FARMINGTON — The University of Maine at Farmington invites the public to a daytime field dedication and an evening celebration in honor of longtime UMF and community soccer coach Robert Leib on Saturday, Sept. 5.

The University and UMF Athletics will dedicate the soccer field at Prescott Field to Leib at 1 p.m., between soccer alumni games. Stewart Durrell and Seth Woodcock, former UMF athletes and co-chairmen of the Campaign for Leib Field, will speak.

In addition, a celebration of Leib’s career, including sentiments from former players and a video tribute, will take place at 7 p.m. in North Dining Hall in the Olsen Student Center.

Both events are free and open to the public with the request that individuals interested in attending either event contact Lisa Gallant, at lisagall@maine.edu or 207-778-7090 or RSVP on the UMF Athletics website at www.goumfbeavers.com. 

Leib coached UMF men’s soccer from 1977 to 2001 and UMF women’s soccer from 1996 to 2007. The men’s soccer teams tallied a program-best 15 wins in 1982 and again in 1996. The 1986 men’s soccer team and the 2002 women’s soccer team both advanced to the NAIA National Tournament. In 2007, in his final season coaching women’s soccer, UMF went undefeated through North Atlantic Conference play with a 9-0-1 mark.

Leib also guided the UMF baseball team (1978-88, 1990-93) and softball team (1994-2008), including a North Atlantic Conference and NCAA Division III Softball tournament berth in 2005.

From 1978 to 2007, he ran a summer sports camp, including mainly soccer and some baseball and basketball, for youth in the Farmington and neighboring communities. It is estimated that during the nearly 30 years they were held, more than 2,700 area children participated in the camps.

His coaching resume includes 85 All-Conference selections, 34 All-State recipients, 29 All-NAIA District 5 players, 23 All-New England Region honorees, 17 All-Americans, 13 Academic All-Americans, and a nine-time Coach of the Year winner at the conference, state and regional level.

For more information about the dedication, contact Dustin Parker, UMF director of athletics communications, at dustin.parker@maine.edu or 207-778-7535.