Kenyon hires coach

Chris Monfiletto, the former offensive coordinator at Lycoming, was hired as head coach of the Kenyon football program. The announcement came Thursday from Kenyon athletic director Peter Smith, who stated Monfiletto possesses the necessary motivation and acumen to turn around a program that has struggled in recent seasons.

He replaces Ted Stanley, who resigned in lieu of being fired last month after two consecutive 0-10 seasons.

“We welcome Chris Monfiletto as Kenyon's head football coach and we’re excited about him bringing a new direction for the program,” Smith said. “He certainly has the ability to re-energize the team, to recruit quality student-athletes, and to fulfill our goal of sustaining a competitive presence in the North Coast Athletic Conference.”

“Kenyon’s academic reputation combined with its commitment to the athletics department provides an unbelievable foundation to build a winning football program that the faculty, students, and alums can be proud of,” Monfiletto said. “I am humbled by the opportunity to work at such a highly regarded institution.”

For the past two seasons, Monfiletto helped direct a Lycoming offense that averaged approximately 360 yards and 28 points per game. Lycoming had a 6-4 record in Monfiletto’s first season and an 8-2 record last season. That 2011 campaign also saw the Lycoming offense finish second in the Middle Atlantic Conference in rushing yards per game, set a school record for total yards in one game, and gain national ranks of second in turnovers lost and fourth in turnover margin.

In addition to his football coaching duties, Monfiletto also served as Lycoming’s acting director of athletics. Appointed in July and responsible for the overall management of the department’s 17 varsity sports, Monfiletto constructed a mission statement, implemented a student-athlete survey, created the position of academic coordinator, and improved avenues for communication within his own department, as well as with other campus departments.

Prior to his time at Lycoming, Monfiletto was the head football coach at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio. He also worked in Western Reserve’s admissions and financial aid department, as well as served as a college guidance counselor.

Before joining Western Reserve in 2008, Monfiletto spent three years as a running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Davidson, a Division I FCS non-scholarship program. The Wildcats had two winning seasons during that time and Monfiletto tutored two of the top-ten rushers in the college’s history.

In 2004-05, he served as the special teams coordinator and wide receivers/defensive backs coach at his high school alma mater, the Hun School of Princeton, leading the team to the New Jersey prep A state title. While at Hun, Monfiletto also served as a history teacher and residence life director.

Born in Newark, N.J., and raised in Solebury, Pa., Monfiletto earned a combined ten letters in football, baseball, and basketball at Hun. He went on to play collegiate football at Davidson, where he graduated in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in history. This past summer he earned a master’s degree in Athletic Administration from Ohio University’s College of Business.

Now at Kenyon, Monfiletto takes over a program that was previously guided by Ted Stanley, who resigned after nine seasons and a combined 20-70 record.

“We need to change the culture of the football program,” Monfiletto said. “To do that, we need everyone including the coaches, players, and support staff to understand that they have the unique opportunity to be a part of something that could potentially be very special. We need to communicate that we have extremely high expectations for the football program and we will not meet those expectations unless the young men on the team take ownership in the program and lead us to where we need to be. If we can be successful in conveying these objectives and realizing our goals one at a time, it will translate to the playing field.”