It’s noticeable on an athlete’s jersey — a number embedded in the stitching, a letter, a symbol to mark something significant.
The Red Sox wearing No. 49 on their sleeve for Tim Wakefield, the New York Giants designing special jerseys for their 100th season.
It’s not an exaggeration, there truly is always something going on in the sports stratosphere — whether a team dawns it on a uniform, a league comes together to acknowledge a turning point in the game or if it’s simply stated aloud.
At Quinnipiac, it’s no different. This fall, there are several milestones to memorialize across athletics.
Twenty years of Eric Da Costa
He was once a superstar on the field for Quinnipiac. Now he’s its longest-standing head coach in program history.
“It’s a privilege to be here,” Eric Da Costa said of his 20th season with men’s soccer. “It’s an honor to be able to work with these guys.”
Da Costa has brought the Bobcats to conference tournaments in 10 of their last 13 seasons (NEC in 2012, MAAC from 2013-2022), reaching the title match in five.
Quinnipiac also received votes from the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 Poll in 2021 — an acknowledgment given to the top Division I soccer teams in the nation.
But rankings don’t necessarily matter. It was what came in 2022 that did, when Quinnipiac closed a nine-year gap and captured its first MAAC victory since 2013.
And for a team coming out of the MAAC and entering the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Da Costa’s squad held its ground and lost in a 3-2 overtime thriller to No. 8 Vermont.
It’s more than evident that men’s soccer has earned its stripes around Quinnipiac. Like women’s cross country, its consistency as a MAAC dynamo doesn’t go unnoticed — with much of that credit going to Da Costa.
“I haven’t kicked the ball since 2001 on this field,” Da Costa said. “Every win is there, so is every loss of mine. It’s a great place to work. And I’ve been really, really fortunate to have some really great kids and really great teams. And hopefully, we’ve been a little bit successful.”
Twenty-five years of Dave Clarke
Head coach Dave Clarke enters his 25th year at the helm for Quinnipiac women’s soccer. He’s the winningest coach in program history and has led the Bobcats to three NCAA Tournament berths since assuming the role as head man in 1999.
“It’s not a job, it’s more of a vocation,” Clarke said. “Anytime you’re out on a field, you’re doing stuff and what you love. And I never get to the point where I’m like, ‘I don’t want to go again.’”
The first and arguably most significant NCAA Tournament appearance came in 2000 when Quinnipiac played in the Northeast Conference. Women’s soccer was the first team to qualify for a Division I NCAA Tournament in Quinnipiac Athletics.
Since then, the Bobcats have transitioned to the MAAC and brought back-to-back conference championships to Hamden in 2022-23, with eyes on a third victory in 2024.
“I’m too much of a tracksuit coach,” Clarke said. “I love being out there, jumping, playing, running, competing with them, so it keeps me young.”
Thirty years of field hockey
It’s a momentous season for Quinnipiac field hockey, the big 3-0.
“Obviously, the inaugural season was, you know, 1995 and we really were, we’re knocking on the door,” head coach Nina Klein said. “I mean, last year, we could have made history. I’m excited for the drive and passion that these athletes have every day to continue to put the program, you know, on the map.”
Klein — just the second coach in program history — has already made an impact on the turf. Quinnipiac came within inches of a crack at the Big East Tournament last fall, a feat it has yet to achieve.
But before the Klein era, Quinnipiac field hockey lived under former head coach Becca Main, who served 28 seasons for the navy and gold.
And like most origin stories, Main wasn’t always coaching a Division I team. Field hockey became a Division I program in 1998, three years after its first season.
Main earned two of her three NCAA Tournament appearances while Quinnipiac played in the NEC.
Field hockey entered the MAAC ahead of the 2013 season with Main steering the ship. The four-time Coach of the Year anchored Quinnipiac to a conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance the same year.
Now that the Bobcats are settled in the Big East, there’s really only one thing left to do: gift field hockey a trip to the playoffs for its 30th birthday.
Twenty years of Carolyn Martin
Women’s cross country and track and field are arguably two of the university’s most consistent teams in the last 20 years — the same period Carolyn Martin has been coaching at Quinnipiac.
”I don’t really count the years, but I do look back often and see how far our women’s programs have come and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to build a program,” Martin wrote.
Martin started as an assistant coach to the men’s and women’s teams in 2004, catapulting cross country to NEC powerhouses. The women won four straight conference championships from 2005-08, the men’s three from 2006-08.
In 2009, Martin assumed the head coaching position for the men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams. After Quinnipiac men’s track and field dissolved in 2009, Martin led the remaining three teams until 2021 when she deviated strictly to the women’s teams and David Scrivines began coaching men’s cross country.
Once transitioning to the MAAC in 2013, Quinnipiac maintained its prowess as a top competitor. Martin’s tutelage, women’s cross country accumulated its first conference championship in 2015-16.
Since that first ring, cross country and track and field have remained first-rate MAAC teams, with cross country taking consecutive conference championships in 2022-23 and indoor track earning runner-up slots in 2018 and 2020-24.
Additionally, cross country finished a program-best ninth in the 2023 NCAA Northeast Regionals, cementing itself as a highly-ranked program along the East Coast.
“I had a tremendous start after being handed a very successful distance program and it has been so much fun and such a passion for me to continue to grow our programs,” Martin wrote.
