Craig Turnbull Position: Director of NCAA Compliance E-mail: cturnbul@catawba.edu Office Phone: (704) 637-4475

Craig Turnbull resigned his post as Catawba men’s soccer coach after 11 seasons to become the school’s Senior Assistant Director of Athletics and Director of NCAA Compliance.  He was Catawba’s longest tenured soccer coach and guided the men to a record 114 win.

Under Turnbull, Catawba won a conference regular season championship, two conference tournament titles and appeared in the conference tournament finals five times.  In addition, Turnbull guided the program to its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2004 and then followed with two more consecutive appearances in 2005 and 2006.

In 2005, the men advanced to the Round of 16 and Turnbull was named NSCAA Regional Coach of the Year and was a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors.  Turnbull’s team members have garnered numerous awards, both athletic and academic with Kenny Crowe (Reeders, PA) receiving 1st Team All-American honors in 2006 being just one of numerous recent highlights. 

During Turnbull’s tenure a handfull of players moved on to play in professional ranks, currently highlighted by Gareth Turnbull (Christchurch, NZ) in New Zealand’s top professional  league and Nathan Zuzga (Troy, MI) in Raleigh for the Cary Railhawks of the A-League.  Turnbull posted a 114-99-4 mark at Catawba.

Graduating magna cum laude from East Carolina University in 1993,Turnbull earned a degree in physical education.  He earned a master of education degree from ECU in 1995.  While at East Carolina, Turnbull was a three-year captain at East Carolina University, earning second team All-CAA honors in 1993. He holds the ECU record for most career starts.  He was a four- time Texas-Gulf All-Academic team member and earned the Texas-Gulf Male Scholar Athlete of the Year Award in 1993.

He and his wife, Kim, reside in Salisbury. They have a daughter, Elena (9), and a son Eric (7).