Caniglia returns to DSU football coaching staff
MADISON, S.D. (DSUAthletics.com) – Josh Anderson, who is entering his twelfth season as Dakota State Trojan football head coach, is excited to announce the hiring of Mike Caniglia as the assistant coach/offensive line. He returns to Dakota State for his third time during his coaching career.
Prior coming back to DSU, Caniglia has spent the last five seasons at NCAA Division II Upper Iowa University under former Trojan football head coach/alumnus Tom Shea. Caniglia was the running backs, defensive backs, special teams’ coach as well as sharing video coordinator duties during his time at Upper Iowa University.
Caniglia was an assistant head coach (special teams and secondary coach) at Dakota State from 2010-13. He became the head coach for Orebro Black Knights, a Swedish Professional American Football team, in 2014. In his first and only year with the Black Knights, Caniglia ended the season with a 9-5 record and a trip to the European National Championship game played at the new Tel2 stadium in Stockholm, Sweden.
His first coaching stint with Dakota State was from 1991-93 as the defensive coordinator and special teams’ coach.
Caniglia’s coaching resume includes coaching the secondary with New Orleans Saints as a guest coach, the University of Idaho and Arizona Western College. He also served as a special teams’ and wide receivers’ coach at the University of Wyoming and volunteered as a linebacker coach at Arizona State University.
Caniglia taught and coached at the high school level, serving as the defensive coordinator at East and Central High School in Cheyenne, Wyo. His other stops were at St. Monica High School in California and Kingman High School in Arizona. He also served as an athletic director at both FCS/Jeffery Wardle High School and St. Mary’s Seton High School in Cheyenne.
Caniglia earned a Master of Science degree in athletic administration at the University of Wyoming in 1989. He completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree in physical education in 1987 at Southern California College after studying at Northern Arizona University and Golden West College earlier in his academic career.
Caniglia played at Northern Arizona and Golden West College during his time on their campuses.
