(above) DU landed on page B15 of today's New York TimesFrom: New York Times
by Joshua Robinson
Whenever the time came to hire a coach, college lacrosse programs across the country had been reaching out to Princeton’s Bill Tierney for years. They were not necessarily trying to pry him away. They just wanted advice from someone who had spent nearly four decades in the game — maybe a few names, or a couple of places to look.
When the University of Denver began searching for a coach last month, it was no different. Except, Tierney said, the more he heard about the job, the more he was intrigued.
On Monday, Tierney was announced as the Denver Pioneers’ new coach after 22 years, 6 national championships and 14 Ivy League titles with Princeton. This season, the Tigers finished 13-3 and lost to Cornell, the eventual runner-up, in the N.C.A.A. tournament quarterfinals. Tierney’s record at Princeton was 238-86.
“I’m not sure which came first, the right time or the right place,” said Tierney, who has grown children on the West Coast and whose son Trevor will join him as an assistant. “I’m about challenges. Until I came to Princeton, every other job I had was rebuilding, and we did that here.”
Tierney began his career building high school programs from the ground up. He did the same in his first college head-coaching job, taking the Rochester Institute of Technology to its first N.C.A.A. tournament within two seasons.
Even when Tierney moved on to an assistant’s position at the lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins, rebuilding duties found him. He was appointed the Johns Hopkins men’s soccer coach without ever having coached the game and soon turned around the program, leading it to the N.C.A.A. Division III tournament.
When Tierney went to Princeton as the lacrosse coach in 1987, the Tigers had not won an Ivy League championship or played in the N.C.A.A. tournament for 20 years.
“Once you build something, the hard part is a) maintaining it and b) not letting your prosperity destroy your program,” he said.
Denver does not have to worry about such prosperity yet. The Pioneers have played at the Division I level for 10 years and are coming off a 7-8 season in which three players were dismissed.
Peg Bradley-Doppes, the university’s vice chancellor for athletics, said she believed that Tierney could do more than make the Pioneers contenders as they join the East Coast Athletic Conference next season. She said Tierney could turn Denver into a standard bearer for the game outside its traditional Northeast base.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to grow the sport,” Bradley-Doppes said.
Lacrosse is played now in dense pockets across the country, spread out like airline hubs. “We just need to connect the dots,” Tierney said.
But with more and more players playing the sport in high school, he said, the top tier of the college game is not growing quickly enough.
“There are more lacrosse players coming out of high school than Division I can possibly use,” Tierney said. “So your chances now of getting good players from out West or other ‘remote’ areas are so much better. You’ve only got to get nine a year and you can be great.”
When the University of Denver began searching for a coach last month, it was no different. Except, Tierney said, the more he heard about the job, the more he was intrigued.
On Monday, Tierney was announced as the Denver Pioneers’ new coach after 22 years, 6 national championships and 14 Ivy League titles with Princeton. This season, the Tigers finished 13-3 and lost to Cornell, the eventual runner-up, in the N.C.A.A. tournament quarterfinals. Tierney’s record at Princeton was 238-86.
“I’m not sure which came first, the right time or the right place,” said Tierney, who has grown children on the West Coast and whose son Trevor will join him as an assistant. “I’m about challenges. Until I came to Princeton, every other job I had was rebuilding, and we did that here.”
Tierney began his career building high school programs from the ground up. He did the same in his first college head-coaching job, taking the Rochester Institute of Technology to its first N.C.A.A. tournament within two seasons.
Even when Tierney moved on to an assistant’s position at the lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins, rebuilding duties found him. He was appointed the Johns Hopkins men’s soccer coach without ever having coached the game and soon turned around the program, leading it to the N.C.A.A. Division III tournament.
When Tierney went to Princeton as the lacrosse coach in 1987, the Tigers had not won an Ivy League championship or played in the N.C.A.A. tournament for 20 years.
“Once you build something, the hard part is a) maintaining it and b) not letting your prosperity destroy your program,” he said.
Denver does not have to worry about such prosperity yet. The Pioneers have played at the Division I level for 10 years and are coming off a 7-8 season in which three players were dismissed.
Peg Bradley-Doppes, the university’s vice chancellor for athletics, said she believed that Tierney could do more than make the Pioneers contenders as they join the East Coast Athletic Conference next season. She said Tierney could turn Denver into a standard bearer for the game outside its traditional Northeast base.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to grow the sport,” Bradley-Doppes said.
Lacrosse is played now in dense pockets across the country, spread out like airline hubs. “We just need to connect the dots,” Tierney said.
But with more and more players playing the sport in high school, he said, the top tier of the college game is not growing quickly enough.
“There are more lacrosse players coming out of high school than Division I can possibly use,” Tierney said. “So your chances now of getting good players from out West or other ‘remote’ areas are so much better. You’ve only got to get nine a year and you can be great.”
1 comment:
Not sure what a half page ad in the NY Times costs, but lets just say Tierney is paying dividends already.
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