Tanner Kingsley grew up in Beacon Falls, Connecticut, in a family with a football focus: his father had been a coach his entire life and his two brothers also turned to coaching. Playing football for Woodland Regional High School, Kingsley broke and still holds the state record by tossing 113 touchdowns during his high school career.

Kingsley continued to play quarterback on the collegiate level for Division 1 Central Connecticut State. But prior to his senior season, he was in talks with Anna Maria College’s football coach Dan Mulrooney. Kingsley promised the new coach that he would finish out his college football career with the AMCats if he could be promised a coaching job following his graduation. So, in 2019 the Connecticut native led the Division 3 Paxton college squad onto the football field.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 hit during 2020, so his coaching debut was put on hold until 2021. That season, Anna Maria won the conference championship, and, under Kingsley’s guidance as the team’s quarterback coach, their quarterback was named the conference player of the year. Over the next three years Kingsley would be elevated to the AMCats offensive coordinator. The team was ranked nationally in the top 20 offensively as they averaged 39 points per game. 

In 2024 Head Coach Steve Croce announced his retirement from Anna Maria and Kingsley jumped at the opportunity to apply for the vacancy. Eventually he was named the Anna Maria head coach, the youngest collegiate head coach in the country across all three divisions.

“All of my coaches along the way made some sort of impact on me so I wanted to return the favor,” the first-year head coach said. “It’s all about the guys on my team and I want to impact their lives.”

Kinglsey found that he loved all aspects of Anna Maria College as soon as he arrived on campus. Being named the school’s head coach at the age of 28 meant a lot to him, as it demonstrated the faith the school has in his coaching skills. He also felt that he could relate to the players as he had been playing college football not that long ago.

Last fall the AMCats finished 4-5, showing that they had great promise. Playing in the Eastern College Football Conference (ECFC), the team was ranked 11th in the nation for passing and 16th in total offense with Kingsley as the team’s offensive coordinator. Coming into this year, the ECFC was dissolved, and all Anna Maria sports teams now play in the Mass State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC).

“The MASCAC is a much better conference, and we should be a very competitive team. We already know and have played a bunch of the teams,” Kingsley said. “The biggest change from the ECFC is that you could win a championship in four games. In the MASCAC, weeks two through ten are all conference teams and none of them are going to let you rest. It will challenge our guys to play their best all the time.”

As the football players enter their first campaign under the tutelage of the new head coach, Kingsley is looking to build a family culture on and off the field. This year’s team will be relatively young after losing a lot of talented athletes with a lot of playing experience, but the first-year coach is optimistic at forging a future with this team. 

“We have a freshman quarterback and since I am the head coach, the offensive coordinator who calls the plays as well as the quarterback coach, I need to have a close relationship with them. It’s one of the most important phases to the team,” he said. 

Although he has just begun his head coaching career, Kinglsey is eventually looking to coach on a higher level.

“I definitely have dreams and aspirations of coaching on the highest level,” the coach said. “But I am watering the grass where I am at for now.”

Having coached at Anna Maria College for four seasons, Kingsley has shown that he knows how to get his teams to elevate their play on the offensive side of the ball. If he can bring the process to the defensive side, he will most likely be a commodity to the higher levels of football coaching.