John Velasco

Biography

John Velasco has completed his first season as assistant coach at Temple, joining Bryan Green's staff in the spring of 2023. Velasco helped lead the Owls through major roster turnover in year one, with 14 new players joining the squad, including ten freshmen. During his first year as a Division I coach, Velasco saw the Owls come within one game of a conference playoff berth and pull off one of Temple's biggest wins of the year, a 2-1 upset of defending National Champions and No. 10 ranked Syracuse in October. Velasco most recently spent two seasons as the head coach of Kings College (Pa.) before coming to Temple. In his first season leading the program, he garnered a 9-6-1 record while going 6-2 in MAC Freedom play to earn the Monarchs a semifinals appearance in the MAC Freedom conference tournament. After a strong debut season, Velasco was named the MAC Freedom Coach of the Year in 2021. Before joining King’s in the spring of 2021, Velasco gained head coaching experience with both Kean University in 2016 as an interim, and Marywood University where he stayed from 2018 through 2021 before taking the job with the Monarchs. During that 2016 season with Kean, he led the team to a 14-6-1 overall record, earning them a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years. Prior to joining the collegiate coaching ranks in 2016, Velasco spent time in the MLS with the Columbus Crew as a member of the first team support staff (2014-16) and as Academy Staff Trainer (2014-15) und