The last colleague of N.C. State legendary coaches Kay Yow and Jim Valvano is finally calling it quits after 29 years on the sidelines coaching the men’s soccer team. Coach George Tarantini announced his retirement Tuesday, after 25 years as the head coach of the Wolfpack soccer team, saying that he felt it was the right time to hang them up.

“I think that it is time,” Tarantini said. “I have been here for a long, long time and I think it is time to give time to someone else and see the program grow and keep getting better.”

But before Tarantini left, he made sure to thank everyone he had the privilege of meeting, coaching and working with.

“I cannot thank enough the people that I met, the people I worked with, the players and the administrators, people who are just the best at what they do,” Tarantini said. “It was a fantastic dream. I am really grateful for the opportunity and am really grateful for all the things I have.”

Tarantini was the last member of the N.C. State coaching staff who worked alongside both coaches Yow and Valvano, and he described those two as a few of the many people who highlight his memories in Raleigh.

“To be honest, it is not one, two or three memories,” Tarantini said. “It is the people that I met. So many people, coach Valvano, Kay Yow, coach [Sam] Espesito, so many people have just impacted me so much.”

The veteran coach said the grueling work of coaching at the Division I level has taken its toll, stating he did not know if he was mentally or physically capable of performing at that level for another season.

“This job requires you to be here seven days a week and 365 days a year,” Tarantini said. “You have to be here both physically and emotionally and give everything you have. So, I think that physically I have started to slow down a little bit and I just think that it is my time it a combination of everything, just the whole emotions, the physical toll.

“You have to give everything that you have, otherwise you are cheating yourself and you are cheating the team.”

Senior defender Lucas Carpenter said he would never forget the lessons he learned from his coach, noting that no one will ever be able to live up to the kind of person Tarantini is.

“There is no one else in this world that can match his passion he has,” Carpenter said. “He is just a unique person. You will never meet someone like he again in your life, he was a one of a kind.”

That passion was the main thing Carpenter said he would remember about his coach, along with his love of the game and the intensity he had every day and every game, no matter the opponent.

“Nothing was ever taken lightly. Every practice was extremely important and every game was extremely important, no matter if we were playing a team that was at the bottom of the division or No. 1 in the country,” Carpenter said. “Before the game, he would always say that this is the biggest game of your lives and we would always joke about it, but looking back on it every game was the biggest games of our life.”

Tarantini’s last season ended with disappointment as his team failed to reach the NCAA regional after a 10-8-2 season. But he said he believes that the soccer program, as well as the athletic department as a whole, has a very bright future and that fans just need to be patient.

“I know people get frustrated with N.C. State sometimes because we are not in the top of the rankings. But you can never let your guard down to N.C. State,” Tarantini said. “N.C. State is coming back; there is no doubt in my mind. National championships, they will happen. There are great coaches, great commitment and its just an amount of time untill it happens.”

The soccer team’s next season will have a different feel as it kicks back up without the animated coach roaming the sidelines, but Carpenter believes players won’t forget Tarantini’s teachings. And no matter what, he said that no matter what happens, Tarantini’s impact on the soccer team will be felt.

“You can’t forget what he taught us. The freshmen only had one year under him but the sophomores and juniors spent two to three years with him and they can definitely reiterate his passion he had for the game,” Carpenter said. “He may be gone, but he pretty much built N.C. State soccer and there are signs of him around everywhere.”

The athletic department announced that a national search will begin immediately and the process will be chaired by Senior Associate Athletic Director Chris Kingtson., who is the soccer supervisor.