Sebastian Vecchio became the fifth head coach of the California State University, Bakersfield women's soccer program on Feb. 20, 2018. Vecchio posted a career 22-41-12 record at the helm of the program before stepping down to pursue an opportunity in a Power-5 conference.
In three seasons of competition (2020 was canceled) as the head coach of the Bakersfield women’s soccer team, Vecchio has led the program to 18 wins, five All-Conference selections and two WAC Tournament appearances. Both of his conference tournament appearances ended in First Round loses from penalty kicks. He boasts the highest winning percentage of any former Roadrunners head coach at the Division I level.
Vecchio has five international players (Flores, Rodriguez, Nigito, Roggerone, and Zimmer) on his current roster who compete with their national teams.
Despite a low win record in the program's first year in the Big West Conference, Vecchio had a pair of 2021 Big West Weekly honors earned and one Big West All-Conference nod awarded at the conclusion of the regular season. Off the field, the women's team had 12 athletes make the Fall Big West All-Academic Team and posted a cumulative GPA of 3.73.
In 2019, Vecchio raised expectations of his coaching staff and team from the year before. He and his squad tallied nine wins - the highest number of program wins at the Division I level. Vecchio led Bakersfield to its second highest Western Athletic Conference Tournament seed.
In his first season as head coach, Vecchio guided Bakersfield to a WAC Tournament appearance after the team had missed the tournament in 2017.
A total of three athletes (Harvey, 2020, Neves, 2020, and Toth, 2020) have signed professional contracts since Vecchio took over the Bakersfield program in 2018.
Vecchio was an assistant coach at Big 12-member Texas Christian University in 2016 and 2017. Prior to coaching at TCU, Vecchio made stops at Vanderbilt, Rice and Memphis bringing 15 years of coaching experience to Bakersfield, including five appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
As an assistant with the Horned Frogs, Vecchio worked with the goalkeepers, developed game plans, and maintained scouting reports. TCU produced eight shutouts in each of his three seasons coaching. The team's goals-against average also improved each year he was on staff, falling to an impressive 0.82 in 2017.
Vecchio played a large role in bringing top-25 recruiting classes and well-rounded athletes to each of his four assistant coaching stops. He totaled seven National Soccer Coaches Association of America (now United Soccer Coaches) All-Region selections and 37 All-Conference honors. He also had 88 athletes earn academic Honor Roll selections, four earn SEC community service awards and one athlete awarded an Academic All-American selection.
As a player, Vecchio started for two seasons at Memphis after transferring from Mid-Continent College in Kentucky. In 2004, he allowed just 12 goals in over 1,500 minutes of action, posting a school record of 0.69 goals-against average. He was later named the 2004 Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year and an All-Conference C-USA first team recipient. Vecchio finished his career at Memphis with a school record 1.02 goals-against average and produced 21 wins in two seasons.
Vecchio obtained a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from Memphis in 2005 and a Bachelor's in Sports and Leisure Management in 2008. He holds a U.S. Soccer Federation National C License and a National Goalkeeping Diploma from United Soccer Coaches.
Vecchio resides in Bakersfield, Calif. with his wife, Rachel, and two sons Luca and Nico.
