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Colorado College

Colorado College Tiger Athletics
14 E. Cache La Poudre St. Colorado Springs, CO 80903
Division 3 Colorado Southwest
Private Small National competitor

Coaches

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Susan Stuart

Few people can match the impact that Susan Stuart has made on the sport of women’s lacrosse as a player, coach and administrator.


Under Stuart’s guidance, Colorado College has been one of the most successful Division III programs in the country, as well as the standard-bearer for teams from the West Region. During her 28-season tenure, the Tigers posted a 290-135-1 record and earned 11 appearances in the NCAA Division III Women’s Lacrosse Championship.


At the Division III level, Stuart ranks sixth among active coaches with five or more seasons with 290 career victories and 22nd with a .682 winning percentage. All-time, for coaches 10 or more years, she is 12th in total wins and tied for 22nd in winning percentage. Across all NCAA Divisions, Stuart ranks 18th among active coaches and 23rd in all-time victories.


CC, which owns a 11-11 all-time postseason record, advanced to the national semifinals in 2005 after defeating a pair of nationally-ranked opponents – Union College and SUNY Cortland – at the regional level. Colorado College is still the only program from the West to advance to the final four.


The Tigers also posted the biggest comeback in the tournament's history in 2007 when they overcame a 9-0 deficit to defeat No. 18 Nazareth College, 12-11, in triple overtime in a regional semifinal at Salisbury University.


In 2019, Stuart was named West Region Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association for the seventh time after guiding the Tigers to an 18-2 record and the No. 1 ranking in the West Region by the NCAA.


CC began that season with a school-record 15-game winning streak, which included victories over the other five regionally-ranked teams in the West. The Tigers prevailed in road contests at No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, No. 4 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, No. 5 Occidental College and No. 6 Hamline University. They also defeated No. 2 Illinois Wesleyan University at home.


The Tigers finished the 2019 campaign ranked No. 17 in the final IWLCA Division III Coaches Poll, which was the highest among the teams that did not advance to a regional final of the NCAA championship.


Under Stuart’s expert tutelage, Colorado College has produced 12 IWLCA All-Americans, the most recent of which was Eva King, who was a third-team selection in 2019. The Tigers also have a combined 39 all-region selections since 2009, which is the first year of the IWLCA archives.


CC’s demanding admission requirements and rigorous academic standards present their own challenges, but Stuart embraces coaching at one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Her formula for success includes recruiting student-athletes whose priority is a world-class liberal arts education and developing athletes into highly-skilled lacrosse players.


After the 2019 season, the IWLCA named the Tigers a Zag Sports Academic Honor Squad for the ninth year in a row as well as the 14th time since the award was first given out in 2004. The Tigers also are regular recipients of organization's top individual award, a spot on the IWLCA's Academic Honor Roll.


Stuart’s contributions to women’s lacrosse extend far beyond the walls of Colorado College.


In 2019, she began a three-year term as a Division III representative on the IWLCA Board of Directors. The seven-time West Region Coach of the Year also has served on the organization’s All-America Committee and the NCAA West Region Committee.


Stuart also has worked tirelessly to promote the growth of the sport, particularly in the West Region. Her willingness to play fledgling programs from Division III conferences such as the Northwest Conference and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, as well those from the Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, has helped the sport expand and directly led to increased opportunities for student-athletes to compete at the collegiate level.


Before beginning her coaching career as an assistant at Roanoke College, Penn State University and James Madison University, Stuart was an All-American goaltender at William Smith College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and Religious Studies in 1989.


Stuart continued her competitive career as Team Canada’s starting goalie for two World Cups, in Edogawa, Japan (1997) and High Wycombe, England (2001). She also was a member of the United States women's national team from 1989 through 1995, a period that saw her compete on tour against Canada in 1990, England in 1991 and Wales in 1995.


Most recently, Stuart served as an assistant coach and helped guide Team Canada to a silver medal at the 2013 World Cup in Oshawa, Ontario.

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Ashley Johnson

Ashley Johnson, a former Division I player and coach, is in her second season as an assistant coach at Colorado College in 2022-23.


Johnson added a wealth of knowledge and experience from her six seasons at the University of California Davis, where she served as the top assistant since the fall of 2015. While at Davis, Johnson was the offensive coordinator, draw specialist and goaltender coach, as well as the program’s recruiting coordinator.


In 2021, she helped guide the Aggies to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship as well as their third consecutive No. 1 seed for the MPSF Tournament. She helped lead UC Davis to a 12-4 record, the program’s best since 2004, and coached the league’s player of the year as well as seven first-team all-MPSF selections.


Under Johnson’s direction, the Aggies were ranked in the NCAA’s top 5 in scoring offense in 2021 when they set the program record for the most 20-goal games in one season and earned a spot on the NCAA records list for scoring 27 goals in one game against Fresno State.


Prior to her arrival in Davis, Johnson served two seasons as the first assistant at Marist College (2013-15) and three at Wagner College (2010-13), where she began her coaching career as a graduate assistant and was quickly promoted to first assistant.


In 2014, Marist set the program record for victories in a single season with a 14-3 record, and the Red Foxes won the MAAC regular-season championship and the top-seed for the conference tournament. The next year, they ranked No. 1 in the conference averaging 5.0 assists per game, second in points (15.2) and third in goals (10.12).


In 2020, Johnson served as an assistant coach with the Ugandan National Team, and continues to collaborate virtually with coaches in Kenya to build individual skills, drills, practices and coaching clinics.


Johnson also has an extensive history on the summer camp circuit, working at some of the top collegiate destinations such Virginia, Princeton, Cal and UC Davis. She also has coached at several of the top club camps.


The Arvada, Colo., native and 2006 Golden High School graduate played Division I lacrosse at Mount St. Mary’s University, where she was a team captain and earned first-team all-NEC accolades as an attacker in 2010 and a midfielder in 2008.


She received the school’s John M. Kolon Award, which is presented annually to four ‘Outstanding and Dedicated’ student-athletes.


Johnson earned her bachelor’s degree in business marketing from St. Mary’s in 2010, and earned a master’s in business management from Wagner in 2012.

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