Meet Coach Don Roney

July 7, 2006
Don Roney can also be reached at 651-962-5908 or at: djroney@stthomas.edu

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Don Roney starts his ninth season as the St. Thomas head coach in 2006. Roney has won two-thirds of his conference games (45-23) in his first eight seasons.

Roney needs 11 wins to move into first on the UST football career coaching victory list. He has the Toms at 498 all-time victories in 101 varsity seasons.

In an injury-plagued, rebuilding season of 2003, Roney's team nearly pulled the greatest upset in school history as it lost 15-12 on the game's final play to eventual NCAA champion St. John's. The Toms led 12-7 with under 4:00 to play. That was the first time in 26 games that St. John's was held to one touchdown and held under 20 points.

St. Thomas bounced back in 2004 to finish 7-2. Its plus-4.5 win-loss game improvement from 2003 was among the best in Division III.

The 2005 Toms played three NCAA playoff qualifiers. They lost a couple of close games and finished 4-5 as it still tied for a first-division conference finish.

Roney led the Tommies to a 7-3 record in 2001 and third-place MIAC finish. That followed a 6-4 record in 2000 and 7-3 records in each of his first two seasons, including a second-place tie in the MIAC race at 7-2 in both 1998 and 1999.

Roney's team has had 10 Academic All-Americans in eight years -- including a national-best three in 2005 -- and currently has a team gpa of 3.07. He's also had a player named to the American Football Coaches' Association (AFCA) Good Works Team in each of his eight seasons.

Roney was named UST's 28th head coach in 1998, replacing five-year head coach Mal Scanlan.

Roney's selection was well received among his Tommie players and colleagues. He was hired from an excellent pool of four finalists and 70 other applicants. Roney brought a loyalty to St. Thomas, a familiarity with UST football and a passion for coaching and teaching. In a 12-year career as a UST assistant coach, he worked primarily with receivers but coached every offensive position.

The Robbinsdale High graduate also worked as head football coach at
North Hennepin Community College (1985-88). After a 3-5 record and a squad of 30 players in his first season, Roney doubled his roster and led his team to a victory in the Royal Crown Bowl and the No. 10 national juco ranking in his third year. North Hennepin was 19-16 during Roney's era.

As a student-athlete, Roney was a multi-sport athlete at North Hennepin and St. Thomas, playing QB in football, throwing the javelin in track and field, and pitching in baseball.

Roney played for and began his coaching career under Mark Dienhart, the former St. Thomas head coach and former University of Minnesota men's athletic director. Roney also worked as receivers coach alongside Scanlan and ex-offensive coordinator George Wemeier from 1993-97. In that span he was a part of Tommie offenses that posted three 8-2 records and built a passing offense that set numerous school, MIAC and NCAA records.

He also worked as pitching coach for the St. Thomas baseball team from 1989-2000. In his last six seasons, working with head baseball coach Dennis Denning, Roney was a part of six NCAA playoff teams, four MIAC championships and an overall mark of 216-59. The 1999 and 2000 Tommie baseball squads made MIAC history as they went all the way to the NCAA Division III championship game and placed second nationally each season. Roney also accompanied UST on an historic trip to Havana, Cuba, in January 2000. Prior to that, Roney worked under prominent junior college baseball head coach Steve Cohen at North Hennepin.

Roney, who directed UST's summer National Youth Sports Program for many years, resides in New Brighton with his wife Shannon and four sons -- Joe, Nate, Dan and Jake.

Don Roney Year-By-Year
Year----Overall----MIAC
1998-----7-3-----7-2
1999-----7-3-----7-2
2000-----6-4-----6-3
2001-----7-3-----7-2
2002-----5-5-----5-3
2003-----3-7-----3-5
2004-----7-2-----6-2
2005-----4-5-----4-4
Totals
--------46-30---45-23
-------(.605)---(.661)