There’s a lot more to Frank.

Meet Frank.

Frank’s story is about soccer, leading, service, teaching and sharing.

Frank focuses on a narrow range of activities in order to master them.  In addition to his nearly forty-year career in the world of investments and retirement planning, he has also been passionate about music through his piano-playing and the sport of soccer.   His passions have persisted to this day despite challenges along the way.

For those who want to know more, what follows are the stories about his career aspirations as a pro soccer player and then as a college soccer coach – with a brief indulgence as pro keyboard player.  In both cases, Frank learned that some passions are best experienced as hobbies instead of careers.

In soccer, he turned disappointment into opportunity after he was cut from his high school’s freshman soccer team by the school’s French teacher.  His love of the game took him to a recreational team with other serious players who introduced him to the world of select soccer with advanced competition and tryouts to make a team.

A year later as a sophomore, he made the varsity and also joined a club team which would win a national championship two years later.That sophomore year Frank also made the high school’s varsity baseball team, but high school rules prohibited playing on a club team during the season of a different sport.  By that point, his club team had won the state championship and was headed for regionals/nationals, so he left baseball behind to focus on soccer.

Playing on a national championship club soccer team put Frank on the college recruiting radar.  Because his Jesuit, all-male, high school had high academic standards, Ivy League coaches often made recruiting visits.  When the new Dartmouth College coach visited and invited Frank to see the rural New Hampshire campus on a recruiting trip, he was hooked.

As a freshman at all-male Dartmouth, Ivy League rules prohibited freshman from playing varsity.  The new recruits were undefeated as freshman, 9-0, with 38 goals for and 1 against.  Frank set a record for most goals and assists.  (Special Note: In the summer of 2021, Frank and most of his former teammates celebrated the 50th reunion of that special 1971 freshman team.)

Frank was the Ivy League’s leading scorer as a junior and was selected to the All-Ivy 1st Team and Regional All-American Team.  He was invited to try out for the 1976 Olympic Team but did not make it.   After graduating in 1976, he joined the Tacoma Tides, a professional team in the American Soccer League.  

The franchise folded after that first year, so Frank and his Tides teammate, Bruce Arena, coached the University of Puget Sound (UPS) soccer team in NCAA Division III.  Bruce left to return to Cornell for a year, then the University of Virginia where he won several national NCAA championships.  Bruce went on to coach DC United of Major League Soccer, the US Men’s National Team, LA Galaxy, and is currently head coach of New England Revolution.

While Frank was coaching at UPS and frustrated by the limited compensation, in the off-season he took a position in a band playing light jazz and top-forty hits throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska as a keyboard player.   As much as he enjoyed it, the inadequate pay and his engagement to his first wife convinced him to return to UPS for one more year.  The lesson that some careers are better left to hobbies would return in a few short years.

Frank coached another two years at UPS, then a year as Assistant Coach at the University of Washington (UW) in NCAA Division I where he enrolled in graduate school.  When the head coach left for the pro ranks, Frank became head coach for three years culminating with an NCAA Tournament bid.  His team lost on penalty kicks after overtime to the #3 ranked team in the country, University of San Francisco.  At the time, Frank was a teaching assistant in graduate school at the University of Washington where he studied the influence of leadership on group success in sports, business, and education.

Married with two young children, Frank asked for a modest raise given his team’s reaching the NCAA tournament on a shoe-string budget and boasting the athletic department’s highest grade point average.   The director’s response was “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” so Frank decided a career change was appropriate.

In his late 20’s, he reached out to several Dartmouth classmates to ask about real jobs for a married guy with two children.   After his classmates asked him to clarify his career priorities, he responded with these three:

1) Can support a family if he worked hard and smart and created success

2) Would be intellectually stimulating

3) Includes service to others given his passion and success in coaching and teaching

Three of those classmates suggested he consider the investment business.  Once employed, he could find the right niche to suit his career.  Frank joined Kidder, Peabody & Co., which was acquired by PaineWebber which was later acquired by UBS.   

After nearly forty years, Frank retired and has decided to share what he’s learned about transitioning to retirement.

Postscript: 

Frank’s passion for soccer resumed when his kids started playing soccer:  he started Magnolia Soccer Club’s Mod Soccer Program (3 vs. 3 for kids under 6-7). 

Later he coached their select and premier teams at Eastside FC and with his seven years coaching college soccer was hired as the first Director of Coaching.  He guided the club from volunteer parent coaches to paid professional coaches.

After almost twenty years at the club and long after his kids had left for college, he retired in 2012.  Now he’s just a soccer fan.

Timeline:

1967 – Cut from freshman soccer team at St. Louis University High School (SLUH), joins select team

1968 – SLUH varsity soccer & baseball teams, joins premier soccer St. Bart’s, Missouri state champs

1970 – Win’s national championship with St. Bart’s (Under-19s)

1971 – Dartmouth College undefeated freshman team (9-0: 38 goals for, 1 against)

1973 – Leading scorer in the Ivy League – 1st team All-Ivy, All New England

1976 – Member, Tacoma Tides, American Soccer League

1976 – Co-Coach with Bruce Arena, University of Puget Sound

1977 – Keyboard player, BB Express (touring PNW + Alaska)

1977-78 – Head Coach, University of Puget Sound

1979 – Assistant Coach, University of Washington (Mike O’Malley, Head Coach)

1979 – UW record:  11-7-2

1980 - 82 – Head Coach, University of Washington

1980 – UW record:  16-4

1981 – UW record:  17-3

1982 – UW record:  18-2-1 (NCAA first round loss on penalty kicks to # 3 Univ. of San Francisco)

1987-88 – Director of Mod Soccer Program -- Magnolia Soccer Club

1993-2012 – Coach, Asst. Coach, Coaching Director, Board Member – Eastside FC