The 2023 season will be the 18th at the College, 15th as head coach, and third as offensive coordinator for Jim Catanzaro. He is also an associate director of athletics overseeing the Forester Game Plan.

Catanzaro led Lake Forest to the program's first back-to-back league titles and NCAA Division III Playoff appearances in 2021 and 2022. The Foresters have posted a 19-3 overall record and a mark of 17-1 in the Midwest Conference over the last two seasons. Catanzaro, the team's all-time leader in coaching victories with 82, has now overseen three of the Foresters' seven conference championships and two of their three trips to the national tournament.

Lake Forest players earned 16 All-MWC selections in 2022, including eight first team accolades. Five of them were also D3football.com All-Region honorees and special teams player Doug Antonucci was a Second Team All-American, raising the program's entries among the best in the coutry to eight in the last four seasons.

Lake Forest has broken or tied 34 school records in the last two years, including team marks for victories (10), consecutive victories (13), and points in a quarter (42), half (59 in a different contest), game (84), and season (456). Prolific on defense as well, the Foresters have allowed just 11.5 points and 221 yards per contest since the beginning of 2021.

The Foresters have posted a winning record each of the last seven seasons and Lake Forest's 51-13 record since 2016 represents the best seven-year winning percentage in program history. With victories in four of five home games in 2022, the team is 41-11 on Farwell Field in the last 11 seasons with a school record-tying 10-game home winning streak from 2012-13. 

Catanzaro was named MWC Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2021. He has also been a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award twice in his tenure. Catanzaro's players have earned 142 All-MWC honors since he took over as head coach, including 70 First Team accolades and five Player of the Year/MVP awards. Fifteen players on the team have been named all-region by D3football.com and 10 have earned All-American distinction. The Foresters have also broken or tied school records in 87 different categories during that time.

Lake Forest was especially successful on the defensive side of the ball with Catanzaro as defensive coordinator from 2006-17. In addition to ranking among the conference and national leaders in several statistical categories as a team, individual defensive players tallied 59 all-conference honors during that time.

Catanzaro’s team’s improvement on the field has coincided with its increased success in the classroom. The Foresters have had 115 Academic All-MWC selections in the last four years the award was presented, including a program record 35 in 2022-23, and have amassed 248 such honors in his time as head coach. In addition, 41 players on the team have been selected to the prestigious Hampshire Society of the National Football Foundation and Anthony DerManulian was named an Academic All-American® by the College Sports Information Directors of America in 2021.

Forester Football has also been extremely involved in the community under Catanzaro’s watch. The team’s annual Heroes Day efforts have generated more than 385 care packages to be sent to American troops overseas and the squad has raised more than $100,000 in the last decade in Lake Forest’s Relay for Life initiative. The College has twice presented the team with the Program of the Year award for its participation in on-campus events. The Foresters also participated in the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation/Be The Match by registering 260 individuals in 2023. Additionally, Catanzaro’s players have contributed to numerous other community service projects, both individually and as a group, and routinely average more than 500 hours of community service per semester.

At the national level Catanzaro served on the NCAA Division III Football Committee from 2016-20, including the final two years as the National Committee Chair. He was also a Regional Advisory Committee member from 2014-19. In 2019 he was elected as one of two NCAA Division III members to the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Board of Trustees and was elevated to the 3rd Vice President role in January of 2023. Catanzaro has served on several AFCA committees, including the Summer Manual Committee, the All-American Selection Committee (Region 5 Chair in 2021), and Honors and Distinguished Members Committee, and as the liaison to the Division III Assistant Coaches Committee. Catanzaro has also been a member of the NCAA’s Sports Science Institute Concussion Data Taskforce since its inception. In 2023, he was voted as the Midwest Conference Football Chairperson by his conference colleagues.

Catanzaro is a nationally certified strength and conditioning coach who also maintains a USA Weightlifting Level 1 certification.

Catanzaro came to Lake Forest from NCAA Division II Wingate University, where he was the defensive line coach for three seasons and was part of the South Atlantic Conference Coaching Staff of the Year in 2004. The Bulldog defense tallied 86 sacks, led the SAC in turnovers twice, and helped the 2004 team post the best single-season record in the program’s history. In addition, a pair of Wingate players earned All-American honors under his direction. He was also the head strength coach for all Wingate sports.

Prior to his time at Wingate, Catanzaro was the defensive line coach, recruiting coordinator, and head strength coach for three seasons at Glenville State College. The Pioneers claimed the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title in 2001 and he was a member of that year’s WVIAC Coaching Staff of the Year.

Catanzaro graduated from Greenville University, where he started every game of his career and earned all-conference honors on both sides of the ball. He also handled all the long snapping duties. The team captured a conference title his senior season. Catanzaro also lettered twice in basketball and once in tennis. 

He later earned a master’s degree in communications studies from West Virginia University.

Catanzaro, his wife Catherine, and their children Caden and Katie reside in nearby Gurnee.