Siena Head Coach Liam Gleason Dies at 41

Liam Gleason, the head coach of the Siena men’s lacrosse team, has died at 41, Siena announced Wednesday. He suffered a traumatic brain injury Sunday after a fall at his home.

Tom Rotanz, his high school lacrosse coach at Shoreham-Wading River (N.Y.), posted to social media that Gleason was taken off life support and was part of an “honor walk” at Albany Medical Center on Wednesday before his organs were removed and sent to save the lives of others.

Rotanz said the Siena men’s lacrosse team would participate in the honor walk alongside hospital staff and Gleason’s family.

Siena invited the public to pay respects and celebrate his life at a funeral service Saturday at 11 a.m. inside the UHY Center on the Siena University campus.

Gleason just completed his seventh season leading Siena after being hired in June 2018. In 2025, the Saints won the MAAC championship and earned an NCAA tournament berth for the first time in 11 seasons. They won 11 games, their most since 2014.

Siena has reached at least the conference semifinals in four straight seasons.

After graduating from UAlbany in 2007, Gleason earned his first college coaching job as a Siena assistant from 2008-10. He was then hired as the head coach of Saint Rose in 2011, leading the Golden Knights during their inaugural season in 2012. 

He spent the next seven seasons as an associate head coach at UAlbany under Scott Marr before taking the Siena head coaching job.

Gleason, a Wading River, N.Y., native who helped his high school win its first-ever state championship in lacrosse in 2002, began his NCAA career at Adelphi before transferring to UAlbany for his final two seasons. He made 28 appearances with the Great Danes and contributed one goal and nine ground balls as a senior.

He was selected 33rd overall in the Major League Lacrosse supplemental draft that year by the New Jersey Pride.

Gleason is survived by his wife, Jaclyn, and his three children — Kennedy, Penn and Tate. A GoFundMe has raised more than $400,000 for the family in less than 48 hours.