There will be a changing of the guard of the Hofstra University men’s soccer team, and it will involve a pair of former Long Island Rough Riders.
Richard Nuttall, an original Rough Rider who was a member of the 1995 U.S. Interregional Regional Soccer League championship team, has announced that he will step down after the fall season.
Associate head coach Stephen Roche, a former Rough Riders player and head coach and who was named head coach in waiting last season, will take over the program at season’s end. Nuttall will be honored during Hofstra’s Oct. 4 Alumni Day Game versus Northeastern at Captains Field.
Nuttall completed his 36th season as Hofstra head coach in 2024. He has guided the Pride to a 350-259-87 record in transforming the program into one of the nation’s top teams. His teams have won four consecutive Coastal Athletic Association championships (2021-24), the first team in CAA history to claim four men’s soccer titles in a row.
“The time was right to make this move,” Nuttall said in a statement. “I never imagined having this job for 37 years and I am thankful for having had the opportunity to make the Hofstra men’s soccer program a force to be reckoned with. I will entrust that to Stephen, who is more than ready to carry that mantle. I am grateful for all the student-athletes I have coached, the assistants I have worked closely with, the administration who supported us, and the soccer community as a whole for rallying around our program. I look forward to my new role and supporting our mission of building champions!”
Roche will enter his 10th year on the Hofstra men’s soccer coaching staff this year. He came to Hofstra in June 2016 and was promoted to associate head coach on April 30, 2021. In September 2024 he was named the program’s head coach in waiting.