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Maddie Dugan
Maddie Dugan has been named the head coach of Eastern Michigan University lacrosse, Vice President/Director of Athletics Scott Wetherbee announced today, Aug. 8, 2024. Dugan, the 2024 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year, comes to Ypsilanti following a successful season with the University of Detroit Mercy where she guided the team to the championship game of the 2024 MAC Tournament as the fourth-seeded team.
The third head coach in program history, Dugan inherits a youthful roster that advanced to the MAC Tournament of the first time in program history in 2024 and returns nearly all its impact players, including goalie Maddie Porter (Montrose, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson), the 2024 MAC Freshman of the Year, and Mackenzie Blackwell (North Beach, Md./Northern), a 2024 All-MAC First Team selection that ranked among the top sophomores nationally in goals scored and draw controls.
In her lone season leading the Titans, she was named the MAC Coach of the Year as Detroit Mercy was picked to finish last in the coaches' poll but made the playoffs and advanced to the championship game where it fell, 14-11, to Robert Morris University. UDM ended the year by making the postseason for the first time since 2019 and its first postseason win and championship appearance since 2016. The six wins and three victories on the road were also the most since 2019.
Dugan worked with several top players in the MAC, including Cat Kopchia, the 2024 MAC Offensive Player of the Year and an All-MAC First Team selection, with four other Titans earning placement on the All-MAC Second Team. Additionally, 13 of her student-athletes were named to the MAC All-Academic Team and the program recorded a 3.47 GPA during the year. The 2024 season marked the second Dugan spent in Detroit as she served as an assistant coach during the 2022 campaign, working with the offense and draw specialists.
Between her two seasons with the Titans, Dugan spent 2023 at The Woodlands High School in The Woodlands, Texas, where she led the team to a 9-4 overall record and was ranked first in Houston and sixth in the state, advancing to the quarterfinals for the state tournament. Her players earned six All-District, four All-State and one Academic All-American accolade, as well as one player honored with the Jackie Pitts Award, which recognizes high school seniors who go above and beyond in service to their team, school, and community.
From 2017-21, Dugan was the head coach of the program at Trine University, an NCAA Division III program in Angola, Ind. During her five seasons leading the Thunder, Dugan helped rebuild the program during her tenure with the team, steadily increasing its win total in her first three years as head coach. She helped the 2019 squad to its most wins since the 2011 season and coached three players to all-conference awards in three of her final four seasons with the program. During her final season as head coach at Trine, the squad reached the MIAA Tournament quarterfinals.
The Thunder set numerous single-season and career records for points, goals, assists and draw controls, among other records. Her Trine squads were also standouts in the classroom as she coached 31 total student-athletes to MIAA Academic Honor Roll laurels (3.5 GPA or higher) and the 2020 and 2021 squads had team GPAs of 3.61 and 3.60, respectively.
She began her coaching career at Wartburg College (Iowa) in 2014-15 as an assistant coach, where she helped establish a first-year program. She helped coach the team to a 3-4 mark in conference play in its first season of competition.
She returned to her Alma mater at Adrian College as an assistant coach in 2015-16 and helped coach the team to a four-win improvement from the previous season. Dugan worked primarily with the attackers and helped the Bulldogs accumulate 9.8 goals per game and 192 total points, an 81-point improvement from the previous season.
Outside the collegiate ranks, Dugan has also coached several highly successful club lacrosse teams with Pure Advantage Lacrosse, a southwest Michigan program for elite high school athletes, and Medusa Lacrosse Club. She served as the head coach for Pure Advantage from 2015-24 and will once again helm the team for the 2025 summer campaign.
Dugan played collegiately at Adrian and was a two-time All-Conference performer at attack, including All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) First Team honors as a senior in 2014. She tallied 159 points (106 goals, 53 assists) during her standout career and helped the Bulldogs to four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. A 2014 graduate of Adrian with a degree in Criminal Justice, she was inducted into the Adrian College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024.
A native of Rochester, Mich., she lettered four years in lacrosse at Notre Dame Prep and was a member of the 2010 CHSL sectional championship team. She was tabbed CHSL All-League in 2009 and 2010 and was honorable mention All-State as a senior.
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