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Scott Marr
Scott Marr concluded his 23rd season as UAlbany's head coach in 2023. The only coach hired in the Division I era at the University at Albany, Marr, a six-time America East Coach of the Year, has coached the Great Danes to nine America East Tournament titles, 10 appearances in the NCAA Tournament and six NCAA Tournament victories.
Following 2023, he has a 205-151 career record at UAlbany and has coached Tewaaraton winners in 2014 and 2015, 36 All-Americans, six Tewaaraton finalists, two Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award winners for Most Outstanding DI Player, three Lt. Col. J.L. Turnbull Award winners for the best Attackman in the nation, one Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr. Award winner for best goalkeeper in the nation, 12 America East Players of the Year and 131 all-conference players. At the end of the 2023 season, Marr ranked eighth among active Division I coaches in career victories.
Marr earned his 200th career victory on February 25, 2023, an 11-7 win over Drexel at home.
The Great Danes hosted a program-record 10 regular-season home games in 2023 and counted national powers Cornell, Maryland, Yale, and Penn to Casey Stadium among their 10 opponents. For the first time since the 2021 season, UAlbany advanced to the America East title game, knocking off top-seed Vermont in Burlington to end an eight-game losing streak to the Catamounts that began after their last victory in 2018. The Great Danes fell in the final to conference newcomer Bryant in double-overtime. Jake Piseno was honored as America East Defensive Player of the year, and further earned All-America Honorable Mention accolades from Inside Lacrosse, USILA, and USA Lacrosse Magazine. Piseno ranked second among NCAA Division I competitors in caused turnovers per game, and the team as a whole ranked 10th nationally in clearing percentage. After the season, UAlbany hosted NCAA Quarterfinals matches between #2 Virginia and #7 Georgetown, and #1 Duke and Michigan. Elijah Gash was picked 30th overall to the Whipsnakes in the 2023 PLL College Draft. Finally, over the summer, Marr led a contingent of past and present Great Danes at the 2023 World Lacrosse Championships in San Diego, serving as an assistant on the Haudenosaunee Nationals once again. Piseno and Jack VanValkenburgh joined alumni Lyle Thompson, Jakob Patterson, Ron John, and Tehoka Nanticoke on the Haudenosaunee Nationals. Team Canada featured UAlbany associate head coach Merrick Thomson on the sidelines with Connor Fields on the roster, Team USA had Blaze Riorden and TD Ierlan, and Team Puerto Rico had Will Ramos.
Fresh off its latest appearance in the America East championship game in 2021, the UAlbany men's lacrosse team kicked off a historic 2022 season highlighted by two major events at home games. First, in the home opener against Siena, a renewal of the Crosstown Rivalry that had been dormant since the 2016 season, all seven coaches on the sideline, excluding UAlbany head coach Scott Marr, graduated from UAlbany and played under Marr in their careers. Later, the Great Danes hosted Syracuse for the first time in series history after playing the previous 19 games in Syracuse. UAlbany saw breakthrough games from freshmen Thomas Decker and Adam Thistlethwaite to knock off the Orange for just the third time ever, 14-12. The Great Danes clinched the four-seed in the America East Tournament and fell to top-seed Vermont in a rematch of the 2021 title game.
After a 2020 season that was cut short, the Great Danes returned to the America East Championship after a 2021 campaign in which the team finished conference play at 5-3. At that mark, UAlbany entered the postseason as the conference's #4 seed, defeating #1 UMBC in the semifinals before falling to #2 Vermont in the championship game. Marr led six players to All-Conference selections in 2021, led by First Team picks Jakob Patterson and Michael Kozar.
On March 12, the 2020 season was cut short after five games due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent decisions made by the NCAA and its member conferences and institutions to cancel spring events. UAlbany, picked third in the preseason conference poll, had gone 2-3 before the season was ended. Two Great Danes, Jakob Patterson and Alex Burgmaster, earned Preseason All-Conference recognition from Inside Lacrosse.
In 2019, the Great Danes finished 5-9 overall, seeing its season end in the semifinal round of the America East Tournament. Despite the step back, UAlbany boasted the America East Offensive Player of the Year in Jakob Patterson, who finished the season with 25 goals and 32 assists for 57 total points, leading six America East All-Conference selections, including four on the First Team.
UAlbany earned its first-ever trip to Championship Weekend in 2018, winning the America East Tournament for the ninth time and finishing with a 16-3 record, tying a program record for wins in a season, with Marr being voted the America East Coach of the Year for the sixth time. UAlbany was ranked #1 in the nation, in each the USILA Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, for six weeks. The team earned a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament, its highest-placement ever in the postseason, and won two games in the tournament over Richmond and Denver, also earning victories in the regular season over NCAA participants Syracuse, Maryland, Cornell and UMass. For the second straight year, UAlbany had the highest scoring offense in Division I with 14.42 goals per game, also being first in assists per game, points per game, scoring margin and face-off percentage. JD Colarusso was selected as the USILA Top Goalkeeper in the nation. The team had two Tewaaraton nominees, six All-Americans in the USILA/Inside Lacrosse, three USILA Scholar-Athletes, a team record 11 America East All-Conference honorees, five on the America East All-Academic Team and two on the America East All-Rookie Team. Connor Fields, the America East Offensive Player of the Year, finished second all-time in career points with 364 and tied for fourth in career goals with 199. He and Tehoka Nanticoke were each in the top-15 in DI in points per game.
In 2017, UAlbany was ranked as high as #4 in the nation for the second straight year, running the table in the America East regular season and tournament to finish 15-3 overall, defeating defending NCAA champion North Carolina in front of 6,472 at Casey Stadium to earn a spot in the NCAA Quarterfinals for the third time in four seasons. UAlbany earned victories over North Carolina, Yale, Binghamton and UMass, all top-20 in the RPI. 10 Great Danes earned America East All-Conference honors, led by Connor Fields, a 2017 Tewaaraton Trophy finalist and Turnbull Award winner for top attackman in Division I, earning 117 points on the year, the fourth-highest single scoring season in Division I history. Marr's squad was the top scoring team in the country with 277 goals, adding 171 assists for 448 points, averaging 15.39 goals per game as nine Great Danes scored double digit goals. Fields, TD Ierlan, Stone Sims, Troy Reh, Adam Osika and Kyle McClancy all earned All-America honors from the USILA or Inside Lacrosse. Fields was on the first team for each while Ierlan was second team by IL and third team in the USILA.
2016 saw UAlbany return to the top-5 in the rankings for the first time since 2007, going as high as #4 at the start of May, as Marr earned his fifth America East Coach of the Year honor and third in four years. The Great Danes earned their fourth consecutive undefeated America East regular season and first-ever at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, going 12-4 overall and 6-0 in America East play. UAlbany earned victories over then ranked opponents Yale and Stony Brook, including a nine-game winning streak. The Great Danes finished the year ranked #9 in the USILA Coaches Poll and #11 in the Inside Lacrosse Cascade/Maverik Media Poll. Connor Fields and Blaze Riorden each were selected as Tewaaraton nominees while they, John Maloney and Seth Oakes all were chosen as USILA All-Americans. Six UAlbany players earned America East All-Conference honors while three were on the All-Rookie Team and four were placed on the America East All-Academic Team. Marr's team ranked seventh in Division I in goals per game with 12.94 and also was in the top-10 in assists per game, points per game, man-up offenseshot percentage, caused turnovers per game and clearing percentage.
The 2015 season saw Marr coach the Great Danes to a 16-3 record, setting a new program record for wins in a season. UAlbany swept the America East and the America East Tournament for the third-consecutive season, defeating Cornell to reach the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal round for the second-straight year and finishing the season ranked #6 in the USILA Coaches Poll and #7 in the Inside Lacrosse media poll, each the team's highest rankings since 2007. The team set new DI records with 325 goals, 202 assists and 528 points, earning double digit goals in 18 of 19 games played, including wins over then-ranked opponents Drexel, Harvard, Yale, Stony Brook and Cornell. Lyle Thompson became the sport's first-ever back-to-back male recipient of the Tewaaraton Trophy and three-time America East Player of the Year, setting a new NCAA DI points record with 400 and assists record with 225. Thompson led all of DI in points per game for the third-straight year and assists per game for the second-consecutive year. Along with Thompson, UAlbany sported 10 America East All-Conference players, tying for the most in program history in a year with 2007. Thompson, Connor Fields, the America East Rookie of the Year, Mike Russell, Eric Cantor and Blaze Riorden all earned First Team status while Seth Oakes, Tim Cox, John Maloney, Stone Sims and Matthew Bertrams all were named to the Second Team.
In 2014, the University at Albany men's lacrosse team was one of the top featured squads in all of sports, with media appearances in the New York Times, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, ESPN's Sportscenter, National Public Radio and Newsday. Led by the top scoring offense in the nation for the second consecutive year, the Great Danes earned a second-consecutive America East title, their sixth overall, and the program's second NCAA Tournament victory, taking down #1-ranked Loyola 13-6 in Baltimore and narrowly falling to Notre Dame in the NCAA Quarterfinals. Lyle Thompson and Miles Thompson had historic seasons, becoming the first Native Americans and UAlbany players to earn the Tewaaraton Trophy, sharing the honor after becoming the first pair of Division I teammates to score 100+ points, earning #1 and #2 overall in a single season with 128 and 119 points respectively. Lyle Thompson finished #1 in the country in points and assists per game, while Miles Thompson finished #1 in goals per game and #2 in points per game. UAlbany earned victories over Harvard, UMass and Penn State en route to its second-consecutive undefeated America East season and tournament title, earning Marr America East Co-Coach of the Year honors. Lyle Thompson, Miles Thompson and Ty Thompson all earned All-America honors, while those three, Blaze Riorden, Doug Eich, Ryan Feuerstein and Cody Futia earned All-America East honors.
2013 saw the Great Danes have their best season since '07, going 13-5 with a perfect 5-0 conference record, winning the America East and a subsequent berth in the NCAA Tournament. The team earned victories over ranked opponents Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and UMass and finished with a #12 ranking. UAlbany had the best offense in the country with 15.94 goals a game, over a goal more than the second place school, and scored in double digits in 16 of their 18 games. Marr was honored as the America East Coach of the Year for the third time. Lyle Thompson led all of Division I with 6.65 points per game, finishing with 50 goals and 63 assists, earning a Tewaaraton finalist honor, the Lt. Col. J.L. Turnbull Award for the best attackman in Division I lacrosse and America East Player of the Year. The three Thompson brothers were all honored as All-Americans. In total, nine players earned all-conference honors, including Lyle Thompson, Myles Thompson and Jon Newhouse earning America East All-Conference First Team, and three more on the conference's All-Rookie Team.
In the 2012 season, the Great Danes reached their second straight - ninth overall - America East Conference Championship game. Senior attackman Joe Resetarits was named the 2012 America East Conference Men's Lacrosse Player of the Year, and was joined on the all-conference first team by senior long stick defender Travis Lyons. Sophomore attackman Miles Thompson, sophomore midfielder Cody Futia and senior faceoff specialist Keith Olson were all-conference second team honorees. Freshmen Mike Miller, Will Stenberg and Lyle Thompson all garnered all-rookie team accolades, while senior Daley Baker earned a spot on the all-academic squad.
The Great Danes reached the America East Conference tournament championship final for the eighth time in nine years in the 2010 season. Dave Brock was selected in both the Major League Lacrosse and National Lacrosse League drafts.
In 2008, Marr led UAlbany to its seventh consecutive appearance in the America East championship game. The Great Danes rebounded from four one-goal losses at the start of the season. Jordan Levine and Brett Queener were each selected in the MLL Collegiate Draft. Steve and Mike Ammann were taken in the NLL Entry Draft.
In 2007, Marr led the Great Danes to their fourth America East Conference championship in five years and the program's first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament's quarterfinal round. He was named the USILA Division I National Coach of the Year.
UAlbany registered its first NCAA victory as a Division I program in a 19-10 triumph over Loyola before losing a memorable overtime decision to top-ranked Cornell in the quarterfinals. The Great Danes posted a school-record 15-3 mark, defeated seven top-20 teams, and were ranked No. 2 nationally for six consecutive weeks during the regular season. Frank Resetarits, a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, was among four players voted to the USILA All-America squad.
In 2006, Marr's squad reached the America East Conference championship final for the fifth straight year. His team ranked third nationally in scoring offense at 11.73 goals per game. Marr led the Great Danes to their third consecutive America East Conference Tournament championship and NCAA berth in 2005. UAlbany was sixth among the nation's scoring leaders (11.63 goals/game). The Great Danes defeated three top-20 squads during the regular season.
Coach Marr guided the UAlbany program to the school's first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance in 2003. The Great Danes tied a school record for single-season victories at the time with a 10-6 overall won-loss mark. The 2004 squad also posted 10 victories and finished seventh in the nation in team scoring before losing to eventual national champion Syracuse in the NCAA's first round.
Marr produced significant results in his second year at the helm. UAlbany captured the 2002 America East regular-season title with a 9-7 record. Albany's six-win improvement from the previous season was the best one-year turnaround in the program's history. He was recognized for his efforts by being voted America East Coach of the Year.
Marr served as one of three assistants for the 2006 U.S. Men's Lacrosse Team that won the silver medal. Syracuse's John Desko was the U.S. team's head coach. The 2006 International Lacrosse Federation World Championship was held in London, Ontario from July 13-22.
As an assistant on Dick Edell's Maryland staff for six years, Marr served as both assistant coach and offensive coordinator. Maryland made five NCAA Tournament appearances during that period and was the Division I national runner-up in 1995, 1997 and 1998. The Terrapins shattered the school's single-season scoring record with 236 goals when the program captured the ‘98 Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament titles. Maryland's attack averaged 12.5 goals under Marr's direction from 1995-2000. All-Americans Matt Hahn and Andrew Whipple became two of the most storied scorers in school history.
Marr began his coaching career as the University of Delaware's offensive coordinator, where he worked with the school's all-time leading scorer Anthony DiMarzo. From 1992-94, the Blue Hens captured three consecutive North Atlantic Conference championships and earned a top-20 national ranking in each season. Marr was also an assistant on the United States team that won the 1999 World Cup.
As a collegiate player at Johns Hopkins University, Marr was an attackman on the 1987 national championship squad and the ‘89 national runner-up team. The Blue Jays garnered four straight NCAA berths during his career. He received a B.S. in social and behavioral sciences in 1991.
A native of Yorktown, N.Y., Marr was a high school All-American who twice led his team to the state's semifinal round. He and his wife, Traci, a special education teacher, have three children, Kyle, Jordyn and Keeley. His son, Kyle, played lacrosse at Johns Hopkins while Jordyn played lacrosse at UAlbany.
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