Weekly Cover: Liam Gleason's Legacy of Love and Leadership

LIAM GLEASON WAS INSISTENT. Back in early May, when he was preparing to lead Siena into its first NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament appearance in 11 years, he had no doubt what should be the center of attention.

It was about those Saints and that season’s UAlbany Great Danes, not him and his friend, mentor and former coach facing each other. And it was about a community in which he invested half his life.

If that night wasn’t about Gleason, it was in many ways a reflection of him. The Casey Stadium crowd of 3,527 — for a game on a school night announced just three days earlier — shattered the NCAA’s opening-round attendance record. And the Saints delivered a ferocious effort, hanging with the Great Danes in an 11-9 loss.

It was Gleason’s last game. He died Dec. 3 of injuries suffered Nov. 30 in a fall at his home. He was 41.

“Looking back on it, I’m just so glad and satisfied he was able to get to that game and to get his team over the hump,” UAlbany coach Scott Marr recalled late last week. “I was so proud that he got his team there, and the belief they had in him and the love that his team has shown for him is remarkable. I’m just proud that he got that opportunity to share that with his program and his family. It’s just a wonderful feeling. That game just holds so much more weight in my heart.”

Gleason’s death reverberated through the close-knit Capital District lacrosse community, one where Gleason touched several institutions. He played two years at UAlbany, worked as an assistant at Siena, was the head coach for a season at the now-closed Division II College of Saint Rose, spent seven years at Marr’s assistant and then moved across town for a seven-year run at Siena.

“Since he left Adelphi and became an Albany lacrosse player, he hasn’t left,” former teammate and colleague Merrick Thomson said. “He has been involved in a lot of the major programs here. He has so many connections. He was a big personality in the area, but also a big impact. His loss is going to be felt for sure.”

BEFORE ALL THOSE STOPS around Albany, Gleason did what thousands of other Long Islanders did as kids: Play lacrosse.

Of course, not all of them grow up to be physically imposing defensemen capable of blanketing future college stars. Gleason did that for coach Tom Rotanz at Shoreham-Wading River High, helping the Wildcats win their first state title in 2002.

“The players used to call him Pooh Bear, because he was 6-5, the second-fastest guy on our team and he was so nice,” Rotanz said. “[We’d say] ‘Liam, just be mean. Be nasty.’ but it just wasn’t in his nature.”

His efforts got Marr’s attention, and they built a strong relationship back when the recruiting process unfolded over months and even years rather than a rapid scramble. After a two-season stop at Adelphi, they reconnected and Gleason joined an Albany program on the rise.

Thomson, a potent scorer and like Gleason a senior on the 2007 team that earned the first NCAA tournament victory in program history, remembered thinking the defenseman was “a big presence,” which would bear itself out in time. Gleason would draw big-time assignments as a senior — UMBC’s Drew Westervelt in the America East final, Loyola’s Shane Koppens in the first round of the NCAA tournament and Cornell’s Max Seibald in the quarterfinals.

And he would also be a perfect fit for a program that has probably exuded more joy than any other in Division I over the last 20 years.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about Albany is that we like to have fun, but we’re probably the most ultra-competitive people out there,” Thomson said. “That’s why we all get along and we know we can have fun because we’re all very competitive and it’s proven because all of us, wherever we’ve gone, have had success. Liam is the epitome of that.”

Gleason looked into coaching once he graduated. He didn’t need to go far to get his start. Brian Brecht, then the coach at Siena, needed an assistant. Gleason, trying to make an impression, came over to work a day camp with little kids in mid-August. Soon enough, he was part of the Saints’ staff.

There was much to do, some of it typical for Division I coaches (game planning, practice preparation, recruiting) and some of it not as common (plenty loads of laundry).

“I can talk about his coaching, but he was a great human being,” said Brecht, now the head coach at Rutgers. “He was very positive. He was very joyous, had a big smile. It matched his personality and his size. Everything you’re hearing, it was Liam.”

IT WAS BACK AT SIENA where Gleason piloted a Division I program of his own. And to the surprise of no one, his work with the Saints mirrored the environment Marr fostered at Albany.

They bonded over shared interests in music, especially the Allman Brothers Band. The two spent much of several summers on the road recruiting and helped run a club program together. There were bus rides and hotel stays and practices and games.

Marr’s daughter, Keeley, babysat all three of Gleason’s children. And in a tradition Gleason savored, he would drive a couple miles to Marr’s house, where they would sit around a fire near a deck in the backyard and unwind.

“Those are intimate moments that you just don’t have with everybody, and you build that relationship with people,” Marr said. “He was just special to me. He was just fun to be around. He was just a big teddy bear and used to crush me with his hugs. He’d swallow you up.”

The sentiment was shared throughout the Siena community. Carmen Maciarello was an assistant basketball coach for the Saints during Gleason’s first academic year as the head lacrosse coach, and he later had a five-year run as Siena’s head coach from 2019-24.

Throughout that time, they had offices next door to each other. On some days, Gleason’s kids would be running through the facility. On others, it would be Maciarello’s.

Gleason would frequently pop in to say hello, and even would offer some insight on problems they both might have to contend with.

“He called me in his office and he said, ‘Carm, you have to be careful with your players. I have some players who were using AI to try to write papers,’” Maciarello said. “He’s like ‘Look, I can’t even write a practice plan.’ That was three or four years ago when he was first showing me stuff on AI.”

All the while, Gleason was busy fulfilling a vow to the Siena lacrosse alumni, particularly the guys who were on the teams he assisted under Brecht. He was adamant the Saints would again have a championship culture and annually compete for conference championships.

It took longer than he initially planned, learning along the way the process could not be sped up. But the last three seasons delivered on the promise.

In 2023, Siena went 9-7 and reached its first Metro Atlantic final in nine years. The following season, the Saints made another conference final and turned in one of the sport’s best comebacks in recent seasons, scoring four goals in the final 47 seconds of an 11-10 victory over Manhattan.

Then last spring came a bigger breakthrough. Siena went 11-5 and won the MAAC title for the first time since 2014. Gleason was named the league’s coach of the year.

“He was able to turn Siena into his program and lead that program and build that program from the ground up, and he took tremendous pride in that,” Maciarello said.

To Thomson, his friend’s work at Siena showed signs of a personal touch, of forging strong relationships, of instilling a bond across the roster.

“The best head coaches, they let their assistants handle the X’s and O’s and they manage the program,” Thomson said. “They establish the culture and the standards and create all that good stuff. Seeing the kids from Siena the other day at the organ walk, you could see those guys really connected with Liam. That’s a huge thing.”

GLEASON’S HIGH SCHOOL COACH wrote a long Facebook post last week that quickly was shared throughout the lacrosse community. Speaking a couple days later, Rotanz praised his former player’s gentleness and decency.

And in the wake of the donation of Gleason’s organs last week — more than 250 people lined the hallways at Albany Medical Center for a solemn honor walk as he was transported to the operating room — he yearns for the chance to ask one question.

“Whoever gets his heart, I want to meet that person and talk to their family members and say, ‘Hey, is he or she different now? Are they kinder?’” Rotanz said.

Like Marr, Rotanz enjoyed a robust, long-running relationship with Gleason. He now lives about 10 miles from Gleason’s parents in Florida, and when Liam would visit, the two would catch up.

The two coaches would talk strategy, and they’d share laughs over stories old and new.

“I never treated him as a former player. I treated him as a close friend,” Rotanz said. “You don’t ever expect that from a player from high school. I talked with his teammates and said, ‘We should be blessed that we had him for 41 years. I can’t imagine never having met him.’ And it’s our goal as teammates and friends to continue to do good things for people and always look at the positive in people.”

It’s an apt legacy for a man whose death has sparked an outpouring of support, including more than $770,000 raised through a GoFundMe page to help his wife and three children.

“When I think of Liam, he just had such a good heart,” Thomson said. “The great thing for him is he could be that competitor, but then he could also be a father, a husband and a friend. That was probably the best thing, seeing him continue to be who he always has been. He’s never changed. He was always true to who he was. That’s why people loved being around him.”