HEAD COACH: Rob Randall
Office: (585) 389-2194
Email: rarandal@naz.edu

There has been no shortage of challenges for Rob Randall since he took over as head coach of the Nazareth men's lacrosse team prior to the start of the 2001 season.

While it wasn't exactly tantamount to replacing Vince Lombardi with the Green Bay Packers or John Wooden at UCLA, Randall's succession of the somewhat legendary Scott Nelson, who built the Nazareth lacrosse program from ground zero to three national titles in 15 seasons, was a somewhat daunting endeavor.

Randall's gentle touch has been a key ingredient that has enabled the Golden Flyers to maintain their status among Division III's elite teams. The 2004 season was especially noteworthy in that the Golden Flyers reached the NCAA Division III championship game for the first time under Randall's direction and the first time overall since 1998.

"It was a huge challenge in 2001 and it continues to be today," said Randall, who accepted the opportunity after Nelson took the head coaching position at Division I Brown University. "It's a great situation to be able to coach where I went to school. There's no place I would rather be."

The Golden Flyers won their first 15 games for Randall in 2001, before falling to Middlebury in the national semifinals. Then after a somewhat disappointing season -- by Nazareth lacrosse standards -- in 2002 when the Golden Flyers finished 9-5 and missed the NCAA playoffs for the first time in 12 years, Randall steered the program back in the right direction in 2003 as the Golden Flyers finished 12-4 overall and captured the Empire 8 Conference championship with a thrilling 12-11 double overtime victory over Ithaca. For his efforts, Randall was recognized as Empire 8 Coach of the Year, an honor he also secured in 2001.

Last season, after tough regular-season road losses at Cortland and Ithaca, the Golden Flyers regrouped in time to avenge both defeats come playoff time. A 7-5 win at Ithaca enabled Nazareth to win the Empire 8 Conference title for the second year in a row, and a 10-8 win at Cortland in the national quarterfinals set up a semifinal matchup at Middlebury.
Nazareth won at Middlebury, 12-8, snapping the Panthers' 45-game home-field winning streak and earning the Golden Flyers a trip to Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium to meet Salisbury in the national championship game. Nazareth's season ended there with a 13-9 loss.

Randall seemed like a natural coaching replacement for Nelson, having played at Nazareth in 1987 and serving on the staff as an assistant coach for three seasons in the 1990s. He was on board in 1992 when the Golden Flyers captured their first national championship.

A native of Rochester, Randall spent the 2000 season as head coach at SUNY Geneseo. His coaching experience also includes a four-year stint as head coach at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. and three seasons as a Division I assistant coach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

At Sacred Heart, Randall, like Nelson, started from scratch, building a program that would eventually be ranked fourth nationally in Division II. He compiled a record of 41-20 in his four seasons there and twice was a finalist for Division II Coach of the Year honors. His 1996 team won the ECAC Division II title.

As a player, Randall was a starting attackman and was named the Golden Flyers' offensive most valuable player in 1987, Nazareth's second season of intercollegiate competition. He had 48 points on 18 goals and a team-best 30 assists.

Randall was a scholastic standout at Irondequoit High School and went on to earn junior college All-America honors at Herkimer County Community College before enrolling at Nazareth.

He earned a degree in sociology from Nazareth in 1988 and a Master of Arts degree in teaching from Sacred Heart. In addition to coaching lacrosse at Nazareth, Randall oversees game management operations during the fall and winter sports seasons. During the summer he will operate the popular Nazareth College Lacrosse Camp. This year's camp is July 11-15.

Randall resides in Rochester with his wife, Barbara; daughter, Carly; and son, Brett.