Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/11/21
From Press Release
Lehigh head men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Cassese has announced a pair of additions to his staff, with Colin Nesdale and Tom Walton joining the program as assistant coach and director of operations, respectively.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to add these two men to our staff for the spring, 2021 season,” said Cassese. “In the short time they have been with the program, they have already made a profound impact, and our team will reap the benefits of their professionalism, dedication and hard work over the next few months.”
Nesdale comes to Bethlehem from Yale, where he served as volunteer assistant coach (and will serve a similar role for the Mountain Hawks). While at Yale, the former Quinnipiac goaltender was responsible for the management of the goaltender and faceoff units. Among those he coached was TD Ierlan, who ranked No. 1 in faceoff winning percentage and No. 2 in groundballs per game nationally. A goaltender Nesdale mentored – Jared Paquette – was named to the United States’ Under-19 team.
“Adding Coach Nesdale was a unique opportunity that only came about recently when it became apparent that the Yale lacrosse team would not be afforded the opportunity to compete this spring,” said Cassese. “Given the strong connections between our staff and the Yale staff, and the fact that we had an open coaching position, we were able to work quickly to add Coach Nesdale to our coaching staff and he was able to work quickly to move down to Bethlehem so he could get started.
“This would not have been possible without the blessing of Coach Andy Shay at Yale, and I thank him for that,” Cassese continued. “Coach Nesdale brings a wealth of experience with him and we are eager for him to get to work with our goaltenders and our defense.”
Prior to serving as a Yale assistant in 2020, Nesdale was director of operations for the national runner-up Bulldogs in 2019. Prior to that, Nesdale served as a volunteer assistant at High Point in 2018 and Michigan in 2017. He was also an undergraduate assistant coach at Quinnipiac in 2016. As a player, Nesdale was named starting goaltender for a number of contests, including the Bobcats’ first win of the season vs. Detroit Mercy.
Meanwhile, Walton joins the program after significant experience in a number of different areas. He is no stranger to the lacrosse world after serving as an undergraduate team manager with nearby DeSales men’s lacrosse. As a manager, he gained significant experience with social media, helping set up practice daily, filming games and more. The 2020 graduate was also a full-time multimedia intern within Lehigh Athletics in the fall of 2019 and served as a freelance videographer this past fall with WFMZ-TV in the Lehigh Valley.
“Tom is no stranger to Lehigh, as he has worked on some independent social media and multimedia projects with our program in the past and has also served as a multimedia intern in our Lehigh sports communications department,” said Cassese. “Tom will add tremendous value in all areas of program operation and his knowledge and professionalism in multimedia will help us elevate our efforts in that arena.”
