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Great coaches understand what it takes to create a winning program even if that program has been down for any extended amount of time. The great ones have the ability to create winning programs no matter what the circumstances are and can do it any level including the high school level.

One of the greatest architects in terms of building programs is the head lacrosse coach at The University of Princeton. Not only has coach Bill Tierney turned the Tigers into a perennial powerhouse but he has experienced success at every level of the coaching world, including Levittown High School in Long Island, NY.

When Coach Tierney took over for the Princeton Tigers back in 1987, he inherited a team that had not won an Ivy League Title since 1967. It took him just 5 years to win his first National Championship in 1992 and has won 5 more since then. In his 21 years at Princeton Tierney has won 6 National Championships and has taken the Tigers to the Final Four 10 times.  To top it all off he was able to celebrate the 2001 National Championships with his two sons Trevor and Brendan who were both members of the Princeton Tigers that season.

We recently had a chance to sit down with the coach that some have called “The Vince Lombardi of Lacrosse” and discuss everything from turning a program around, to recruiting, to coaching your sons and even finding out that Bill Tierney has had success coaching one other sport at the collegiate level besides lacrosse!

Bill Tierney Interview

 

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John Danowski had been at Hofstra University for 21 seasons winning 8 conference championships in that time. After the 2006 season he decided it was time to move on and accepted the Head Lacrosse position at Duke University. This was an intriguing decision due to a couple of factors, the main one of course being the fact that Duke was just coming off the scandal involving the alleged rape of an exotic dancer by three members of the Duke men’s lacrosse team, and the other was the fact that his son Matt was on the team at Duke. John saw this as an opportunity to help his son and a team recover and get back on the right track. He knew he was entering a hornet’s nest but felt prepared for the job and understood that he first had to restore the reputation of the players, the program and the University.

Coach Danowski At Practice

In this interview John speaks about his decision to take on the Duke job and how he turned this around down there so quickly. He has taken Duke to the NCAA Final Four the last two seasons and hope this year to finally get that elusive National Championship.

John Danowski Interview