Football: DeSanti, Thayer join football coaching staff
Written by Colin Herb
BETHANY, W.Va. - Assistant Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach Brandon Robinson has announced new hires for the Bethany Bison football staff. Both offense and defense will bring in new leadership in the forms of coordinators. Nick Thayer will join the Bison as Defensive Coordinator (DC) and Bryar DeSanti will serve as Offensive Coordinator (OC).
Thayer comes from Division III Anna Maria College where he performed duties as the DC for the Amcats. During his four season tenure at Anna Maria (2019-2023), Thayer filled roles as the Associate Head Coach and Academic Coordinator while being the DC. Thayer won an Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) title in 2021. Last season, the Amcats had the #1 overall defense in the conference and a DIII top 25 passing defense in both yards per game and interceptions.
Robinson had this to say about his new DC's move from Anna Maria to Bethany: "Coach Thayer brings championship experience from Anna Maria. He's going to be great at building relationships with our defensive players and getting them to fly around and make plays".
Thayer specializes in the secondary with a decade of experience coaching linebackers and the defensive backfield. His coaching career began as a graduate assistant from 2014-2016 at Anderson University (Indiana) where he was a jack of all trades coaching four different position groups in four semesters: linebackers, defensive backs, defensive line, offensive line. Thayer's first post-graduate coaching gig came with Maine Maritime Academy where he coached inside linebackers for a season before moving "out" to outside linebackers- and Oregon- to coach at Willamette University from 2017-2019.
He played collegiate ball at Endicott University. He graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Sport Management. Thayer earned his MBA during his graduate assistantship at Anderson University.
DeSanti will be the OC for the Bison in the upcoming 2024 season. Desanti comes from Chadron State College (CSC) where he last served as the Recruiting Coordinator and wide receivers coach. He was a part of the Eagles staff since 2016. He started his coaching career at CSC as a running backs coach and a special teams assistant. Desanti continued working with special teams in his third season, but switched his positionary group to tight ends. Since then, Desanti has controlled the wide receiver and recruiting coordinator duties for CSC.
Robinson had this to say about DeSanti's step up into a role as Bethany's OC: "(DeSanti) will provide a fresh perspective and energy to our offense. I'm excited to see him get to work with our guys".
DeSanti does have experience as a game-day OC. He served as the interim OC for a game during the 2020 "COVID Season" where he guided an Eagles offense to 35 points, 478 total yards, and 192 rushing yards.
He played college ball at NAIA/Division II (transitioned) Black Hills State University where he earned All-Conference honors, second team all-conference honors, and Rookie of the Year honors. At Black Hills State, DeSanti double majored in Physical Education and Exercise Science. He then went on to earn his Masters of Science in Organizational Management during his time as a graduate assistant coach at CSC.
Both began their respective duties this past Monday.
