In 37 years as head coach of the men's soccer team at Springfield College, Irvin Schmid coached from 1948-1984 and compiled a 271-162-54 record. From 1965 to 1968, he was Page Cotton's head coach.
As a player for Schmid, Cotton was first exposed to the success that results from a close-knit team. Not only did that team have many talented players such as goal keeper Tony DiCicco, but everyone was very close off the field.
"We had a couple captains, but Page was our No. 1 leader," DiCicco said. "Page is even-keeled, he doesn't get too high or too low, he takes everything in stride and makes decisions based on solid judgments. I just remembered that the team was in a great place and a lot of that was due to his leadership."
DiCicco described Cotton's green TR6 in which he used to pick up younger players and drive to the practice field. Little efforts like that, according to DiCicco, brought the team closer together.
"He was a good mentor for younger players, including myself," DiCicco said. "When you think of Page, you thing of integrity, hard work and a really competitive spirit. He didn't like to lose."
On the field the team excelled in Cotton's senior year with DiCicco in goal. Springfield won the New England Championships, capping a 13-0-3 season. Cotton, who served as a middle defender in Schmid's 4-2-4 formation, was critical in stopping opposing offenses' best players.
"He was an organizer with the defense," DiCicco said. "He could deal with a lot of fast players and strong players, he had that ability to stop the other team's strikers. He was a great player to initiate the ball, just really solid and we really built around him."
DiCicco went on to be one of the most successful U.S. women's soccer coaches of all time, compiling a record of 108-8-8 and coaching his teams to a gold medal at the 1996 summer Olympics and a World Cup title in 1999. He and Cotton both learned much from Schmid.
"He was an educator first," DiCicco said. "I always thought my Olympic gold medal and world championship teams had a little bit of Irvin Schmid coaching methodology with them. I always tried to coach the total person and not just the soccer player, and Irvin was like that. He always talked about the journey, not the games and the scores."