COLUMBIA- The University of Missouri Men’s Lacrosse team announced Friday Nick Anagnostis will be the program’s head coach for the 2016-17 academic year.
Anagnostis replaces Clayton Melrose, who announced prior to the 2016 season his intent to leave the program due to a job relocation to St. Louis.
“I’m honored to be taking the reigns of the lacrosse program at such a prestigious university,” Anagnostis said. “The future is bright at Mizzou and I’m excited to be apart of it.”
Anagnostis has an extensive coaching background, spending his entire career as a coach in the Southeast. In 2010 at only 19 years old, he was the runner-up for assistant coach of the year in Northern Florida after helping coach Lincoln High School to the Elite Eight and winning a district championship after the team went 0-13 two seasons prior. This past season, he worked with Myers Park High School in Charlotte,NC under former MLL player and University of Texas head coach Brian Myers. As head coach of the JV team, he lead his team to an undefeated season going 11-0-2. As an assistant with the Varsity, they reached the final 16 in the NC state tournament going 12-9.
“We’re really excited to bring in Coach Anagnostis to the Mizzou Lacrosse program,” team President Kevin Boyle said. “He has a great coaching background, has been successful every place he has coached and has worked with some of the best coaches in the MCLA.”
Anagnostis also has experience coaching at the post-collegiate level, coaching a men’s team in Tallahassee for 6 years and coaching the Greece Men’s National Team during the International Lacrosse Showdown during NCAA Championship weekend this past year. He has also coached youth programs alongside former Florida State Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach Bill Harkins(one of the most-successful coaches in MCLA history) and MLL defenseman Ryan Flanagan(4x AA at UNC, Team 24/7), winning several youth tournament championships.
Anagnostis will take over the Tigers program at the start of fall camp as the team looks to win the GRLC West title for the second time in four years.
Please visit the Mizzou’s MCLA page at mcla.us/team/missouri for information on previous seasons and make sure to follow @MizzouLacrosse on Twitter for all the latest information.