As a Head Coach (entering 2025)
Career Record (all at USD): 58-42-20
Career WCC Record: 28-17-5
Seasons: 7
Brian Quinn enters his eighth season as head coach of the San Diego men’s soccer team in 2025, and few men have impacted the sport in the city more than Quinn.
He's led the Torero program to three consecutive West Coast Conference titles dating back to the 2022 season, which included a trip to Sweet Sixteen and two NCAA Tournament home games in 2024. USD dominated their opponents throughout the 2024 campaign as they posted a 15-3-2 record and made their way to the #3 ranking in the nation and finished the season at #10 overall nationally. Quinn earned his second consecutive WCC Coach of the Year, while coaching the WCC Goalkeeper of the Year (Donovan Parisian), Four All-WCC First Team selections (Cesar Bahena, Samy Kanaan, Parisian and Ethan Warne), All-WCC Second Team pick (Jack Sandmeyer), two All-WCC Freshmen (Mathias Bauer and Luca Fava) and a pair of All-WCC Honorable Mentions (Steven Ramirez and Oliver Rhoades).
Quinn orchestrated one of the best seasons in program history in 2023. After the Toreros were selected to finish seventh in the WCC Preseason Poll, USD went a perfect 6-0-1 in conference play to secure the WCC Championship. He was named WCC Coach of the Year for those efforts, and guided USD to its first NCAA appearance since 2014. San Diego lost just twice in its last 15 matches (8-2-5), and finished undefeated in WCC play for just the second time in program history (first since 2000). The Toreros outscored opponents 17-4 in WCC play. Quinn guided the team to two All-Region selections, the WCC Defender of the Year, the WCC Co-Goalkeeper of the Year, the WCC Freshman of the Year, and 13 total All-WCC selections. Not surprisingly, USD earned United Soccer Coaches West Region Coaching Staff of the Year.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Quinn moved to the United States in 1981 to play for the outdoor Los Angeles Aztecs, but it was in San Diego where he would soon make a significant mark. Quinn played on eight straight San Diego Sockers indoor championship teams when that collection of international personalities regularly filled the old San Diego Sports Arena.
Quinn earned his U.S. citizenship, shifted his playing focus to the outdoors and earned 48 caps for the United States national team. In all, Quinn played 16 professional seasons.
His playing days done, Quinn coached professionally in the Major Soccer League and locally at the highest youth levels. As the girls varsity coach at The Bishop’s Academy, Quinn led the Knights to San Diego Section high school titles.
Quinn spent 11 seasons as Seamus McFadden’s assistant at San Diego before being named the Toreros’ head coach in 2018. The two men switched roles with McFadden, San Diego’s head coach the previous 39 years, becoming Quinn’s assistant.
Across the past 14 seasons, the USD men’s soccer team has compiled an overall record of 129-102-40, including a 73-43-17 West Coast Conference mark. In that same span, the Toreros have won five WCC titles (2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2022), finished in the top-three of the conference standings eight times, and advanced to the Elite Eight in 2012.
Having coached at San Diego now for 15 seasons, Quinn feels a special connection to the university.
He carries a deep belief in the university’s mission to develop students who serve in the community. When he was telling the team about a volunteer program working with students at nearby Montgomery Junior High, Quinn grabbed his USD shirt and told his players, “It’s all about the shirt and how we wear the shirt!”
“It’s a place where I feel like being a coach it’s more like a vocation,” Quinn said. “I want to leave USD a better place than when I started. You want to be influential with kids. Sometimes it’s with conversation. Sometimes it’s through action.”
Quinn doesn’t just tell his players how to play the game. He steps in and shows them.
"That's the love of the game," said former Toreros striker
Miguel Berry. "Where you just have to play."
In 1997, Quinn became the youngest coach in Major Soccer League history. In 2013, he was inducted into the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame and the Breitbard Hall of Fame, which honors San Diego sports.
Quinn is married to Sharon and the couple has six children – Nicola, Damien, Danielle, Caitlin, Sinead and Aodhan. They have 14 grandchildren - Raelyn, Tanner, Declan, Braeden, Everly, Kenzie, Nash, Gabriella, Makayla, Sophie, Amaya, Kyleigh, Brendan and Jovi.
