mrr1@williams.edu

Mark Raymond enters his 11th season at the helm of the Williams College football team in 2026. He was named Head Coach on Feb. 24, 2016.

Between Williams and St. Lawrence, Raymond has accumulated a record of 74-67 during 15 seasons as a Division III head football coach. He enters 2026 with a 43-37 record at Williams (no season in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic) and a 31-30 mark during his tenure at St. Lawrence.

He has totaled nine winning seasons, six of which have come at Williams, including a perfect 9-0 championship season in 2021. At St. Lawrence, he guided the Saints to two Liberty League titles and two appearances in the NCAA Division III Playoffs, earning the conference Coach of the Year honor in both of those campaigns. 

During the 2024 season, the Ephs finished 5-4 with a 21-0 season-ending victory over Amherst on Nov. 9 at Farley-Lamb Field in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Williams went 4-1 at home, defeating Hamilton, Bowdoin, Bates and Amherst.

Raymond was named the NESCAC Coach of the Year, voted by his peers, as he guided his 2021 Ephs team to the eighth perfect season in Williams football history, the first time an Eph football team had ever finished 9-0. That season, Williams led the NESCAC in points per game (34.1), yards rushing per game (230.0) and fewest points allowed per game (10.6).

In 2019, Raymond led the Ephs to a 7-2 record, which included a 31-9 win over Amherst to cap the season. Williams was ranked seventh nationally in rushing yards per carry (5.92), 14th in rushing yards per game (247.8) and 49th in passing efficiency (21 TDs, 3 INTs). In NESCAC play, the Ephs led the conference in passing TDs and rushing offense. The defense, meanwhile, was at the top of the conference in scoring defense (11.4 ppg), yards allowed per game (284.3) and team rushing defense (98.8).

In 2018, the Ephs finished 5-4. Six Eph seniors were recognized on the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society. Raymond was also voted as the 2017 NESCAC Coach of the Year. In his second season with the Ephs, Raymond engineered a dramatic turnaround, as Williams recorded a winning season with a 6-3 record and posted the most wins since 2010. Raymond is the fourth Williams coach to garner the Coach of the Year honor and first since 2010. The 2017 team was also named the NCAA Division III Most Improved Team of the Year.

Raymond came to Williamstown, Massachusetts, having spent six years as head coach at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and turned the Saints’ team into a nationally competitive program. In each of his final three seasons, St. Lawrence won at least seven games, a streak not achieved by the program in nearly 40 years.

When he arrived in Canton, the Saints had posted just one winning season in the previous 20 years and had not participated in the NCAA Playoffs in 28 years. Under his leadership, 66 St. Lawrence student-athletes earned All-Liberty League honors and 97 Saints have been named to the Liberty League All-Academic Squad.

In his final year with the Saints, the team earned national and regional rankings throughout the season, and finished the campaign ranked in the top-10 nationally in four statistical categories: passes intercepted (fifth), tackles for a loss (sixth), average punt return yards (eighth) and turnovers gained (ninth).

He was twice named the Liberty Conference Coach of the Year, including in 2015.

He spent two years at Syracuse University as a Graduate Assistant Coach and Head Strength Coach before taking an Associate Head Coaching position at SUNY Canton in 1998. Then in 1999, he moved to Ithaca College, spending seven years as Defensive Coordinator. During his time there, Ithaca went 59-19, won five conference titles and appeared in three NCAA Tournaments.

His intercollegiate coaching career began at St. Lawrence, where he served as an Assistant Coach for three years (August 1993-May 1996), working with linebackers, defensive ends and wide receivers, and serving as recruiting coordinator.
 
Raymond earned a bachelor’s in 1993 from the University at Buffalo (majored in health and human services and lettered in football for three years) and a master’s in education from St. Lawrence. Raymond was a three-year starter and team captain (1992) at the University at Buffalo, where he also won the Coaches Award. 

Aside from a brief stint from 2007-10 as a Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service, Raymond has spent the past three-plus decades coaching football, nearly all of it at the Division III level.

Raymond, his wife Sarah, and daughters, Reese and Sydney, reside in Williamstown.