Steven Wayne "Steve" Rocha (born 1960) is an American-born Portuguese retired basketball player and a current coach. He played as a center. Rocha is of Portuguese origin and latter settled in Portugal, where he became one of the best players for his adopted country. He has a degree in Business Administration at the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

and was working on his master's degree in Physical Education.

Career

Born in

Modesto Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton- ...

, California, he first played at

Modesto High School Modesto High School is a public high school in Modesto, California, United States. It offers the International Baccalaureate Program and the Avid program, Performing Arts Program and was the first public school to do so in the Central Valley of ...

, then at Modesto Junior College, for two years, and at the University of San Diego. After that, he moved to Portugal, where he spent 13 years of his career, the other being spent in Germany. He played for some of the best Portuguese teams,

Sangalhos Sangalhos is a town and a civil parish in the municipality of Anadia, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 4,068, in an area of 16.90 km². History Archaeological remnants dating back to the Roman era presuppose a minor community within the ...

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

and Ovarense, before being assigned to Benfica. He was a leading name in their golden era of basketball, winning 2 titles of National Champion and 5 Cups of Portugal. Rocha went to become also a charismatic player for Portugal, with 61 caps, from 1988 to 1993. After ending his career, he became a basketball coach. He coached for five years in the Portuguese LCB, then returning to the United States. He was assistant coach at CSU Stanislaus and he's currently at Modesto Junior College.

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20080723204628/http://www.mjc.edu/mjcAthletics/Athletic%20%20Sport%20Schedules/Basketball%20Men/New%20Basketbal%20M%20home%20pages%20.htm

External links

Steve Rocha
FIBA Archive
Steve Rocha

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC, is an American company which operates several sports-related websites, including Sports-Reference.com, Baseball-Reference.com for baseball, Basketball-Reference.com for basketball, Hockey-Reference.com for ice hockey, Pro- ...

1960 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players American emigrants to Portugal American people of Portuguese descent Sportspeople of Portuguese descent Basketball players from Modesto, California Centers (basketball) Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Portuguese basketball coaches Portuguese men's basketball players FC Porto basketball players S.L. Benfica basketball players San Diego Toreros men's basketball players {{Portugal-basketball-bio-stub