Coaches

Marquis Muse

Former McMurry University Vice President for Student Affairs and Intercollegiate Athletics Sam Ferguson announced April 15, 2021 that Marquis Muse has accepted an offer to become the War Hawks’ head men’s soccer coach.


Muse is the ninth head coach in program history and brought nine years of collegiate coaching experience with him to McMurry. He also coached in the high school ranks and played in the professional ranks.


In his first season, the War Hawks were just one spot outside of making the postseason tournament, but placed three players on all-conference teams and delivered exciting conference wins over East Texas Baptist and Sul Ross State. In 2022, the Maroon and White made a late-season charge with three successive victories in early October toward a 5-9-3 record. Ten scholar-athletes have received all-conference honors in his tenure.


Muse joined McMurry from Sul Ross State University, where he built the men’s and women’s soccer programs from scratch as the head coach of both programs. He joined the Lobos in July 2015 to start the women’s soccer program, then was tasked later with starting the men’s program in August 2018. Even in a short time, Muse brought Sul Ross State into American Southwest Conference contention as he led the women’s team to four ASC Quarterfinal appearances in six years. In his final season in Alpine, the Lobos men’s soccer team earned an ASC Tournament berth for the first time in their then three-year history.


Prior to Alpine, Muse served as the assistant men's and women's coach at Ouachita Baptist University. In his final season as an assistant at OBU, the program achieved a No. 4 ranking in the NCAA Central Region – the highest in program history at the time. He also coached the JV team at OBU to an undefeated 6-0 record, showing a glimpse of what he could offer as a future head coach.


Before embarking on his coaching career, Muse also had a successful playing career on the collegiate and professional levels.


Muse played two seasons at the NCAA Division I level at Oral Roberts University (1997, 1999) and helped ORU to a conference championship and an NCAA tournament appearance. In his two-year career at ORU, he scored 11 goals and nine assists.


Muse took a hiatus from the college level the next few seasons and played in the Professional Development League (PDL) for the Texas Spurs during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. He finished with seven goals and 10 assists and was a two-time PDL Team of the Week selection.


From there, Muse returned to the NCAA level for the 2002 and 2003 seasons, finishing his career at Midwestern State. He helped the team achieve two Lone Star Conference titles, two NCAA Division II national quarterfinal round appearances and a 31-6-5 record in the two-year span. He was also an LSC Player of the Week and a first team All-LSC selection as a senior.


After college, Muse took his talents to Major League Soccer (MLS) and played three seasons for FC Dallas. He also appeared in two international friendlies for the U.S. National Amateur Team in 2007, where USA defeated the Republic of Ireland on its home turf twice. Muse was the Man of the Match with an assist in the second of two games.


Coach Muse and his wife, Shannon, have two sons, Jeremiah and Joshua. Jeremiah currently plays collegiate football at Hardin-Simmons. Coach Muse is originally from Dallas, Texas and now resides in Abilene