CAMP DIRECTOR: JON THOMPSON, HEAD COACH, AMHERST COLLEGE HEAD AMHERST LACROSSE COACH (10th Season)

Amherst Men's Lacrosse head coach Jon Thompson is entering his tenth season at the helm in 2020.

The Mammoths rattled off another successful season in 2017, opening the year 12-3 en route to recording a 13-5 overall record and 8-2 mark in league play. After capturing the No. 2 seed in the NESCAC Championship, Amherst would go on to earn an at-large bid and appear in the NCAA Championship tournament for the fourth consecutive year and post an impressive 14-11 win over Springfield in the second round before falling in the national quarterfinals. Finishing the season with the No. 6 national ranking, Amherst placed five players on the All-NESCAC team, seven players on the All-New England squad, and three student-athletes on the USILA All-America teams.

In 2015 Amherst concluded a historical campaign that included a program single-season record 18 wins (18-3 overall), which was highlighted by a 9-1 mark in NESCAC play, the program’s first-ever number one seed in the conference tournament, and a berth in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division III Championship en route to finishing the season with a national ranking of sixth.

During the season, which included an eight-game winning streak accentuated by an emphatic 12-6 win over national powerhouse Tufts University, the Purple & White had eight players named All-NESCAC and All-NEILA, four players named ECAC Division III All-Stars, and six players selected as USILA All-Americans.

Prior to the memorable 2015 season, Thompson enjoyed his second 15-win season in 2014 (15-5 overall), directing the Mammoths to a second round appearance in the NCAA postseason.

In the remarkable 2011 campaign, Thompson's squad reeled off 13 consecutive victories, including wins over Middlebury and Wesleyan, the program's first since 1989 and 1999, respectively.

The squad climbed to ninth in the USILA Coaches Poll and despite suffering a setback to Bowdoin in the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC Championship, Amherst secured its first-ever berth to the NCAA Tournament. After a 12-8 win over Keene State in its opening round game, the Purple & White downed Middlebury once again, 12-9, to advance to the national quarterfinals. Amherst's impressive postseason run came to an end with a 15-10 loss to RIT, but not before the team had posted a program-record 15 wins, finishing with a top-ten national ranking as four players earned All-NESCAC and All-NEILA honors.

Prior to Amherst, Thompson served as the head coach at NESCAC rival Colby College, where he led the Mules to the two most successful campaigns in the previous nine years. During his tenure in Waterville, Thompson guided the Mules to three wins over opponents ranked nationally in the top 10, including a win over the highest ranked opponent in program history (No. 5 Endicott).

While leading Colby to back-to-back postseason appearances, Thompson helped develop a trio of All-NESCAC selections, a pair of All-Americans, and Colby’s first two-time All-American. Equally impressive, Thompson helped the Mules raise the team’s cumulative grade-point average nearly half a letter grade in just four academic semesters.

During his time at Colby, Thompson and his teams helped organize and implement four separate civic engagement fundraisers, during which more than $45,000 was raised for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation and Alpha 1/25, a Company in the 1st Battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment fighting in Afghanistan.

A native of Freeport, Maine, Thompson is a 2003 graduate of Brown University where he still ranks among the men’s lacrosse program’s top 10 in all-time goal scoring. Thompson, a former captain for the Bears, was a three-time All-New England selection while at Brown. He also earned both Ivy League All-Conference and All-Academic honors in 2002 and 2003, before capping his career as a USILA Honorable Mention All-American and a USILA Academic All-American in 2003.

Following a year volunteering as a member of the Brown coaching staff while playing professionally for the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse, Thompson helped lead nearby Springfield to a Pilgrim League Championship as the Pride’s offensive coordinator in 2005.

Thompson returned to the Brown campus prior to the 2006 season, serving as the recruiting coordinator and second assistant for the Bears. After rising to the first assistant position and offensive coordinator for 2007, Thompson helped lead the Bears to one of the largest turnarounds in Division I. In Thompson’s three seasons coaching at Brown, the Bears transformed from a 2-11 team to an 11-3 team that won the 2008 Ivy League Championship with a victory over Princeton.

Thompson graduated Brown with a degree in sports psychology and now holds a Masters in Sports Psychology and is currently pursuing his PhD in sports and exercise psychology at Springfield. He and his wife Susanna have two daughters, Aida and Carolina.