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| Adam Gonzaga was hired in June of 2025 and let go six months later. Lawrence athletics photo |
Being hired in June doesn't give you enough time to bring in a recruiting class. When Adam Gonzaga was brought in at Lawrence, he inherited a program that had very few players, and had lost 36 of its last 39 games. The Vikings were 12-76 over the previous two head coaching stints combined, and had won fewer than three games every season since 2007.
Suffice it to say that rebuilding Lawrence wouldn't happen overnight. It wouldn't happen in six months. It wouldn't happen in a season, or two. But on Thursday, Lawrence University announced that it had hired a new head coach, relegating Gonzaga to two sentences at the end a news release announcing the hire of Dan Galante as the new head coach.
Galante is a former Lawrence player, a four-time All-American from the program's heyday in the mid-1980s. His last college-level coaching job was from 1990-2001, when he was an assistant at North Park. He was most recently the head freshman football coach at DePaul College Prep High School in Chicago for four seasons, ending in May 2021, and was the head coach at St. Patrick High School in Chicago from 2001 through the 2016 season.
"We are thrilled to welcome Dan back to Lawrence," said outgoing Lawrence athletic director Jason Imperati, who has already been named athletic director at Kenyon. "His belief in this institution, proven experience developing student-athletes, and deep recruiting network make him the right leader for our program. Dan understands Lawrence at its core, and he brings the passion, energy, and vision needed to move Viking Football forward."
"Lawrence Football has an incredible history and a bright future," Galante said. "I'm grateful for the opportunity to lead this program, and I can't wait to get started."