The 2023 NE10 Coach of the Year, Gary Crompton has been the head coach of the Bentley University men's soccer program since 2008. The 2025 season will be his 18th year as the Falcons' head coach.
The 2024 Falcons went undefeated at home and reached the NE10 playoffs for the 12th time under his guidance.
Crompton led the 2023 Falcons to a second-place finish in the NE10 regular season standings after they were picked ninth in the preseason coaches' poll to earn his second career NE10 Coach of the Year Award.
Crompton has had a distinguished tenure at Bentley. In addition to being a consistent playoff team, he has also led the program to the NE10 Finals twice in the highly competitive NE10, in 2017 and 2010. The program also excels academically. Every member of the 2023 roster was named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll in the fall semester. For the 2024 fall semester, that number was over 90 percent.
He earned his 100th career win on Oct. 22, 2022 with a 5-2 victory over Assumption. That made him just the 2nd coach in program history to reach that milestone.
Crompton was named the 2017 New England Soccer Journal Division II Coach of the Year after he led the Falcons all the way to overtime of the NE10 championship match as the No. 8 seed. Bentley defeated the No. 1 seed Adelphi in the quarterfinals and Le Moyne in the semifinals, before they ultimately fell to nationally ranked Merrimack 2-1 in the finals.
He was also named the NE10 Coach of the Year in 2015. He earned the prestigious award after he led the Falcons to an excellent regular season where they won 10 games and reached the semifinals of the NE10 Playoffs.
Bentley has finished in the top-four of the NE10 regular season four times during his tenure (2010, 2012, 2015 & 2023).
During his time at Bentley, Crompton's student-athletes have earned 30 NE10 All-Conference selections, 16 NE10 Academic All-Conference nods and 15 players have been named to the NE10 All-Rookie team.
The Philadelphia native first guided the Falcons to the NE10 Finals in 2010, in just his third season at the helm of the program, in a season where they won 11 games and reached the finals as the No. 3 seed. They earned dramatic wins over New Haven in the quarterfinals in overtime (1-0), and over Southern Connecticut in the semifinals on penalty kicks after rallying from 2-0 down in the second half. The run, however, came to an end in the finals when they fell to national No. 1 Franklin Pierce 1-0.
The Falcons finished that 2010 season with a record of 11-3-6 and ended the season ranked 6th in the East Region. The team narrowly missed getting selected to the NCAA Tournament.
In each of his first two seasons in Waltham, Crompton’s team qualified for the NE10 playoffs with dramatic wins on the final day of the regular season. In 2009 they beat Saint Anselm in overtime (1-0), and in 2008, defeated Saint Michael’s 4-3 after trailing late in the second half.
Beyond those first two seasons, Crompton's teams qualified for the NE10 postseason in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
Hired in July of 2008, Crompton spent the previous 14 seasons as an assistant coach at Harvard University, where he spearheaded the program’s recruiting and scheduling efforts. During his tenure, the Crimson made five appearances in the NCAA Tournament (1994, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2007) and captured three Ivy League championships (1994 co-champions, 1996, 2006).
In addition to those successes, four of his Crimson players earned All-America honors and 23 were first-team All-Ivy League selections.
He is a USSF “A” licensed coach, which is the highest coaching badge from US Soccer.
Before stepping into the coaching ranks, Crompton was a standout defenseman at the University of Maine. He was a two-year captain and a Scholar All-America for the Black Bears.
Crompton also played professionally for nine years, having played in the United Soccer League, the second tier of US Soccer. He played with the Cape Cod Crusaders, Worcester Wildfire, Boston Bulldogs and Connecticut Wolves. He was named a USL All-Star with the Crusaders in 1995 and with the Wildfire in 1997.
In addition to his coaching career at the collegiate level, Crompton has nearly two decades of experience working with young players around the world. Furthermore, Coach Crompton runs a soccer coaching business, Soccer 101 Academy, in the summer months.
Crompton was also head coach of FC Greater Boston Bolts’ U-17 team from 2002 to 2006, and is a former head coach of the Bolts’ U-16 team that competes in the United States Soccer Federation Development Academy, a nationwide program of select youth clubs. He is heavily involved in club soccer in New England and currently serves as Director of Coaching for Sachems FC.
Crompton graduated magna cum laude from Maine in 1992 with a double degree in sociology and psychology. In the spring of 2009, he earned his master’s degree in psychology from Harvard, and in the spring of 2020 earned his MBA from Bentley.
