2010, No. 13 pick Emery Welshman in 2013 and No. 2 pick Khiry Shelton in 2015. Both Mwanga and Shelton earned Pac-10/Pac-12 Player of the Year honors.

Simmons won 63 games with the Beavers in his first seven seasons, including a Pac-10 runner-up finish in 2009. He led OSU to its best season in school history in 2014 on the way to the program’s first NCAA Tournament win, a 1-0 defeat of the University of Denver. In 2015, OSU was nationally ranked, climbing as high as No. 3, a program best.

Several Oregon State players have excelled in the classroom under Simmons. Travis Anderson and Josh Smith received prestigious CoSIDA Academic All-America awards in back-to-back seasons, and 19 student-athletes earned conference All-Academic honors.

Prior to Oregon State, Simmons compiled a 59-47-3 record in six seasons as head coach at Northern Illinois. The Huskies won 56 matches over his final five seasons, the most-ever in a five-year span in school history, won the Mid-American Conference Championship, advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and had 24 players honored with all-MAC accolades.

His 2006 campaign at NIU was the best in school history as the team won a school-record 15 games, including a 9-0-0 mark at home. The Huskies earned the school’s first-ever MAC Championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship.

Prior to his arrival at Northern Illinois, Simmons spent two seasons as associate head coach with Oregon State under head coach Dana Taylor. In 2002, the Beavers climbed to No. 18 in the national polls and earned the school’s first trip to the NCAA College Cup.

Since 2012, Simmons has served as a Program Match Evaluator for Major League Soccer, evaluating MLS matches for the MLS Competition Department. He is a US Soccer Grassroots Instructor, conducting education courses for coaches.

He began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater, Concordia University-Portland, in 1990 before heading to Gonzaga University in 1994 as an assistant coach. A head coaching position followed the next season at Division III Whitworth University. Simmons led Whitworth to a 9-8-2 record in his first season to earn Northwest Conference Coach of the Year honors before moving on to Linfield.

As a collegian at Concordia, Simmons netted first-team All-America honors from the National Christian College Athletic Association and NAIA Academic All-America recognition as a senior. He was a two-time NAIA Northwest All-Region selection and was honored with Concordia's Male Athlete of the Year Award in 1990 and was selected to the school's Athletics Wall of Fame in 1993.

A graduate of Chugiak High School in Eagle River, Alaska, Simmons earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Concordia in 1990. He received a master’s degree in physical education from Gonzaga in 1996.

Simmons and his wife, Maria, reside in Corvallis with their three children, Keagan, Jordan and Katey.