Michael Tanke (born August 18, 1989 in

Merrillville, Indiana Merrillville is a town in Ross Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 35,246 at the 2010 census. Merrillville is in east-central Lake County, in the Chicago metropolitan area. On January 1, 2015, Merrillville became th ...

) is an American former soccer player and current coach.

Career

College and amateur

Tanke attended Niles High School, in

Niles, Michigan Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near the Indiana border city of South Bend. In 2010, the population was 11,600 according to the 2010 census. It is the larger, by population, of the two principal cities ...

, where he was named to the All-State First Team in 2006 and was a four-time All-Conference, three-time All-District and two-time All-Region honoree, played in the Region II Olympic Development Program, and played club soccer for the Indy Burn Eagles, before going on to play four years of

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and Philippines, the Philippines. Th ...

for the

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

. He earned All-Tournament honors at the ODU Stihl Soccer Classic as a senior in 2010, and finished his college soccer career with 3 assists in 65 games. During his college years Tanke also played for the

Indiana Invaders The Indiana Invaders was an American soccer team based in South Bend, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1998, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes Divis ...

in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league sy ...

., and trained with the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as on ...

U-19 and U-20 and first teams.

Professional

Undrafted out of college, Tanke signed his first professional contract in March 2011 when he signed with

USL Professional Division The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

club

Rochester Rhinos Rochester New York FC, formerly known as the Rochester Rhinos, are an American professional soccer team based in Rochester, New York, United States. Founded in 1996, as the Rochester Raging Rhinos, they changed their name to Rochester Rhinos t ...

. He made his professional debut on April 15, 2011 in Rochester's season opening game against the

Richmond Kickers Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL-1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional S ...

. The club re-signed Tanke for 2012 on October 25, 2011. On July 7, 2015 Tanke scored in a Notre Dame staff game by dribbling across the middle of the field and riding a tackle from and old and obviously out of shape Greg Dalby. He then put the ball in the back of the net from 4 yards to score his first goal in his post high school career.

Coaching

After playing professionally, Tanke began his coaching career as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research resp ...

Castleton State College Castleton University is a public university in Castleton, Vermont. It has an enrollment of 2000 students and offers more than 30 undergraduate programs, as well as master's degrees in education and accounting. It is accredited by the New England ...

(now

Castleton University Castleton University is a public university in Castleton, Vermont. It has an enrollment of 2000 students and offers more than 30 undergraduate programs, as well as master's degrees in education and accounting. It is accredited by the New England ...

), in Castleton,

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the ...

. Tanke joined the coaching staff of the

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the nation and the second-largest private university in Ohio. The uni ...

Flyers men's soccer team for the fall 2015 season. After two seasons with the Flyers, Tanke was hired as an assistant coach for the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1 ...

Bulls men's soccer team for 2017 season. However, before the season began, the Bulls' men's soccer team, alongside multiple other UB athletic programs, was cut, the team being eliminated and no longer being fielded by the university. In 2018, Tanke was hired as an assistant coach on the staff of the

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Appro ...

Purple Eagles men's soccer team. In 2022,

Canisius College Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master' ...

hired Tanke in his first head coaching role. He is the 15th coach in the history of the men's soccer program at Canisius.

References

External links

Rochester Rhinos profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanke, Michael 1989 births Living people American men's soccer players Rhode Island Rams men's soccer players Indiana Invaders players Rochester New York FC players Soccer players from Indiana USL League Two players USL Championship players People from Merrillville, Indiana Sportspeople from Lake County, Indiana Men's association football midfielders Canisius Golden Griffins men's soccer coaches