Name Val Pelizzaro | Role Soccer player | |
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Val Pelizzaro is a retired American soccer player who spent his entire fifteen-year club career with St. Louis Kutis S.C. and earned two caps with the U.S. national team in 1957. He later served as an assistant coach with St. Louis University and Washington University St. Louis. He is of Italian ancestry.
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Club career
Pelizzaro graduated from St. Mary's High School of St. Louis in 1951. In 1952, he signed with St. Louis Kutis S.C., playing for the team until 1967. During those years, Kutis won the 1957 Amateur Cup and National Challenge Cup. Pelizzaro was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame in 1984.
National team
After Kutis won the 1957 National Cup, the US Football Association decided to call up the entire team to represent the U.S. in two World Cup qualification games. As a result, Pelizzaro earned two caps with the U.S. national team, both losses to Canada. The first was a 5-1 loss on June 22, 1957. The second game was a July 6 loss to Canada. He was also a member of the U.S. soccer team at the 1959 Pan American Games.
Coaching
After retiring from playing in 1967, Pelizzaro was hired as an assistant coach at St. Louis University. He served under head coach Harry Keough from 1967 to 1982 and then under coach Joe Clarke from 1982 to 1996. In that stretch SLU won five NCAA championships and were runners-up three times. In 1997, Clarke and Pelizzaro moved to Washington University in St Louis. Pelizzaro has coached over 800 collegiate soccer games with a winning percentage of over 72%. Pelizzaro also coached for Visitation Academy with Dick Westbrook. The two of them have coached three winning state teams and numerous district winning teams as well.