Fresh off a South Atlantic Conference Regular Season Championship and NCAA Sweet 16 appearance, Michael Antoniewicz has been tapped as the sixth head coach of the USC Upstate men's soccer program.
"First and foremost, I want to welcome Michael, his wife Brianna, and their growing family to USC Upstate and the Spartanburg community," said Director of Athletics Matthew Martin. "As we went through the search process, Michael's vision and plan for building our men's soccer program back to championship form really stood out. He brings a proven track record of success, having built Coker University into a national power over the past few years. I am confident that the same success will follow here at Upstate and am so excited for our men's soccer student-athletes to have the opportunity to learn and excel under his leadership, both on and off the field."
"I am super excited to be the new men's soccer coach of USC Upstate. This is a program that has a rich history of success, and I want to bring that back," said Antoniewicz. ". I want to thank Chancellor Harris and Matthew Martin for this opportunity to be a part of the USC Upstate family and for their trust in me. As soon as I met everybody and saw the campus and facilities, I was fully bought into the vision and goals for the future. My family and I are very excited about making this move and this next chapter in our lives. I want to thank Coker University for all they have done for me and the place will always have a special place in my heart. It allowed me to start my head coaching career and gave me an opportunity to build a successful, championship-winning program, on and off the field. I am very excited, honored, and looking forward to building a winning culture back at USC Upstate where these young men will be winners athletically, and in the classroom."
Antoniewicz joins the Spartan program following a six-season stint as the head coach at Coker University (Hartsville, S.C.), where he led the Cobras to a pair of SAC Championships, capturing the regular season crown this past season and the tournament title in 2021. He's accrued 51 victories helming the Cobra program while leading the team to a United Soccer Coaches or NCAA Division II Super-Regional ranking in five of his six seasons as a head coach.
In 2024, Antoniewicz and his staff garnered United Soccer Coaches DII Southeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year honors after leading Coker to a 15-3-1 record, going 9-1-1 in SAC play to earn the league's Regular Season Championship. The historic campaign saw the Cobras reel off a program-record 13-game unbeaten streak, including 10 straight victories, putting itself firmly into the top 10 of both national polls. Coker finished an undefeated month of October with seven wins, ceding just two goals while securing five shutouts.
A catalyst for the team's historic run in 2024, Antoniewicz tutored a program-best eight All-SAC performers, including SAC Defensive Player of the Year Matty Tricker and SAC Freshman of the Year Oskar Kaufmann. Tricker, Kaufmann, and Jorhan Chopin added Division II Conference Commissioners Association All-Southeast Region selection.
With Coker's 2024 All-SAC and All-Southeast Region selections, Antoniewicz has had 18 players (26 total times) earn All-SAC honors and eight players garner All-Southeast Region selection during his head coach career.
The 2021 season saw Antoniewicz guide Coker on a Cinderella run through the South Atlantic Conference Tournament, leading the program to its first-ever SAC Championship from the No. 8 seeding. The Cobras' appearance in the NCAA Tournament as the No. 10 seed in the Southeast Region marked the program's first NCAA berth since 2011. In the 2019 campaign, his first season as a collegiate head coach, he led Coker to its first national ranking since 2012.
Prior to entering the head coaching ranks, Antoniewicz spent three seasons (2016-18) as an assistant coach at Truett-McConnell University (Cleveland, Ga.). In his three seasons with the Bears, he tutored three-time NAIA All-American Joao Costa, a two-time Appalachian Athletic Conference Player of the Year. In 2017, Truett-McConnell earned its first-ever trip to the NAIA National Tournament following the program's first AAC Championship.
During his time at Truett-McConnell, Antoniewicz served as an academy coach for the Atlanta United—the 2018 MLS Cup Champions—and the head coach for Lanier Soccer Academy.
A native of Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Antoniewicz graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business with a concentration in Sports Management from Truett-McConnell in 2016.
Updated December 13, 2024
