John Ciano was named head coach of the Union College men’s soccer program in December 2024 and begins his first season leading the Garnet Chargers in 2025.
Ciano brings a wide range of collegiate coaching experience to Union, having coached at all three levels of the NCAA in both head and assistant coaching roles over the last 16 years.
He comes to Schenectady from St. John’s University, where he has served as an assistant coach for the last two seasons. In 2024, the Red Storm earned a share of their first BIG EAST East Division regular-season title and reached the conference semifinals, the team’s second straight postseason appearance. He previously spent one year at Stony Brook University, serving as assistant coach while also taking part in the United Soccer Coaches Coach Credentialing Program.
Ciano is no stranger to the Capital Region, having spent six years as the head coach at Division II College of Saint Rose from 2016-21. The Golden Knights posted a 45-38-11 (.537) record in his time in Albany, including a stretch of four straight winning seasons for a program that had just one season over .500 throughout its first 36 years. He coached the team to the only two 10-win seasons at the school, concluding with a 10-6-2 campaign in 2021 that saw the team earn its highest finish in the Northeast-10 Conference regular-season standings and receive votes in the United Soccer Coaches national poll for the first time ever. His 2019 team also reached the 10-win plateau, earned the first postseason win in program annals, and reached the NE-10 Championship game for the first time ever. Ciano left the school with the highest winning percentage in program history by more than 200 percentage points.
Prior to his time at Saint Rose, Ciano saw success over a combined five seasons as an assistant coach at the Division I level with Siena College and New Jersey Institute of Technology. In three seasons at Siena from 2013-15, Ciano served as recruiting coordinator for the Saints and helped the squad to 25 wins and a pair of MAAC Tournament appearances, including a 10-8-2 record in 2014 that remains the second-most wins in a season in program history. In two years with NJIT (2011-12), the Highlanders produced the most wins in their Division I history in his second season.
Ciano began his collegiate coaching tenure at Division III Manhattanville College (2009-10), where he helped guide the Valiants to a combined 24-11-2 record and a MAC Freedom regular-season title in 2009.
As an undergraduate, Ciano was a four-year starter in goal between his time at Central Connecticut State University and Manhattan College, starting 54-of-55 games in one year with the Blue Devils and three years with the Jaspers. He graduated from Manhattan in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education.
