Craig Gibson joined Fairfield Men's Lacrosse in July of 2019 and was elevated to Associate Head Coach prior to the 2023 season. Gibson is entering his fourth campaign as the Stags’ Offensive Coordinator after seven seasons in the same role at Stony Brook University.
Gibson coached the Fairfield offensive unit to a CAA-best 13.79 goals per game in 2022. The attack featured CAA Rookie of the Year Jack McKenna, who was the conference’s leading goal scorer as a freshman and the first Stag ever to average three goals per game (3.07) for a season. The offensive midfield included All-CAA First Teamer Taylor Strough and Second Team selection Mike Drake. Fairfield also led the CAA and ranked fourth in the nation in man-up offense, converting 55 percent of its extra-man opportunities last spring.
Fairfield has topped the CAA in scoring twice in Gibson’s tenure. The 2020 team – Baxter and Gibson’s first campaign with the Stags – saw the offense rank eighth nationally with 16.43 goals per game and sixth in the nation at 26.71 points per contest.
Before coming to Fairfield, Gibson most recently served as Associate Head Coach for Stony Brook’s back-to-back America East Regular Season Championships in 2018 and 2019, and was also on the sidelines for the team’s 2012 America East title and NCAA postseason appearance. During his tenure, Gibson managed a Stony Brook offense that produced some of the most prolific scorers in program history, including all-time leader in points and assists Mike Rooney, all-time leading goal scorer Brody Eastwood and NLL and MLL mainstay Challen Rogers.
Gibson previously served as an assistant coach at Colgate, where he was part of the Raiders’ 2008 Patriot League Championship. He played collegiately at Springfield College, including one season as a teammate of Coach Baxter, and is the Pride’s all-time leader among midfielders in goals (122), assists (66) and total points (188).
A native of South Salem, N.Y., Gibson graduated from John Jay High School. He and his wife, Kristi, have two children – Hadley, born in 2016 and Delaney, born in 2018.
