Chris Klaiber was officially named the new head coach of the AQ men's lacrosse program on July 21, 2021. Klaiber comes to Aquinas after spending the past four seasons as the head coach of Monmouth, an NCAA Division III school in Illinois. A men's lacrosse coach at NCAA Division II and III institutions, Klaiber also competed as a student-athlete at the NCAA Division I level.
Monmouth began men's lacrosse in 2017 and totaled a 3-11 record in its first-ever season. Klaiber took over the program in August 2017 and led the Fighting Scots to a 23-23 record over the last four years. He coached 14 all-conference selections, including the program's first Defensive Player of the Year and Academic All-American.
In his first year as head coach, Klaiber helped Monmouth double its win total (from three wins to 6-9 in 2018) from the inaugural year. The Fighting Scots improved to 7-9 in 2019 and the team was off to a 4-2 start in 2020 before COVID shut down the remainder of the season. Monmouth went 6-3 in 2021 and advanced to the Midwest Lacrosse Conference championship game, the first in program history. All three of the team's losses last season came to Northwestern (Minn.), while the Fighting Scots recorded five of their six victories by at least eight goals.
Klaiber becomes the third full-time head coach in AQ history and takes over a Saints program that went 5-4 last season, faced five top-10 opponents during the year, and advanced to the WHAC Tournament semifinals. In the last full, non-COVID affected season, Aquinas advanced to the 2019 NAIA National Invitational championship game.
Prior to his tenure at Monmouth, Klaiber served as a graduate assistant coach at Adams State, an NCAA Division II school in Colorado. He was in charge of the Adams State goalies; the team's starting goalie was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rookie of the year in 2016 and a First Team All-RMAC selection in 2017. Klaiber also spent a season as an assistant coach and was in charge of the goalies at Carroll, a Division III school in Wisconsin.
Klaiber has club coaching experience with the Milwaukee Select, Maryland Elite, and Maryland Raptors. As a player, he was a two-year starting goalie at Mount Saint Mary's, an NCAA Division I school in Maryland. The team won the 2011 Northeast Conference championship and were 2012 conference runner-up. Klaiber was also an All-Central New York selection at nationally-ranked Lafayette High School.
He earned his Master's degree in Human Performance and Physical Education from Adams State in 2017 and received a Bachelor's degree in History from Mount Saint Mary's in 2014.
