Coaching Staff

Scott Nelson

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Head Coach
Phone: 607-777-3154
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Scott Nelson was named head coach on May 18, 2011.Nelson enters his second season at the helm of the Binghamton program, coming to Vestal, N.Y. from his most recent stop as Marist’s head men’s lacrosse coach. In this his 26th year coaching in collegiate lacrosse, he has recruited and coached more than 100 All-Americans and his teams have won at a 65% clip, including three national titles on the Divsion III level.

In 2012, Nelson guided the Bearcats to one of their best offensive seasons in school history. The team scored a program-record 9.54 goals per game and had a pair of players break the single season points record in just 13 contests. Four players were named to the all-conference squad in 2012 and a pair of student-athletes were selected as all-academic performers.

Nelson served as the head coach of Marist from 2009-11, guiding the Red Foxes to eight wins in each of the last two seasons. His 2011 team finished the regular season by winning seven straight games (program’s longest win streak) and reaching the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament for the second straight year. They went 4-2 in league play to finish as regular season runnersup. His 2010 Marist team won the most regular season games in six years and reached the MAAC tournament for the first time in five seasons.

Before taking over at Marist, Nelson was the head coach at Brown for six years, leading the Ivy League members to a top-10 national ranking in 2004 and 2005. His 2002 squad went 4-2 in the Ivy, giving Brown its first winning conference season in five years. In 2004, Nelson was named New England Coach of the Year after his team went 9-5 and cracked the nation’s top-10.

Nelson made a name for himself while at Division III Nazareth, where he led the Rochester-based school to NCAA titles in 1992, 1996 and 1997. He was the program’s inaugural coach in 1986 and produced 12 NCAA appearances in 15 years, including five national semifinal berths and four straight trips to the championship game (1995-98). Nelson’s 1996 Golden Flyers went a perfect 15-0 en route to the program’s second NCAA crown. He never had a losing season at Nazareth and concluded his tenure there with 10 consecutive NCAA appearances and 13 straight seasons with 10 or more wins. His 177-40 record at Nazareth represented one of the highest win percentages (82%) in the nation over that span.

He began his career at Rutgers, where he was an assistant from 1982-85. He is a 1982 graduate of North Carolina State, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and was a standout lacrosse player.

Nelson has been inducted into three Halls of Fame: the Rochster Lacrosse Hall of Fame, Hudson Valley Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Nazareth Hall of Fame. He has served on numerous national-level lacrosse committees, including the NCAA Lacrosse Rules Committee, the NCAA Regional Tournament Selection Committee and the Division III All-American committee (chairman). Nelson was a member of the USA Team Selection Committee and was a finalist for the Team USA coaching staff.

Scott and his wife, Lynne, have three sons, Tucker, Jake and Jared. Lynne, a former elite soccer player at Nazareth, is also a member of that school’s Hall of Fame. Tucker is a current member of the Binghamton lacrosse team, entering his sophomore season in 2013.

Matt Francis

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Assistant Coach

Newly hired assistant Matt Francis enters his first year with the Binghamton men’s lacrosse program. Most recently as an assistant at Marist for the past two seasons, Francis helped guide the Red Foxes to six and eight wins respectively in 2011 and 2012.

During a four-year playing career at Marist, Francis logged substantial time as a face-off specialist for the Red Foxes. Following a terrific junior campaign, he finished fifth in the nation securing 6.46 ground balls per game, with an outstanding face-off percentage of .576 (seventh nationally). In his final season, Francis won an impressive 158 face-offs and helped push his team to the MAAC semifinals for the first time since 2006.

Not only was he a standout on the field, but also in the classroom. A three-time MAAC All-Academic honoree, Matt earned the President’s Academic Achievement award as a senior- an award that is handed out annually to the male and female student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at Marist.

Continuing his education at Marist, Francis completed his master’s in Business Administration this past spring, serving as an assistant coach on Nelson’s coaching staff in 2011 and again with newly appointed head coach Keegan Wilkinson this past season. Matt was responsible for face-offs, wing play and was the assistant defensive coordinator for the Red Foxes. He also was a big help in the Center for Student-Athlete Enhancement at Marist, serving as an academic advisor and main contact for 10 of 23 athletic programs. During his two-year tenure, he helped secure 14 MAAC All-Academic selections and one USILA Scholar All-American.

Steve Settembrino

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Assistant Coach

Steve Settembrino joins the BU coaching staff for the beginning of the 2012-13 academic school year. Over the past two seasons, Settembrino has been at Mercyhurst College (Erie, PA) where he has helped guide the school to prominence, including the 2011 NCAA championship.

Settembrino, a native of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., played on the Retrievers from 2006-09, winning three America East titles and earning four berths to the NCAA tournament. As a defenseman, Steve was a member of UMBC’s first NCAA win in program history when they upended national-powerhouse and seventh-seeded Maryland 13-9 in 2007.

Over the past two years, he has served as an assistant coach at Mercyhurst, where he helped guide the Lakers to an NCAA Division II championship in 2011. This past season, Settembrino was influential in yet another successful season, leading Mercyhurst to the national semifinals and a 13-1 season. He coached seven All-Americans in just a span of two seasons, and as a coach working primarily with the defense, helped the Lakers to the second-best scoring defense in the nation (5.29 goals per game) this past season.

Upon completion of his degree in American Studies from UMBC, Settembrino spent a year serving as an assistant coach at Arlington High School in 2010. There, he worked with the defense and was influential in the success of students in the classroom. He recently completed his master’s of science in Special Education at Mercyhurst.