Chris Payne '94, who previously served as an assistant coach at Southern Connecticut from 1995 through 2001, returns to his alma mater as an assistant for head coach Kevin Anderson in 2025. Payne served on the coaching staffs for three of the Owls' NCAA Division II National Championships as well as five NCAA Final Four appearances.Â
As a player, Payne was part of the 1990 and 1993 NCAA National Championship teams at Southern Connecticut. For his career, he totaled 23 goals which was good for the sixth-most in program history at the conclusion of his playing career. He then served an assistant for head coach Ray Reid on the 1995 National Championship staff and won back-to-back championships in 1998 and 1999 while coaching under Tom Lang.
In 2001, he was named the head coach at University of New Haven and led the program through the 2004 season. He went on to also hold head coach spots with the USL's Boston Bolts and Cleveland Force as well as serving in various scouting roles in the United Kingdom as well as the United States.
Payne was then named the head coach at Assumption College, where he led the Greyhounds to the program's first Northeast-10 Conference Championship and NCAA tournament appearance in 2019. He was then named the head coach at Hiram College, where he served for two seasons, before being added to the coaching staff at College of the Holy Cross for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.Â
Payne graduated with a bachelor's degree in recreation & leisure studies from Southern Connecticut in 1994.Â
