The 2021 season will be Rob Walker's 15th season as the head men's soccer coach at Saint Martin's University. He began both men's and women's programs at the club level in 2006 before the two squads officially joined the GNAC in 2007. Walker became the full time men's coach in 2017. 

In the 2019 season, Walker's team to nine overall wins with five Saints being named to the GNAC All-Conference team. These included Sebastian Navarro, Oscar Aguilar, Jason Fairhurst, Jose Marquez, and Brandon Madsen. Brandon Madsen was named GNAC Player of the Week twice, the GNAC Player of the Year, first team All-Conference, D2CCA first team All-Region, United Soccer Coaches third team All-Region, and  D2CCA second team All-American. 

In 2018, Walker led his team to nine overall wins, the most since their GNAC Championship in 2009, and seven GNAC wins, the most GNAC wins since 2009. He coached five All-Conference players who consisted of Sabastian Navarro, Cayman John, Alexis Lopez, Jose Marquez, and Brandon Madsen who also named All-Region for his second consecutive season. Nine of his players were honored to the GNAC All-Academic Team. 

In 2017, Walker coached Brandon Madsen, a D2CAA All-Region player and GNAC Newcomer of the Year, who set the single season record for 16 goals and 33 points. Walker also coached Sebastian Navarro who set the school with 11 assists, which ranked eighth in the NCAA D-II. 

In 2009, he led the men's soccer team to the school's first-ever GNAC title on his way to earning GNAC Coach of the Year honors. He was also named Co-Coach of the Year on the women's side.  Walker has served as a member of both NCAA Regional Advising Committee for Men’s and Women’s soccer, and began another stint on the NCAA RAC Committee for men's soccer in 2019 and currently serves on the NCAA National Men’s Soccer Committee representing Super Region IV.   Along with the NCAA RAC, he served as a United Soccer Coaches Association West Regional Ranking Committee member for Men’s and Women’s Soccer.

Walker has vast experience coaching about both the high school, college and club level prior to his development of the soccer programs here at SMU.

He is no stranger to youth soccer, having served the Mountain Brook Soccer Club (Birmingham, Alabama) and Federal Way Football Club as Director of Coaching from 2000-2016.  Walker has “changed lanes” recently by moving to Washington Premier Football Club where he currently coaches high school aged boy’s and girl’s teams.

He got his start coaching the boy's and girl's teams at Timberline High School in Lacey where he won over 125 games from 1983-1992.

Walker also gained valuable coaching experience early in career serving as a volunteer assistant at three NAIA schools. From 1990-93 he worked with the Belhaven men's soccer team in Jackson, Mississippi during their preseason as the team went on to finish as NAIA National Champion in 1992. He also worked as a volunteer assistant at Houghton College in Houghton, New York in 1994 and from 1995-2000 at Mobile University in Alabama as the team's 1999 squad was national runners-up at the NAIA level.

He has been extremely active at the club level and youth coaching ranks having conducted 75-plus US Soccer national and state sponsored coaching courses throughout the United States since 1981.

Walker has written for WSYSA's Soccer News and Play On state newspapers and received the Ted Hastings Media Award for Editorial Excellence in 1999. His articles have also appeared in Soccer Journal and Soccer America.

From 2000-2005 he served as the director of coaching for Mountain Brook Soccer Club in Birmingham. He has guided youth teams in Washington and Alabama to five state championship finals and three State Cup championships (1986, 1997 and 2004). At the Federal Way Football Club, Walker worked as the club’s 1st Director of Coaching from 2006-16 and presided over two US Club National Championships and numerous state cup semi-finalist, finalist and championships in his tenure there.

Walker was a member of the WSYSA ODP staff as a goalkeeping coach from 1987-2000 and the AYSA ODP staff from 2000-05. He worked with the US Youth Soccer Region IV Coaching staff (boys, 1987-90 and girls, 1992-99) and region III staff (boys, 1998-2006).

He was a member of the US Soccer National Goalkeeping Coaching Staff from 1997-2015. Walker also had the opportunity to work as a goalkeeper training coach prior to the 1996 Olympics with the US men's team and as part of the staff for the 2000 US women's national team in preparation for the Algarve Cup. He helped lead the goalkeeper training for the US U-14 Girl's National Team Camp from 1998-00.

An Olympia native, he graduated from Olympia High School in 1979.

Year

Record

GNAC

Postseason

2007

3-16-0

N/A

2008

6-11-1

3-4-1

2009

11-7-0

6-2-0

GNAC Champions

2010

7-10-0

2-7-0

2011

5-11-2

4-5-1

2012

3-15-0

2-12-0

2013

5-11-2

5-7-2

2014

3-14-1

3-9-1

2015

6-12-1

4-10-0

2016

3-13-1

2-9-1

2017

2-14-1

2-9-1

2018

9-9-0

7-5-0

2019

9-8-2

4-7-1

2020

2-7-1

N/A

Total

74-160-12

44-76-8