Stephen Stetson (born January 24, 1951) is an American

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

coach and former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and coach. He is the current head men's and women's golf coach at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Stetson served as the head football coach at Hamilton from 1982 to 1984 and again from 2006 to 2011. He was also the head football coach at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

1985 to 1987 and Hartwick College from 1992 to 2001, compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coaching record of 89–111–2. Stetson was a

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

assistant football coach from 2002 to 2005. Stetson grew up in

Laconia, New Hampshire Laconia is a city in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,871 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 15,951 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat of Belknap County. La ...

and was a three-sport standout at Laconia High School. He went on to become an All-

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

during his senior season in 1972. In his three-year varsity career the Big Green went 24–2–1 with three straight

championships.

College career

Stetson played for

. In 1969, he was awarded by the coaching staff the Earl Hamilton Freshman Award. In 1971, in his first start, he helped Dartmouth clinched a share of the Ivy League title by beating Cornell 24–14. In his senior year, he won several weekly citations due to his impressive performance against Princeton in which he scored three touchdowns and completed eight of 17 passes for 125 yards. He set a Dartmouth single season pass-yardage record (1159 yards), breaking the mark of 1079 set by Mickey Beard in 1966. He was an all-Ivy selection that year. He graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in sociology in 1973.

Coaching career

Football

Hamilton

Stetson first coached the Hamilton Continentals men's football team from 1982–1984. In 1983, he hired

Sean McDonnell Sean Patrick McDonnell (born October 15, 1956) is a retired college football coach and former player, best known for his tenure as head football coach at the University of New Hampshire. Biography McDonnell, nicknamed "Coach Mac", served as the ...

to be one of his assistant coaches. In 1984, they went 6–1–1. This was Hamilton's first winning record since 1967.

Boston University

Stetson's performance at Hamilton led to a head coaching position at

, a Division I school. He took over from

Rick Taylor :''This is about the politician. For the fictional character, see '' Splatterhouse''. For the American college football coach, see Rick Taylor (American football). For the radio personality also known as Rick Taylor, see Rick Emerson. Rick Tay ...

, who had moved up to become the school's athletic director. However, he struggled in his time there, with a record of 3–8 in 1985 and 4–7 in 1986. Two games before the 1987 season was finished, he was dismissed as the team was at 3–6. Boston finished the season 3–8.

Hartwick

After his job at Boston ended, Stetson became a health-insurance salesman. When he saw in the newspapers that Hartwick College was going to revive its football program, he applied for the job in July 1991 and got accepted. He coached the Hawks until 2001, and Hartwick enjoyed eight winning seasons out of his last nine at the school with three postseason appearances. When he left the school in 2002, Mark Carr took over. In his time there, he had a record of 58–38–1, setting the program record for most career wins. Carr would break that record in 2015.

New Hampshire

Stetson then joined the coaching staff of Sean McDonnell, his former assistant coach now head coach at the

. The Wildcats were 3–8 in his first year, but in 2004 UNH was 10–3 and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I-AA championships. In 2005, he helped guide the Wildcats to an 11–2 record and the team's second straight Atlantic 10 North Division title. UNH was awarded the No. 1 seed in the Division I-AA championships and advanced to the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.

Return to Hamilton

In 2005, Stetson returned to coaching the Hamilton men's football team. He took over from Pete Alvanos, whose teams went 5–35 in five seasons. In 2011, Stetson guided the football team to their highest win total in 15 years. The following year, he stepped down as Hamilton's men's football head coach. He was replaced by Andrew Cohen.

Golf

In 2012, Stetson became the new head coach of Hamilton's men's and women's golf teams. He had previous experience as an interim head coach for Hamilton's men's golf team earlier in the year.

Personal life

Stetson participated in amateur golf tournaments. In 2010, he won the Senior championship of the Utica City Amateur golf tournament.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

Hamilton golf profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stetson, Steve 1951 births Living people American football quarterbacks Boston University Terriers football coaches Dartmouth Big Green football players Hartwick Hawks football coaches Hamilton Continentals football coaches New Hampshire Wildcats football coaches College golf coaches in the United States People from Laconia, New Hampshire Players of American football from New Hampshire