Nick Ciresi '09 completed his seventh straight season and ninth year overall with the Union College men's basketball team in 2020-21. He served as the team's top assistant coach for five years before being promoted to associate head coach during the 2019-20 season.
With Ciresi on the bench, Union has had some of the best seasons in program history in recent years, including the program's first back-to-back Liberty League Tournament championships in 2017 and 2018.
Ciresi and head coach Chris Murphy '06 were named the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year in 2017-18, when the Dutchmen went 19-9 and earned a second straight conference title. The 19 victories are tied for seventh-most in a single season at Union and only two away from the program record of 21.
Before returning to Union to coach alongside his former Dutchman teammate, Ciresi spent three years as an assistant coach with Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham from 2011-14. He assisted in all aspects of the program, specifically recruiting, film breakdown and exchange, and game preparation. FDU-Florham made three straight appearances in the MAC Freedom tournament during his time on the staff. In May 2014, he graduated from FDU’s Silberman College of Business with an MBA in Management.
Ciresi was a four-year letterman at Union from 2005-09 and a teammate of Coach Murphy’s during the 2005-06 campaign. He was a tri-captain as a senior in 2008-09, and also led the Liberty League in three-point field goal percentage, shooting at a 56 percent rate during conference play. Ciresi graduated from Union with a bachelor's degree in political science in 2009 and then spent two years as an assistant coach with the Dutchmen under head coach Bob Montana before moving on to FDU-Florham.
Originally from Kings Park, N.Y, Ciresi was named All-County for Kings Park High School as a junior and senior while also serving as a team captain those two years.
