Steve Totten - Men's Soccer Coach - Princeton University Athletics

Steve Totten

Title:
Associate Head Coach
Email:
stotten@princeton.edu
Phone:
609-258-2438

Steve Totten begins his 18th season with the Tigers in 2025.

Since Totten joined the program in 2008, the Tigers have earned four NCAA Tournament bids, in 2024, 2009, 2010 and 2018, also winning the Ivy League Championship four times (2010, 2014, 2018, 2021). In 2024, the Tigers won the Ivy League Tournament. Totten was elevated from assistant coach to associate head coach prior to the 2017 season.

Quick Facts

Four Ivy League Championships (2021, 2018, 2014, 2010)
Ivy League Tournament Champions, 2024
Five NCAA Tournament appearances (2024, 2021, 2018, 2010, 2009)
Only two perfect 7-0-0 Ivy League Championships in program history
Only consecutive NCAA appearances in program history (2009-10)
Most wins in program history (13 in 2010)
Nine players drafted or signed by Major League Soccer teams
As a player, three-time captain of UVA, voted team MVP twice
With the United Stated U17 National Team, competed in CONCACAF qualifiers and the U17 World Cup, scoring a goal against Austria.

In 2024, the Tigers made their first appearance in the Ivy League Tournament after the inaugural tournament in 2023. Seeded third, the Tigers went on to defeat no. 2 seeded, #16 Cornell in overtime before taking on the no. 1 seed, #12 Penn on its home field. Princeton prevailed 3-1, handing the Quakers their first home loss since 2021 and securing the Tigers' first Ivy League Tournament title.

In 2021, the Tigers went undefeated in the Ivy League, posting an overall record of 12-6 as the squad won the Ivy League Championship.

In 2018, Totten was honored as the coaching staff earned NCAA Northeast Regional Coaching Staff of the Year. The honor came after the Tigers won the Ivy League Championship and reached the NCAA Tournament. It was a tremendous turnaround for the team that started the year 1-3. Losing just twice over the next 14 games, the Tigers had a stretch of eight games in which they were unbeaten.

Also that year, Totten was selected as just one of eight college coaches to coach at the Major League Soccer combine leading up to the 2018 MLS Super Draft.

The 2014 Princeton squad finished the season on a nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1) to capture a share of the Ivy League championship, but was shut out of the NCAA Tournament.

In 2014, 2015 and 2016 the Tigers had the leading scorer in the Ivy League.

In 2009, Princeton returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years, and made another appearance in 2010. The 2010 team will go down in history as it was the program's first ever undefeated league season en route to being crowned Ivy League Champion. The posted a 13-4-1 overall record and hosted an NCAA first round game for the second straight season.

Since Totten joined the program, all Princeton men’s soccer graduating classes have won at least one Ivy League Championship from 2011-2025.

The program has also boasted four Spirit of Princeton winners in the last eight years in Gaby Joseph ’18, Moyin Opeyemi ’19, Alex Charles ’22, and Issa Mudashiru ’25.

Totten spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons at AU, assisting head coach Todd West with an American program consistently ranked among the top teams in both the Patriot League and the region.

Before going to American, Totten was the head boy's soccer coach at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Va., for three seasons. Totten led the Patriots to a pair of National District championships and an appearance in the Northern Region semifinals. He also has coaching experience with the Reston Football Club in Virginia, the National Cathedral School and D.C. United youth programs in Washington, D.C., and the Bethesda Phoenix club program in Maryland.

Totten, an Allentown, N.J., native, was a star player at The Peddie School in Hightstown before a standout career as a midfielder at the University of Virginia, where he was a three-time captain for teams that were ranked in the top 10 nationally in each of his four seasons.
At Virginia, Totten was voted the Cavaliers' Most Valuable Player in both his sophomore (1999) and junior (2000) seasons, earning second-team all-conference honors each season. He helped the Cavaliers reach the NCAA quarterfinals three times and win the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season in 2001. As a sophomore, he had the assist on the game-winning goal in the third overtime in Virginia's 2-1 victory over Princeton in the 1999 NCAA tournament first round.

He graduated from UVA with a degree in economics and was drafted by the Chicago Fire with the first pick of the third round (26th overall) in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft.