Jeff Stock

Jeff Stock (born August 1, 1960, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a retired U.S. soccer defender who spent five seasons in the North American Soccer League and two in the Western Soccer Alliance. He also played in the Major Indoor Soccer League with the Tacoma Stars.

Youth

Stock is the son of Major League Baseball pitcher Wes Stock and grew up playing baseball. His family moved back to the Puget Sound region after Wes Stock was hired as a pitching coach by the Seattle Mariners. Stock attended Stadium High School in Tacoma, Washington, where he played baseball, and graduated in 1978. He also played for the Norpoint Royals youth soccer club with future Sounders teammate Mark Peterson. Stock was offered a combined baseball and soccer scholarship by UCLA, but he decided to instead sign a professional soccer contract as soon as he turned 18. He also attended the University of Washington for one quarter but dropped out due to conflicts with his soccer schedule.

He then went on trial with the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League, but he aggravated his knee injury and was forced to sit out a year after having arthroscopic surgery. In October 1985, Stock signed with the Tacoma Stars. By this time knee injuries had begun to hinder Stock and the hard surface of an indoor soccer arena exacerbated the problems leading him to retire in December 1986. On March 4, 1987, Stock returned to outdoor soccer with the F.C. Seattle Storm of the Western Soccer Alliance as a player/assistant coach. The move back to the grass of an outdoor soccer field helped extend his career by a few years. In 1988, he was selected to the Western Soccer Alliance All-Star team. He also served as an assistant coach in both 1987 and 1988. However, his knees finally gave and in 1989 he retired from playing professionally to devote himself to coaching.

National team

While never called up to the senior national team, Stock saw time with the United States under-19 team. He then went on to play for the U.S. Pan American Games team as well as for the U.S. soccer team which qualified for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Since then Stock has founded the "Coffee Cup" a local college soccer tournament. He also operates a coffee-roasting business, Caffe D'arte.

Personal life

Stock has two sons with his wife Leanne. They live in Tacoma, Washington.