Rod Lafaurie enters his 13th season with an illustrious soccer career as a player and a coach. With a rich background in the sport, including a successful tenure as a former professional and Division I soccer player, and NCAA College Head Coach, coach Lafaurie has transformed the Occidental College men’s soccer program into one of the top soccer programs in the country. 

Hired in 2010, during this transformative period, Lafaurie led the team to its first winning season in school history in 2012 and achieved its first playoff appearance in 2014 with a remarkable record of 13-4-1.  Oxy secured its consecutive post-season appearance in 2015, reaching as high as #21 nationally.  The Tigers returned to the SCIAC championship game, hosting the final as the highest remaining team in 2018 while presiding over Oxy’s first men’s soccer SCIAC Athlete of the Year, Liam Walsh.  Walsh was also named as a first-team All-West Region selection.  In 2019, the team returned to the SCIAC semi-final, and again, after Covid returned to the SCIAC final in 2022.  In 2023, the West Giants took giant strides in winning the SCIAC regular season championship, winning the SCIAC tournament championship with a 3-0 victory over Redlands in the SCIAC final.  In the NCAA tournament, the team traveled first to Texas and beat 2022 Sweet 16 participants, St. Thomas, 2-1, followed by a 4-1 victory over 2003 National Champion Trinity Texas in the NCAA 2nd round.  In the Sweet 16, the Tigers fell in double overtime 1-0 to Amherst College, who advanced to the NCAA final, losing in double overtime.

Over his tenure, Lafaurie has led the team to the SCIAC conference tournament final in 2018, 2022, and 2023 and the SCIAC conference semi-finals in 2014, 2015, and 2019.  In 2023, Lafaurie and staff were named the West Region Coaching Staff of the Year and the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year.  In 2023, Senior Evan Karp was named 2nd Team All-American, 1st Team All-West Region, and the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year.  Fellow 1st Team All-West Region member Junior Andrew Notter, a SCIAC 1st Team Member, Riley Nyhan, and Joseph Schwartz joined Karp on the All-Region team. 

Coaching many All-Region and All-SCIAC members, the Oxy Men’s Soccer program is continuously represented among the best in the West Region.  Past All-West Region members include Evan Karp (2022 and 2023), Jake Foster (2022), Adrian Paredes (2019 and 2021), Riley McCabe (2018, 2019), Gabriel Barrett Jackson (2017), Tod Kawada (2014), and Reid Sakamoto (2012).  While doing this, Occidental has also been in the top 5 in NCAA attendance in Division III and the top 25 in all divisions in attendance, averaging over 1000 people per game, including three games with nearly 4,000 people in the crowd.  Along with a group of Superfans, attending these games has created one of the country's best places to play college soccer.

As a collegiate player at Cal State Northridge, Lafaurie was an All Big-West member in 2003 and 2004, named Cal State Northridge's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2003, awarded the outstanding graduating senior award in 2005, and went on to spend the 2005 season with the Los Angeles Galaxy reserve squad witnessing one of the MLS franchise’s MLS cup’s first hand.

Coaching locally and serving as the MLS Next Academy Soccer Director for Los Angeles Surf, Rod and his wife live locally with their children.  Lafaurie also holds a Master’s Degree, USSF ‘A’ License, and United Soccer Coaches Premier License.