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Greg Cannella
• 29th season as the University of Massachusetts head coach (2021-23)
• Second-longest active tenure at one school & fourth-most years of head coaching experience among current D-I head coaches
• Ranks among top-10 active head coaches in wins (sixth)
• Nine NCAA Tournament appearances
• Eight New England Championships
• Eight-Time Conference Coach of the Year (ECAC and CAA)
• Five-Time New England Coach of the Year
• 2006 NCAA Championship Finalists
• 2006 USILA Coach of the Year
• 2014 NJCAA Hall of Fame Inductee
• 2019 US Lacrosse Hall of Fame Inductee
Recognized as one of the nation's top lacrosse coaches, Greg Cannella heads into his 29th year at the helm of the University of Massachusetts program in 2022-23. A veteran presence on the sidelines at Garber Field, Cannella's loyalty to the University of Massachusetts lacrosse program currently ranks him as the second-longest tenured head coach across all Division I schools, while Cannella holds the fourth-most years as a Division I head coach among all current program leaders nationally.
Between the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Cannella received one of the highest honors bestowed upon a member of the lacrosse community with his induction into the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019. Cannella was officially inducted during a ceremony at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., on Wed., Jan. 23, 2019.
Cannella's long-standing success on the UMass men's lacrosse sidelines earned the 1988 University of Massachusetts graduate his 200th head coaching win at Drexel on March 31, 2018. With the milestone victory, the 2018 CAA Coach of the Year became only the 10th active coach to reach 200 head coaching victories at the NCAA Division I level.
Combined with the success of Cannella's mentor, former UMass head coach Richard F. Garber (1955-90), Massachusetts is the only program with one head coach in the 300-Win Club (Garber) and another in the 200-Win Club (Cannella), where both individuals earned all of their victories at the same institution.
During his extended tenure, Cannella already guided his Minutemen to nine NCAA Tournaments including its 2018 berth, claimed eight New England Championships, won five conference titles and led the Minutemen to the program's first-ever No. 1 national ranking. He was named the CAA Coach of the Year in 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2019, his fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth conference coach of the year honors, respectively. Cannella also earned the New England Coach of the Year five times and was named the ECAC Coach of the Year on four occasions during the team's tenure in the conference.
On top of each of his conference and regional accolades, Cannella received the highest coaching honor awarded across the country to one individual each year in 2006. Following the team's magical run to the NCAA Division I title game, the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association chose him as the USILA National Coach of the Year.
Through the completion of the 2022 NCAA Division I season, Cannella's guidance of the Minutemen to the 2006 NCAA Championship Game etched the program into the record books as one of only 17 institutions to ever appear in the NCAA Championship Game. Massachusetts was the first New England program to reach the NCAA finale, later joined by Yale.
Cannella took the reigns of the UMass lacrosse program in November, 1994 with a great understanding of the program's storied history. He was a two-time letterwinner for legendary team leader and the Father of New England lacrosse, Richard F. Garber, in 1986 and 1987, and an assistant coach for two seasons with the Minutemen prior to taking over as the head coach.
Under Cannella's tutelage, UMass enjoys many of the program's highest levels of success on and off the field. With a history as one of the top teams in New England, the reputation of UMass lacrosse spreads across the country due in part to his leadership.
Since taking over as head coach, the team continually created success as a whole and among individual players. Cannella's teams produced three Tewaaraton finalists, 51 USILA All-America selections, 117 All-New England picks, 110 all-conference honorees and nine positional league players of the year. For the work accomplished by Minutemen in the classroom, the program sports 15 academic all-Americans, 52 New England Scholar-Athletes and 35 academic all-conference picks.
With a 5-2 record and a top-20 national ranking, Cannella had Massachusetts positioned for another strong season in 2020 prior to the NCAA's cancellation of athletic events at a nation-wide scale in March. The highlight of the seven games season was the defeat of No. 1 nationally-ranked Yale on Feb. 29, as it marked the program's first-ever win over the top-ranked team in the nation.
In the three season span between 2018-20, Massachusetts went a combined 27-12 overall (.692) and 9-1 in CAA play (.900). The team also ended each campaign ranked among the top-20 in the nation, including 13th in 2018, 18th in 2019 and 17th in 2020.
Massachusetts earned its ninth season of double-digit wins under Cannella in 2019 as the squad won 10 games, took home a share of the CAA Regular Season Title and earned the right to host the CAA Championship as a result. It marked the latest chapter in the program's long-standing history of success. UMass also captured a share of the CAA Regular Season Title in 2022, its final season in the conference, with a record of 3-2.
Since 2001, UMass has been one of the most successful programs in the country thanks in part to the friendly confines of Garber Field. During that span, Cannella has led UMass to a 107-42 record at Garber while the Minutemen are 187-117 since the beginning of 2001, with six seasons featuring 12 or more wins.
The 2018 campaign marked another successful chapter in the history of the program, during which Cannella led UMass to 12 victories, the CAA regular season and tournament championships and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The former attackman coordinated an offense that was among the most precise in the nation, as Massachusetts ranked in the top 25 nationally for goals, assists and points per game, shot percentage and scoring margin.
During 2017, Massachusetts reached the CAA Championship Game for the fourth time in the program's short tenure as a member of the conference. The Minutemen learned from its tough start to the year with seven wins in the last 11 games, including a 13-12 CAA Semifinal Round triumph over No. 14 nationally-ranked Hofstra for the title game berth.
Cannella guided the team to its third CAA Championship Game appearance over five seasons in the league as the squad fell one game shy of earning an NCAA Tournament bid in 2015. Following the season, Ryan Izzo tallied USILA All-America for the second consecutive campaign and became the 11th Minuteman under Cannella's tutelage to earn multiple all-America laurels from the USILA.
Cannella led a young Minuteman squad featuring 24 underclassmen among 37 total players to a 7-6 record during 2014. UMass earned wins over a pair of nationally ranked programs in No. 5 Penn State and No. 14 Ohio State during the year, before it ended the season receiving votes in the national polls. Following the end of the campaign, freshman Nick Mariano took in the CAA Rookie of the Year Award while he was honored on the All-CAA listing alongside teammates Kyle Karaska and Connor Mooney. Cannella was also inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame for his accomplishments within the game of lacrosse spanning nearly 30 years as a competitor and coach.
Two of the most historic campaigns in the program's history have occurred under Cannella's watch. The 2006 squad became the first-ever New England-based team to reach the NCAA Championship Game, while the 2012 squad went undefeated during the regular-season with a program-best 15 wins and a No. 1 national ranking.
The 2006 season will go down as one of the best for any athletic program at UMass. As an unseeded team, the Minutemen had the most difficult path to a lacrosse championship game in history, beating the second, third and fourth-ranked teams in the nation. UMass topped No. 2 seed Maryland, 8-5 in the semifinals after advancing to its first Final Four with a stunning 11-10 overtime win against Hofstra on May 20, 2006. The difficult comeback saw the Minutemen rally from a 10-5 deficit with 8:03 left in the fourth quarter as UMass won its quarterfinal game at Stony Brook.
During the 2006 campaign, Cannella also had a personal milestone as he recorded his 100th career win after a 12-7 victory at Harvard on March 11.
Individually, that season saw UMass produce two First-Team USILA All-Americans for the first time in school history with Sean Morris on attack and Jack Reid being honored on defense. Jake Deane was also named an honorable mention All-American. For the second year in a row, Morris was named a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy as the top player in all of NCAA Division I college lacrosse.
During the 2012 regular season, week-by-week, UMass continued to win games - some in dramatic fashion and others through a relentless fury of goal scoring and a stifling defense. As each week of the regular-season went on, the Minutemen continued to climb higher and higher in the national polls. On April 16, 2012 it became official, the Minutemen were the No. 1 team in the country, marking the first time a UMass athletic program held the top spot in the country since the 1995-96 NCAA Final Four men's basketball team. Cannella led the Minutemen to an undefeated regular-season, the program's first-ever CAA Tournament Title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament for the 19th time in the history of the Minutemen.
Individually, UMass produced six USILA All-Americans, including Will Manny being selected to the first-team. Manny also earned CAA Player of the Year, New England Player of the Year and was a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award. Cannella was recognized as the CAA Coach of the Year and the New England Coach of the Year.
Other milestone seasons for Cannella include 2005 and 2003, where the Minutemen won 13 games and made an NCAA Tournament appearance in each campaign.
The 2005 season saw the Minutemen tie the then-school record for wins with a 13-3 overall mark. UMass advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the 10th time in program history while winning the ECAC and New England Championships. The season was historic as UMass knocked off Syracuse twice in a three-week span, including a 16-15 win in the NCAA Tournament First Round to end the Orange's 22-year run of reaching the semifinals. UMass was featured on ESPN's SportsCenter as well as in Sports Illustrated after the monumental win. Cannella continued to coach some of the nation's top players as attackman Sean Morris was selected as UMass' first-ever finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy. Morris was one of four all-Americans on the 2005 team, which also featured seven All-New England choices.
The 2003 UMass squad also tied the previous school record with 13 victories, advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for only the fifth time in school history and was ranked as high as No. 3 in the country, the then-highest ranking for the Minutemen.
Prior to returning to his alma mater, Cannella spent four years as an assistant coach at Stony Brook from 1988-92. Cannella masterminded the offense and served as the recruiting coordinator on John Espey's staff. He earned a master's degree in liberal studies while coaching at Stony Brook.
Cannella earned a bachelor's degree in physical education while playing at Massachusetts from 1986-87. He was a two-year starter for the Minutemen and a member of two NCAA Tournament teams. Cannella scored 64 points (33 goals, 31 assists) in his UMass career.
Before playing at UMass, Cannella spent one year at Nassau (N.Y.) Community College, where he was a first team All-America selection and led Nassau to the 1985 Junior College National Title.
A native of Lynbrook, N.Y., Cannella played for three years at Lynbrook High School. One of the most prolific scorers in Lynbrook history, Cannella was a high school All-America selection and still ranks among Lynbrook's all-time leading scorers.
Cannella served as the President of the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and as the Vice President in 1997. Cannella is currently the chairman of the annual NEILA Scholar Athlete Team, which he started in 1999. He has also served on the NCAA Championships Regional Advisory Committee that selected the teams for the NCAA Tournament in 1997, 1998 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Cannella was a regional voter in the USILA/STX weekly poll from 1997-2001 and served as a USILA regional voter for all-American selection since 2003. He was also a member of the prestigious committee to help select the Tewaaraton Award, an honor given to the nation's top player, from its inception through 2017.
Cannella and his wife, Laurie, reside in Hadley with their son, Vance, and daughter, Virginia.
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