Joan Schockow ’85 first made history as a SUNY Cortland goalkeeper when, in 1983, she became the nation’s first female four-time All-American collegiate soccer player. Today, she is among only 25 collegiate coaches in the country to have 200-plus victories, a feat she has accomplished as the SUNY Brockport women’s soccer coach since 1988.
An exceptional student-athlete, Schockow was captain, Team MVP and all-county in four sports — soccer, basketball, volleyball and softball — at E.J. Wilson High School in Spencerport (N.Y.), where she was inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991.
At SUNY Cortland, Schockow was the freshman goalkeeper and an all-tournament team selection on the Red Dragons squad that defeated UCLA for the first-ever national championship in that sport in 1980. During her junior year, she was the Defensive MVP in the University of Central Florida Tournament, where Cortland handed the University of North Carolina one of its rare losses.
In an era when SUNY Cortland hosted and competed against the nation’s best teams, such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Texas, Wisconsin and Boston College, Schockow was perennially voted the nation’s best goalkeeper and a four-time National Soccer Coaches Association of America All-American. A four-time all-region selection, she was team captain her senior year and finished her career with 40 shutouts.
A member of the Sports Medicine Club and an athletic training minor, Schockow graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in physical education from SUNY Cortland and later completed some work toward a master’s degree in physical education at SUNY Brockport.
Between 1979-87, Schockow competed in women’s soccer at eight Empire State Games. She won four gold and four silver medals.
She was an assistant coach at SUNY Cortland in 1985 and at Spencerport High from 1986-88, while teaching elementary school physical education in the Diocese of Rochester from 1986-91.
In 1988, Schockow took over as SUNY Brockport’s head coach. Since then, she has posted a 211-133-26 record — the most coaching victories by any soccer coach in Brockport history. Her teams have enjoyed 17 consecutive winning seasons and have 24 post-season appearances in the New York State Women’s Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA), SUNYAC, ECAC and NCAA tournaments. Schockow led Brockport to the 1989 SUNYAC Western Division title, the 1995 NYSWCAA crown and the 2006 SUNYAC championship.
A three-time SUNYAC Coach of the Year, Schockow also was named the Northeast Regional Coach of the Year in 2000. She coached the Central Region open division women’s soccer teams in the Empire State Games from 1990-96. She coached future Olympian Abby Wambach and other future stars as the ODP New York West girls’ soccer coach from 1991-2000. In 1996-97, Schockow was the goalkeeper for the W league Rochester Ravens.
Schockow currently serves as the executive director/president of the NYSWCAA. She had been the organization’s soccer sport chair from 1996-99 and its president from 2000-06.
A lecturer in the SUNY Brockport Physical Education Department since 1994, Schockow has annually involved her soccer players in community service projects such as coaching soccer clinics, assisting with Section Five swimming meets and the Adopt-A-Highway program.
