Hernando Santamaria joined the Felician University men's soccer staff in August 2021. He is primarily responsible for player development of the goalkeepers.
Santamaria brings a wealth of local collegiate, high-school and club coaching experience to the Golden Falcons. He comes to Felician following one season as the varsity coach and another as the varsity assistant at Newark Academy in Livingston, where he is a member of the faculty. From 2015-19 he was the head varsity girls' coach, middle school athletic coordinator, and a middle school Spanish teacher at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Santamaria previously served on the men's soccer staffs of Purchase College (2017), New Jersey Institute of Technology (2013) and Mercy College (2010-12). At the club level, he was most recently the lead coach of the 2003 and 2004 USYS girls' squads for STA-Morristown and spent a dozen years as a league director and staff coach for the Albertson Soccer Club.
Santamaria was a four-year goalkeeper for Division-I Saint Peter's University (2005-08), helping lead the Peacocks to a pair of MAAC championship games and a berth in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. During and after his college career, he played for the NPSL Long Island Academy team. He was inducted into the Saint Peter's University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020.
Santamaria earned a B.A. degree in Spanish and a New Jersey state teaching certification from Saint Peter's in 2009. He possesses an M.S. in childhood education from Mercy, conferred in 2016. He holds a U.S. Soccer Federation 'B' coaching license and a United Soccer Coaches Level 1 Goalkeeper Dipoloma.
Last updated 1/6/22
