Bio

Nat St. Laurent is in his ninth season as the head men's lacrosse coach at Ohio Northern University in 2024. He is the first and only men's lacrosse coach in school history, having founded the program in the spring of 2016.

A Carthage, N.Y., native, St. Laurent has posted an 80-41 career coaching record at ONU, a .661 winning percentage.

He has guided the Polar Bears to eight consecutive winning seasons and six straight Ohio Athletic Conference upper-division finishes. Ohio Northern registered an 8-7 mark during its inaugural season in 2016 and posted double-digit wins in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 under St. Laurent's leadership. The Polar Bears were a program-best 14-3, which included a 7-1 mark in the OAC, in the 2018 season.

In 2018, he guided the Polar Bears to the program's first OAC Regular Season title in just its third season as a varsity sport. They also advanced to their first OAC Tournament in program history that year.

During the 2019 campaign, St. Laurent directed Northern to its first OAC Tournament championship game in program history. As the No. 4 seed, ONU defeated top-seeded Capital 10-9 in the semifinals to book a date in the finals with John Carroll.

Under St. Laurent, the Polar Bears garnered a USILA All-Academic team award in 2021 and 2022. He has coached a USILA Senior All-Star Game participant (Mitch Groves, 2019), a CoSIDA Academic All-American (Cameron Marous, 2019), an InsideLacrosse.com All-Freshman Team goalkeeper (Cole Zaferakis, 2020) and a USILA Scholar All-American (Brian Dalidowicz, 2022). Overall, his program has earned 38 All-OAC honors and 58 Academic All-OAC accolades.

In addition to his collegiate coaching duties, St. Laurent has served as the head coach for the Redwoods squad of the Premier Lacrosse League since the 2019 season. In December 2018, he was named one of six head coaches for the inaugural season, which included the best leaders, strategists and innovators in the sport.

Prior to his stint with the Redwoods, he served as an assistant coach for the Ohio Machine, a professional Major League Lacrosse team, for four seasons.

In his role with the Machine, St. Laurent served as defensive coordinator and was responsible for increasing the team’s use of analytics. Additionally, he served as a quality control coach for the offense and helped prepare scouting reports for upcoming opponents.

At the collegiate level, St. Laurent was an assistant lacrosse coach at Washington & Lee (Va.) where he served as offensive coordinator for four seasons prior to arriving at ONU.

In his final three seasons at W&L, the Generals posted a 35-21 record with two trips to the ODAC Tournament finals and a bid to the 2013 NCAA Division III Tournament. He coached eight All-ODAC honorees, two All-Americans and the ODAC Rookie of the Year.

In 2013, the Generals finished the season ranked eighth nationally and scored the fourth-most goals in program history.

St. Laurent had previously served as a volunteer assistant coach for W&L in 2009, assisting with the offense and man-up units. That season, the Generals went 16-4 overall, won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference title, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.

He returned to Washington & Lee following one year as the head lacrosse coach at Ferrum (Va.). In the role, he was responsible for recruiting student-athletes for a first-year program that began competition in 2011. 

Prior to his experiences at W&L and Ferrum, St. Laurent had been an assistant lacrosse coach at VMI for three seasons (2005-08). He helped steer the Keydets to their first conference postseason berth and directed one of the top offenses in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

At VMI, he coached the MAAC Player of the Year and two All-MAAC honorees.

During his time in Lexington, St. Laurent also served as a special education teacher at Enderly Heights Elementary School (2005-06) and Waddell Elementary School (2007-09).

He is also a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, garnering recognition as the Soldier of the Year and Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year.

St. Laurent earned a Bachelor of Science degree in unified elementary and special education from Keuka (N.Y.) College, where he was a member of the lacrosse team. He went on to attain a Master of Arts in educational leadership and policy studies from Virginia Tech in 2009.

Nat and his wife, Cristin, have two daughters, Jaylin and Janessa, and a son, Jamarcus.

Men's Lacrosse under St. Laurent