Each time Salpointe Catholic High School wins another boys state soccer championship, I ask coach Wolfgang Weber: “is this your best team ever?’’
And each time he says, honorably, “it wouldn’t be fair to the boys to compare one team to another.’’
Salpointe has won five state championships in the last decade, compiling a 103-12-5 record. That’s a lot of bests. More impressively, since Weber created the Salpointe boys soccer program in 1982, the Lancers have won nine state championships.
His career record is 719-126-27, making him one of nine high school soccer coaches in the nation to win 700 games. It is fully understandable that there have been so many bests — so many highs and so few lows — that picking No. 1 would be almost impossible.
The more I research Weber’s remarkable career, the more I go back to 1985 — Weber’s third Salpointe team — and pay attention to its record: 16-0. Over four decades, it is the only undefeated, untied Salpointe boys soccer team.
It’s hard to top that. It set a standard that hasn’t been lowered.
High school soccer began in Tucson in 1982-83. That’s when TUSD funded nine varsity boys teams, joining Salpointe, Amphitheater and Flowing Wells in the competitive AAA South conference.
Salpointe quickly won 30 consecutive games, a break-in period in which Weber was often referred to as the Lancers’ “assistant coach,’’ which basically wasn’t accurate. Salpointe athletic director Eleanor Birmingham and Weber split the duties; Birmingham handled administrative roles, Weber did all the coaching.
Wolfgang Weber, seen here in 2010 after notching his 500th victory, has won nine state championships and over 700 games in his four-decade run at Salpointe.
But the native of Aachen, Germany, who moved to Tucson in the mid-1970s, was fine with whatever label he was given. His real title soon became “The Father of Tucson Soccer,’’ the most important figure behind what has since become 46 soccer state championships, boys and girls, in Tucson history. Ten different Tucson high schools have won boys soccer state titles.
Weber’s 1985 team was blessed with one of the most talented sophomore classes in our city’s history. Vince Bianchi and Trong Nguyen were probably the two leading players in Arizona during their four-year Salpointe careers.
Bianchi scored 27 goals in ’85, including the game-winner with 53 seconds remaining in the state title game against Glendale Deer Valley. Nguyen would become Arizona’s Gatorade soccer player of the year as a senior, 1987. Both left Salpointe with more than 100 career goals, which was almost unthinkable.
By ’87, Weber told the Star “I’m a little bit shocked at how far we’ve come. Soccer is getting better here and everywhere; all teams are improving. ‘’
Salpointe’s undefeated 1985 team also included all-city players Mike Makovic and Tim Hillenbrand and such productive players such as Greg Foster and Kevin Kinerk. They outscored the opposition 62-12. The Lancers repeated as state champs a year later, 1986, with an 18-1 record.
Weber’s state champions of later decades produced names that are probably more familiar to those who follow Tucson soccer: future Stanford and MSL standout Scott Leber, 1996; all-stater Corey Sipos, 2004; UMass All-American Doug Rappaport, 2004; and prolific scorers such as Arturo Vega and Fernando Gauna.
Salpointe has continued to prosper; the Lancers won state championships in 2019, 2021 and 2022 with a cumulative 52-8-5 record. But it was the foundation provided by Weber’s 1985 Lancers that made it all possible.
