Larry Stefanek enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Vikes men’s soccer program in 2025-26. Stefanek is the sixth head coach in program history, taking over for legendary head coach Bruce Wilson who retired at the end of the 2021 campaign.
Posting a 9-2-4 record in Canada West play in 2024, the Vikes entered the playoffs as the second seed in the pacific division before falling to top prairie seed Mount Royal in the quarterfinal round. Fin Tugwell earned Canada West Defensive Player of the Year, U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian, and Canada West First Team All-Star honours, while Callum Weir and Matthew Pearse also earned Canada West All-Star accolades.
Leading one of the biggest turnarounds in the conference in 2023-24, Stefanek's squad posted a 10-4-2 mark in Canada West play, improving from a 3-8-5 record in 2022-23, earning Stefanek Canada West Coach of the Year honours for the first time in his career. Claiming the second seed in the pacific division entering the conference playoffs, the Vikes defeated Lethbridge, 3-1, in the quarterfinal round, before falling to Mount Royal, 3-1, in the conference semifinals. Javier Sagaste was named a U SPORTS All-Canadian and Canada West First Team All-Star, while Fin Tugwell was named a Canada West Second Team All-Star and Aiden Grew and Matthew Pearse were named to the conference all-rookie team.
Stefanek arrived at UVic from Vancouver Island University, where he spent four seasons (2018-21) as the head coach of the men's soccer program. In that time, he found tremendous success leading the program to PacWest silver medals in 2019 and 2021 and a CCAA silver medal in 2019, while also earning PacWest Coach of the Year honours that season.
The Vikes soccer alumnus played under Bruce Wilson from 1989-1992, during which he was named a CIS (now U SPORTS) All-Canadian and Canada West All-Star. Prior to that, Stefanek played for two seasons at Malaspina College (now VIU). He also represented Canada in the 1993 World Student (FISU) Games and played futsal at the U18 level.
Stefanek's resume is extensive, including spending time as an associate coach with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC from 2015-2018. He's also spent many years coaching in the Vancouver Island Premier League as well at the development level with the Whitecaps FC academy program, BC Summer Games and Upper Island Academy, to name a few. He holds a Canada Soccer A Licence.
Stefanek graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Education, and later completed his Master of Education in coaching studies at UVic.
