‘A dream come true’: St. Laurence names Pat Swanson as new head coach

Pat Swanson stood outside the St. Laurence leadership center Friday morning ready to fulfill his destiny.

It had been a moment Swanson had seemingly waited for ever since he first visited a football field a couple weeks after he was born. But once he heard the announcement and walked into a room filled with applauding football players, Swanson walked in ready to realize his fate.

St. Laurence named Swanson as its next head coach.

“It’s a dream come true,” Swanson said. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a head coach and as a goal of mine when I kind of started coaching in 2017. To get the opportunity to do it in the best conference in the state of Illinois is a pretty special situation.”

There was little doubt Swanson would be a coach one day. Swanson grew up watching his father Tim coach at Marian Catholic for 24 years under head coach Dave Mattio.

But Swanson needed to make a few stops before he learned how he wanted to reach his dreams.

After Swanson graduated from Marian in 2013 and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2016, he joined the coaching ranks himself at Platteville in 2017. He moved to North Dakota University in 2018 as a defensive assistant before joining the staff at Northern Illinois in 2019 as a defensive graduate assistant.

Once the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, Swanson needed to make a decision. There was plenty of uncertainty in the world because of the pandemic, including whether to play football at all.

But during that time, Swanson learned something about himself that helped him steer his future.

“I just need football,” Swanson said. “To me, it doesn’t matter if it’s high school or college, but I need football.”

He relied on an old relationship to stay in football. He had built a relationship with Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch earlier in his life through a foundation. Lynch reached out to Swanson in 2020 and asked if he’d be interested in coming to Mount Carmel as a teacher and coach to find solid footing.

Swanson accepted the job and started what he called the most-impactful years of his life. He served as a defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator for the Caravan and helped the program win three straight Class 7A championships.

“It has developed me into who I am today as a leader,” Swanson said of his time at Mount Carmel. “I can’t say enough good things about the people within Mount Carmel. …What they were able to give me in terms of an opportunity, it altered my life in the best way possible. I wouldn’t be here without them today.”

Swanson relied on his relationship with Lynch to take his next step in his coaching career. After the head coach position opened at St. Laurence in December, Lynch encouraged Swanson to apply for the job and helped him set a framework for how to run a high school program.

“It’s a dream come true. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a head coach and as a goal of mine when I kind of started coaching in 2017. To get the opportunity to do it in the best conference in the state of Illinois is a pretty special situation.”

—  Pat Swanson, St. Laurence head coach

St. Laurence athletic director Tim Chandler and the rest of the school’s administration were impressed. After going through multiple interviews that involved different school administration, alumni and students, Chandler said Swanson was the clear choice to take over the program.

“You can tell he’s grown up around the game and he has a plan,” Chandler said. “He has a vision. He is very clear on his plan and his vision and very committed to it. [He’s] easily able to sell that throughout that process and will be able to do that with our students in the football program.”

Swanson takes over a Vikings program that’s reached newfound success over the past couple of seasons. St. Laurence reached the Class 4A state championship game in 2023 and then lost to eventual state champion DePaul Prep in the 4A quarterfinals this past postseason.

He plans on building upon that success once he officially takes over at the beginning of March. Swanson wants to grow the program by winning in the White division and eventually moving up in the CCL/ESCC, maybe playing against his former coaches and players at Mount Carmel in the Blue.

But for now, Swanson’s ready to get to work as he begins a role he’s waited a lifetime to start.

“I know it’s going to be a challenge,” Swanson said. “I know that I’m going to have to work my butt off to get there and to do those things. But I have faith in not only myself, but I have faith in the program, the people that we’re going to have in place, whether it’s in the school, on the coaching staff, or in the program itself, to do those things.”