After a season which saw the Saints Women's Soccer team win a provincial gold medal, head coach Steve Vagnini has been recognized by the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association with the 2026 Coaching Excellence Award.
Presented annually, the award recognizes a coach who exemplifies excellence in coaching, leadership, student-athlete development, and contribution to collegiate sport in Canada.
Steve Vagnini, the head coach of the St. Clair Saints Women's Soccer Team, received the CCAA Coaching Excellence Award for 2026. (Saints Athletics)
"It's fantastic and it's an honour, but it's just not one guy. It's my players, it's the school, the staff, my family - and the things they do to help you to bring it back to the players," said Vagnini after receiving the award. "It's the whole culture that St. Clair has. It's a different mindset. They really do care. It's all about the student."
Vagnini earned the national honour following a remarkable 2025-26 season where the Saints captured the OCAA Women's Soccer Championship for the first time in 37 years, advancing to the CCAA Women's Soccer National Championship.
After finishing second in the OCAA West Division in 2024-25, St. Clair took another step forward this season, posting an undefeated regular-season record of seven wins and three ties to claim first place in the division. Defensively, the team showed notable improvement, reducing its goals-against total from 10 to just five while maintaining one of the conference's strongest attacking performances.
Vagnini is the first-ever winner of the Coaching Excellence Award from St. Clair College, and only the fourth coach from a College in Ontario to receive the prestigious award.
"It's very humbling because it's such an honour, and I'll take it. It's great," he said. "I hope everybody does understand, though, that it's ours, not mine. The sacrifice that everyone had to make to get that one award, I could sit here and talk about how many people it took. The trickle-down effect is incredible."
This award tops off an outstanding year for Vagnini, who also won the OCAA Women's Soccer West Division Coach of the Year, the OCAA Women's Soccer Overall Coach of the Year, the CCAA Women's Soccer Coach of the Year, St. Clair's Coach of the Year and the OCAA Overall Coach of the Year (All Sports).
"It took an army," he said.
"Throughout his coaching career, Vagnini has consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence, accountability, and athlete development," read a media release from the CCAA. "His ability to foster success on the field while emphasizing academic achievement, personal growth, and community involvement has made a lasting impact on the student-athletes he coaches and the broader soccer community."
Vagnini's squad isn't just a force on the pitch but also in the classroom. During the 2025-26 academic year, nine members of the women's soccer team earned OCAA All-Academic honours while the squad achieved a team grade-point average of 3.27.
"We're incredibly proud of what Coach Vagnini, his staff and players were able to accomplish this season," said St. Clair College Director of Athletics and Recreation, Reid Innes. "The team carried the momentum established during the previous season and ran with it, dominating in play across the OCAA in an extremely competitive conference. Steve's a natural-born leader and we're so happy to have him as part of Saints Nation."
Vagnini says his staff is already working in anticipation of the next season, where he hopes to replicate the success the women's program has achieved the last few seasons.
"It's a huge hill for 2026-27. It's a blessing and a terror, because you have got to live up to it," Coach Vagnini said. "But you don't do anything different, you keep doing what you're doing, and you move forward with it."
"The girls were awesome this year. Everything went right for us, combined with a little bit of luck," he said.
"Adversity builds you; it makes you who you are and gets you to where you need to be."
