Tom Stone is the head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders

Texas Tech Red Raiders

The Texas Tech Red Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University . The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders; however, the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raiders" name. The university's athletic program fields teams in 15 varsity sports and 30 club sports...

 women’s soccer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 team. He played soccer as a youth, collegiately and professionally. Stone held various coaching positions before coming to Tech.

Playing career

Tom Stone played youth soccer for the Texas Longhorns in Dallas, where he was instrumental in seeing the team compete in the U.S. Youth Soccer finals. Later, he attended Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

. As a player for the Duke Blue Devils

Duke Blue Devils

Duke University's 26 varsity sports teams, known as the Blue Devils, compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The name comes from the French "les Diables Bleus" or "the Blue Devils," which was the nickname given during World War I to the Chasseurs Alpins, the French Alpine light infantry...

, Stone scored the only goal in the 1986

1986 in sports

1986 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.-Alpine skiing:* Alpine Skiing World Cup –** Men's overall season champion: Marc Girardelli, Luxembourg** Women's overall season champion: Maria Walliser, Switzerland-American football:...

 National Championship game, giving his team the win over Akron

University of Akron

The University of Akron is a coeducational public research university located in Akron, Ohio, United States. The university is part of the University System of Ohio. It was founded in 1870 as a small college affiliated with the Universalist Church. In 1913 ownership was transferred to the City of...

. He went on to play professionally for three teams.

Coaching career

Stone's first coaching job was as a part-time assistant at the University of Denver

University of Denver

The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....

 in 1996 and as a volunteer assistant at Duke in 1997. Then, from 1997–2000, Stone coached girl’s soccer for the Colorado Rush youth soccer club. Under his leadership, the team won 35 state cups, twelve regional championships and eight national championships. He left the Rush to coach professionally in the Women's United Soccer Association

Women's United Soccer Association

The Women's United Soccer Association, often abbreviated to the WUSA, was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the United States...

, leading the Atlanta Beat to the league’s inaugural championship game, losing in overtime on penalty kicks to the Bay Area CyberRays. He also provided soccer commentary for Fox Sports

Fox Sports (USA)

Fox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games...

, ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

 and CBS College Sports Network. Stone returned to college coaching when he was hired as an assistant for the Clemson Tigers

Clemson Tigers

The Clemson Tigers are any team that represents Clemson University as a member of the NCAA's Division I or in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference....

. He spent a year there before taking the job at Texas Tech

Texas Tech University

Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...

.

Prior to his arrival at Texas Tech, the team had a record of 6–63–1 in Big 12

Big 12 Conference

The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving...

play. In Stone's first year and half as coach, the team has matched that record, going 6–5–1 in conference play.