Learning from Legendary Lacrosse Coach Bill Tierney – LGR Episode 174
By Coach Damon
Last updated: November 6, 2023
This Episode Is Brought To You By:
On today’s Lax Goalie Rat Podcast episode, I sit down to chat with legendary lacrosse head coach at Denver University, Bill Tierney.
One of college lacrosse’s greatest coaches of all time, Coach Tierney has captured an NCAA-record 7 National Championships during his amazing career.
In 2015, when he won a National Championship at Denver he became the first coach in NCAA lacrosse history to win National Championships with two different programs while leading the University of Denver to the program’s first national title in just his sixth year in charge of the Pioneers.
Prior to arriving at Denver, Tierney was at the helm of a powerhouse program at Princeton. However, the Tigers weren’t exactly a powerhouse before Tierney arrived.
In the 20 years prior to his arrival, Princeton did not win an Ivy League championship, did not play in an NCAA tournament, and did not have a first-team All-American.
His impact on the student-athletes at Princeton has resulted in 26 first-team All-Americans, 73 first-team All-Ivy League selections, seven Ivy League Players of the Year, six Ivy League Rookies of the Year, and over 20 USILA Scholar All-Americas.
Princeton defeated Syracuse 10-9 in double overtime to win the 1992 national title, and the Tigers gave Tierney his second championship on Memorial Day 1994 with a 9-8 overtime win over Virginia.
The Tigers again defeated Virginia in overtime in 1996 and then tied the largest victory margin in the championship game in 1997’s 19-7 win over Maryland.
Their 5th title was won when the Tigers defeated Maryland in 1998 15-5.
Then Tierney led Princeton to the NCAA championship game each year from 2000 to 2002, each time against Syracuse, including title number 6 with a 10-9 overtime win in 2001.
Coach Tierney hasn’t just coached a lot of great lacrosse teams, he’s also coached a lot of great lacrosse goalies.
Goalie greats like Scott Bacigalupo, Quint Kessenich, Ryan LaPlante, Bill’s son Trever Tierney and our very own Sponsored Athlete Jack Thompson have all spent time under Tierney and credit him for their development and success on and off the field.
Coach Tierney joins the show today to talk about the great goalies he’s coached, what he looks for when recruiting goalies, the 92’ Princeton team, and much more!
Show Notes
Video Interview with Bill Tierney
Photos of Coach Tierney
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