DANBURY, Conn. –  Western Connecticut State University football welcomes back former linebacker Nick Crowley '18 as the defensive coordinator for the 2025 season. Crowley served as WestConn's defensive line coach for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.  He graduated from Western Connecticut with a bachelor's degree in communications.  In his previous coaching stint with the Wolves, Crowley was the team's academic coordinator and oversaw recruiting in New Jersey, New York City, Long Island, and the  Hartford, Connecticut area.  He coached three all-conference defensive lineman while with the Wolves.

"I wanted to surround myself with as many 'WestConn guys as possible in year one," Head Football Coach Kevin Jones said. "It doesn't get any more WestConn than Nick Crowley.  He played linebacker for us from 2014-2017, graduated and started coaching.  He came back to us as on the defensive line and helped us make the NCAA playoffs.  Now he is back as the defensive coordinator, and it is great to have his attitude and energy in the office again.  Nick understands our system," Jones concluded.  "He helped me build it from the ground up.  It has helped him hit the ground running, and I know he's popular with our players."

Crowley participated in the 2018-2019 American National Combine, where he made the NFL Hotlist. Crowley transitioned into coaching at St. Thomas More Prep in nearby Oakdale, Connecticut until 2022.  He spent the 2024 season as the defensive line coach at Pace University New York and was the defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at Dean College in Southeastern Massachusetts prior to this summer.

WestConn, which opens the 2025 season at home against William Paterson on Saturday, September 6 at 5 p.m., will be playing its first season in the Landmark Conference this fall.  WestConn football finished 9-2 and second in the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) in 2024.  The Wolves won the ECAC's Asa S. Bushnell Bowl, 45-14, over Alfred University to close the year.