Thomas Tanner is a retired American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who played professionally in the

USL A-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

, Major Indoor Soccer League and National Professional Soccer League. He was the 1992 MISL Rookie of the Year. Tanner is the owner and currently the General Manager of

Utica City FC Utica City FC is a professional indoor soccer team based in Utica, New York that plays in the Eastern Conference of the Major Arena Soccer League. History The team formed in 2011 as the Syracuse Silver Knights with the intention of playing in t ...

of the Major Arena Soccer league.

Youth

Tanner graduated from

Henninger High School Anthony A. Henninger High School is a high school in the Syracuse City School District. Henninger is the largest of the four high schools in the district with an enrollment of approximately 1800 students. History Henninger High School was bui ...

where he was a 1984 third team and 1985 fourth team NSCAA High School All American and a 1985 Parade Magazine High School All American soccer player. He attended

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

, playing on the men's soccer team from 1986 to 1990. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in business management in 1991.

Professional

In 1991, the

Cleveland Crunch The Cleveland Crunch are an American professional indoor soccer club located in Cleveland, Ohio competing in as a charter member of the Major League Indoor Soccer (MLIS). The rebranded Crunch returned to indoor play as a member of the MASL 2 in ...

of the Major Indoor Soccer League selected Tanner in the second round of the MISL Draft. On June 29, 1991, Tanner made his debut and scored his first goal for the Crunch in a rare outdoor exhibition game against

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

. He was the 1992 MISL Rookie of the Year. The MISL collapsed in 1992 and the Crunch moved to the National Professional Soccer League. Tanner and his teammates went on to win the 1994, 1996, and 1999 championships. In 2000, the Crunch lost in the finals to the

Milwaukee Wave The Milwaukee Wave is an American professional indoor soccer team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1984, they have been the oldest continuously operating professional soccer team in the United States and are seven-time league champions, m ...

. Tanner retired from the Crunch in 2001. In 1996, Tanner joined the

Rochester Rhinos Rochester New York FC, formerly known as the Rochester Rhinos, are an American professional soccer team based in Rochester, New York, United States. Founded in 1996, as the Rochester Raging Rhinos, they changed their name to Rochester Rhinos to ...

of the

USISL A-League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

. He spent each summer for the next six years playing for the Rhinos, serving as team captain from 1998 to 2001. In 1996, Rochester went to the finals of both the league championship and the Open Cup. In 1999, Rochester won the

1999 U.S. Open Cup The 1999 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup ran from June to October 1999, open to all soccer teams in the United States. It was the first Open Cup tournament to be named after Lamar Hunt. The Rochester Raging Rhinos of the A-League (1995–2004), A-League ...

. It also won league titles in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. In 2003, Tanner moved to the Syracuse Salty Dogs as a player-assistant coach. In August 2003, he added

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

to his list of team duties. The Salty Dogs withdrew from the league following the 2004 season and folded. Tanner earned the nickname "The Architect" after leading Utica City FC to the Regular Season Eastern Division Championship during the team's inaugural season in 2018-19.

Coach

In 2001, Tanner became the director of coaching with the Syracuse Soccer Academy, a position he held until 2003. In 2003, Tanner became an assistant coach with the Syracuse Salty Dogs of the

. In 2004, he founded and coached the Syracuse Youth Football Club. In 2011, he became the head coach and owner of the

Syracuse Silver Knights Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Mis ...

. In 2017, Tanner changed roles from head coach of the Silver Knights to general manager.https://www.facebook.com/silverknightfoundation/videos/1104627652925421/?video_source=pages_finch_main_video

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanner, Tommy Living people 1968 births American soccer coaches American soccer players Des Moines Menace players Cleveland Crunch (NPSL) players Cleveland Crunch (original MISL) players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players National Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) players NC State Wolfpack men's soccer players Rochester New York FC players Syracuse Salty Dogs players USL First Division players Association football midfielders Player-coaches Soccer players from New York (state) Sportspeople from Syracuse, New York