Men's Lacrosse
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- menslacrosse@mercer.edu
- Phone:
- (478) 301-4616
Kyle Hannan - a veteran coach with over 20 years of collegiate coaching experience - completed his eighth season as the Mercer men's lacrosse head coach following the 2020 season. Hannan introduced as the second head coach in program history in August 2012.
Following the 2020 campaign, Hannah stands 37-62 at Mercer and 17-22 in league contests. In 27 seasons as a head coach, he has a 216-184Â record including a pair of NCAA Tournament berths while the head coach at Goucher College.
The 2020 season saw the Bears get off to a hot start. Mercer topped Florida Tech in the first contest of the year before suffering its lone defeat of the year to No. 8 North Carolina. After reeling off five consecutive victories to stand 6-1, the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the shortened campaign, the Bears still set several individual and team records. The Bears were two wins away from tying a program-record for wins in a single season with eight. Sean Goldsmith twice tied the SoCon record for goals in a single game and led the nation in goals per game (4.86) while finishing fourth in the country in assists per game (6.00). Goldsmith was named to the Tewaaraton Award watchlist, which is an award given annually to the nation's top collegiate men's and women's lacrosse player and is the equivalent to football's Heisman trophy. Goldsmith was also named an Honorable Mention Maverick All-American team member.Â
In 2019, Hannan's seventh season in charge, the Bears picked up their lone victory of the season at VMI on March 23. Despite the 1-12 record, Mercer suffered eight defeats by a mere four goals or less. Ashton Wood was a bright spot for the Bears, ending his first collegiate campaign ranked seventh nationally in face-off winning percentage (.644) and 16th in ground balls per game (7.69). Wood earned second team honors All-Freshman honors from College 'Crosse for his stellar season and was also named April's Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Month. Mercer was featured in the top-25 in the team statistical categories three times, finishing the season 14th in face-off winning percentage (.595), 20th in saves per game (13.00) and 25th in ground balls per game (32.77). Three Bears - Wood, Sean Goldsmith and Michael O'Brien - earned All-Conference accolades. Wood and Goldsmith picked up both second team and all-freshman honors while O'Brien was a second team member.Â
Mercer was 4-10 overall in 2018 and true road warriors. The Bears earned three of its four victories away from Macon, Ga. Mercer won two Southern Conference contests as Matt Hughes led a prolific goal scoring offense with a .564 shot percentage as a freshman, the second best mark in the country. Pascal Coombs was a defensive force as a junior, causing 2.21 turnovers per contest to rank him sixth among all Division I players. Three seniors - Matt Quinn, Wily Deines and Patrick deHueck - as well as sophomore Michael O'Brien earned All-Southern Conference second team accolades while Matt Hughes was an All-Freshman team member.Â
In Hannan's fifth season (2017), the Bears were 5-8 with two wins coming in Southern Conference play. Mercer picked up two victories inside the friendly confines of Five Star Stadium and went 3-3 (.500) away from its home stadium. Offensively, the Bears found themselves ranked ninth nationally in caused turnovers per game (8.85) and 11th in man-up offense (0.441). Lucas Wittenberg headlined the Bears' All-SoCon honorees with first team honors. Chris Rahill, Colin Massa and Michael O'Brien were named to the second team, and Will McCarthy was an All-Freshman member. The program achieved history when Massa, a United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Scholar All-American  became the first Mercer Bear to be selected in the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) draft. Massa went in the ninth round (81st overall) to the Denver Outlaws and joined former Bear Mike Nugent on the squad. Nugent was selected in the league's supplemental draft and earned a spot on the Outlaws' 2017 roster in April.Â
Hannan joined an exclusive group in 2016, becoming one of just nine other active NCAA Division I coaches who have 200+ wins in their career. The group consists of Dom Starsia (Virginia), John Danowski (Duke), Bill Tierney (Denver), Mike Pressler (Bryant), Bob Shillinglaw (Delaware), Kevin Corrigan (Notre Dame), Scott Nelson (Binghamton), Don Zimmerman (UMBC) and John Desko (Syracuse).
Under Hannan's watch in 2016, Mercer finished 5-8 and 3-4 in the Southern Conference in a tough slate the featured contests against three nationally-ranked programs. The Bears placed three players on the SoCon's all-conference teams, as Chris Baxa and Mike Nugent were named to the league's second team while Lucas Wittenberg took home all-freshman team honors. Baxa and Nugent were in unchartered territory in 2016 with Baxa became the first player in program history to score 100 career goals, while Nugent ranked among the NCAA Div. I's active career leaders in saves.
In 2015, Hannan led the Bears to the Southern Conference tournament in their first season in the league, finishing the year with a 5-8 overall record and an impressive 5-1 in league play en route to the No. 2 seed. Mercer was honored for that success, as four players (Chris Baxa, Tim Geran, Colin Massa and Mike Nugent) All-SoCon recognition while Jackson Kleintz and Matt Quinn were named to the all-freshman team.Â
Since taking over the program that had just two wins in its first two years of existence, Hannan has engineered a remarkable turnaround with 11 victories in two seasons, highlighted by the team’s claim to a share of the 2014 Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championship.
The 2014 season saw Hannan’s squad notch a program record seven victories and go 4-1 against league opponents in its first season of conference affiliation. The Bears were duly rewarded for their landmark season, as six players earned A-Sun All-Conference recognition while Hannan was named the league’s Coach of the Year.
In his first season on the Mercer sidelines, Hannan’s leadership paid immediate dividends, as the Bears won their first game under his direction and continued to exceed expectations en route to four wins during the 2013 season.
Mercer’s 4-8 record also included five losses by three goals or less – an indicator that Hannan’s squad was turning the corner by season’s end. The campaign also saw Hannan help develop a pair of freshmen - goalkeeper Mike Nugent and forward Chris Baxa - into two of the best players at their specific positions in the country. Nugent finished the year ranked sixth nationally in saves per game (13.42) while Baxa was 10th nationally at 2.75 goals per game.
He posted sterling 129-71 mark in his previous post at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. Hannan’s 12-year career at Goucher was capped by an 18-2 (9-0 Landmark) record in 2012, highlighted by the school’s first NCAA Division III Tournament win in 21 years of program history.  After reaching the quarterfinals of the NCAA National Tournament, the team finished the year ranked No. 10 nationally in the USILA Coaches poll.
Goucher’s appearance in the NCAA Tournament was its second in a three-year period, earned by virtue of Landmark Conference Tournament Championships in 2010 and 2012. Following the 2010 campaign, Hannan was selected as the C. Markland Kelly Award winner for the top collegiate coach in Maryland while the Landmark Conference honored Goucher with Coaching Staff of the Year honors.
Prior to his 12-year tenure at Goucher, Hannan was the head men's lacrosse coach at Colorado College from 1998-2000 and Virginia Wesleyan College from 1993-1998.
A 1986 graduate of Salisbury University, Hannan was a four-year starting midfielder for the Sea Gulls. His playing career saw the team advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament three times and yielded an individual accolade in the form of the 1985 Charles B. Clark Award for Salisbury's best all-around men's lacrosse player.
After spending two years as a graduate assistant at Salisbury from 1986-1988, he went on to assume the top assistant role on the men’s staff at Hobart College. His efforts at Hobart helped the Statesmen win Division III National Championships in 1990, 1991 and 1993.
Hannan is an active member of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association and has two children with his wife Angie.
The Hannan Era
Year-by-Year Records
2013: 4-8
2014: 7-7 (4-1 A-Sun)
2015 : 5-8 (5-1 SoCon)
2016: 5-8 (3-4 SoCon)Â
2017: 5-8 (2-5 SoCon)
2018: 4-10 (2-5 SoCon)
2019: 1-12 (1-6 SoCon)
2020: 6-1 (0-0 SoCon) - Season shortened due to COVID-19
Overall:Â 37-62
Conference:Â 17-22
