Tom Buckner was announced as the 17th head coach in the history of the Manhattanville men's soccer team in May 2026, bringing a decade of collegiate coaching experience to his new home in Purchase.
Buckner comes to Manhattanville following an eight-year stint as associate head men's soccer coach at Jacksonville University. A member of the Dolphins' coaching staff since 2018, Buckner began his tenure at Jackson as an assistant coach before being promoted to associate head coach ahead of the 2021 campaign.
Buckner served as the Dolphins' recruiting coordinator since 2020 and developed 25 Atlantic Sun All-Conference selections in that time. In addition to his coaching and recruiting responsibilities, Buckner handled Jacksonville's scheduling from 2022 to 2025, oversaw analytics across a multitude of platforms and was involved in program fundraising, budgeting and fiscal responsibility.
The Dolphins captured the Atlantic Sun championship in the 2020-21 academic year with Buckner on the staff, the second conference title in program history.
Prior to Jacksonville, Bucker served as the assistant coach at Hartwick College in 2018 and was a graduate assistant coach for Western Illinois from 2016 to 2017. He also worked as an assistant coach with the Myrtle Beach Mutiny of the Premier Development Leage in 2017, serving as the head of goalkeeper training.
Buckner played four years of collegiate soccer at Hartwick from 2011 to 2015, serving as the Hawks' starting goalkeeper for the duration of his career. He was elected as team captain in 2014, the same year Hartwick won the Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament titles and made the NCAA Tournament while he was an All-Conference selection.
Buckner graduated from Hartwick in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism before earning his Master of Science in sport management from Western Illinois. He currently holds coaching licenses from UEFA and USSF.
