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Eric Seideman

Eric Seideman

Eric Seideman (SIDE-min), who possesses nearly two decades of coaching experience at the NCAA Div. III level, including 11 years as head coach at Mount Saint Mary College (New York), was selected as The College of Wooster's men's lacrosse head coach following a national search. Seideman's tenure at the College began on July 1, 2022.

Wooster enjoyed its best season in Seideman's first year with the program, as the Scots set new program records for wins (13) and consecutive wins (11). Casey Steffen was named an All-American after breaking the NCAA Div. III single-season record with 5.06 caused turnovers per game. Steffen's 86 caused turnovers more than doubled the program's single-season record and are the third-most since the NCAA started officially tracking the statistic in 2013. Additionally, Wooster led the nation by holding the opposition to a 62.7 clearing percentage and had top-three national rankings in groundballs (45.00) and caused turnovers (14.88) per game. Wooster excelled in the classroom as well during Seideman's first year with junior Shane Epstein-Petrullo earning third-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® honors. For his efforts, Seideman was part of the NCAC Coaching Staff of the Year.

Seideman arrived in Newburgh, New York, in 2011 to build up a relatively new Mount Saint Mary program, and his efforts were immediately evident with a program record seven wins in 2012. Seideman's program reached new heights in 2018, winning a record 12 games and advancing to the Skyline Conference Tournament championship game for the first time. Under Seideman's guidance, two Knights earned All-America honors, marking the only two All-America selections for Mount Saint Mary in any sport in a 15-year stretch. He mentored Dylan De Meo, who finished as the 15th-leading scorer in Div. III history at 334 points.

Developing positive and inclusive team culture and emphasizing values like "care for others, growth mindset, leadership, and service in development of the whole person" are hallmarks of Seideman's coaching philosophy. Under his watch, Mount Saint Mary's men's lacrosse program positively impacted the community with over 30 student-athlete-led community service projects, plus collaboration with organizations such as Team Impact and the One Love Foundation. Through these partnerships, Seideman helped incorporate One Love Foundation "Escalation" workshops into Mount Saint Mary first-year experience, athletics, and student club programming.

Seideman's impact extends beyond his team, as the veteran coach is highly active within the NCAA and coaching organizations. He is the current chair of the Div. III All-America committee, and previously served as a top-20 poll voter, a regional advisory committee representative, and a NCAA Div. III Championships site representative. While at Mount Saint Mary, Seideman oversaw compliance for the entire athletic department, worked to create a new policy for academic standards for athletics that was later adopted for the entire student body, and was an adjunct professor of English.

No stranger to success at a high level, Seideman was the offensive coordinator of State University of New York Cortland's national championship team in 2006 as an assistant, and the program returned to the national title game the following year with him on the sideline. He then was an assistant at Ithaca College, helping the program to the national semifinals in 2008, then spent two seasons at Gettysburg College, with the program making the NCAA Div. III Championships both years. In all, Seideman has coached 27 All-Americans in his career.

As a midfielder, Seideman was a four-year starter at Haverford College outside of Philadelphia. There, he earned two All-Centennial Conference honors and was selected as the team's most valuable player three times. He graduated as the program's all-time leader in midfield scoring.

Seideman graduated from Haverford in 2004 with a bachelor's in English and furthered his education with a master's in education at Cornell University. Seideman, and his wife, Melissa, have two sons, Benjamin and Finn.