Fairfield Sports Information
Fairfield, Conn. - Fairfield University Director of Athletics
Eugene P. Doris today named Andrew Copelan the Stags new head men's
lacrosse coach. Copelan becomes the Stags third head coach in the
program's varsity history.
"Andrew is one of the bright young coaches in the game today," said
Doris, "and I am excited to have him leading our program. He
has shown the ability to win big games and recruit the top
student-athletes in the nation, and I am confident that with Andrew
our program is in good hands. I would also like to thank the
search committee for the fantastic job they did in conducting this
national search of highly-qualified candidates."
Copelan has served as an assistant coach to Dave Cottle at the
University of Maryland, for the past three seasons. In each
of those campaigns the Terrapins qualified for the NCAA Tournament,
advancing to the Final Four in 2006.
"I am extremely excited and honored to be given the opportunity to
be the head coach of the lacrosse program at Fairfield," said
Copelan. "There is a strong tradition of winning at Fairfield
and I look forward to the challenge of taking the Stags to the next
level."
For the past two seasons Copelan has been the Terps' offensive
coordinator, leading one of the top ranked offenses in the nation.
Last season the Terps finished the year 13th in the nation in
scoring offense, averaging 10.5 goals per game, while finishing the
season as the sixth-best team in man-up scoring. The Terps were
also seventh in the nation in scoring margin in 2008.
In 2007, Copelan had Maryland ranked fourth in the
nation in man-up goals and 12th in goals.
Copelan has also served as the recruiting coordinator for Maryland
the last two seasons, with great success.
InsideLacrosse ranked the Terps' 2008 class as the
third best in the country, while the 2007 class was ranked second.
Individually, Copelan helped the Terps secure six of the
nations top-50 recruits in this season's class.
"I think that Fairfield hired an outstanding coach, and more
importantly a great person," said Cottle, the 1988 USILA
Coach-of-the Year. "Andy is very prepared for this job. We
are going to miss Andy, but wish him nothing but the best at
Fairfield."
Copelan broke into the coaching ranks at Marist College in 2004 as
the youngest Division I head coach in the nation. That first
season he was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)
Coach of the Year, leading the Red Foxes to the MAAC Regular Season
crown and their first winning season in six years. He
followed that the next season leading Marist to their first-ever
NCAA Tournament berth.
Copelan was a four-year varsity letter winner at Bucknell
University, where he earned All-Patriot League accolades.
Additionally he was named to the Academic Honor Roll for
Student-Athletes in each of his four seasons.
Fairfield lacrosse is in its fourth season as a member of the
eight-team ECAC Lacrosse League. The Stags made NCAA appearances in
2002 and 2005 as the champions of the Great West Lacrosse
League.