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Katy Szymanski
Katy Szymanski enters her 10th season as head coach of the Trinity College women's lacrosse team, having guided the Bantams to the post-season in the toughest conference in NCAA Division III each season. Szymanski, the 2012 Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) National Assistant Coach of the Year and the 2016 IWLCA Division III Berkshire Region Coach of the Year, was promoted to head coach at Trinity in June of 2014. She guided Trinity through its unprecedented run of six-straight NCAA Division III Championship Final Fours from 2012-2017, including an NCAA Championship season in 2012. Szymanski was also a participant in the 2011 NCAA Final Four as a captain for Bowdoin College's squad. In 2019, the Bantams fielded a young team that went 9-7 overall and 4-6 in NESCAC play. Trinity started off the year with wins in eight of its first 10 games and finished ranked No. 17 in the final IWLCA National Poll. Dissinger led Trinity to a 2-1 record in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short and to a 3-4 mark the following spring. In 2022, Szymanski's squad finished 9-7, played in the NESCAC Tournament, and mentored IWLCA All-American Emma Alpaugh.
Trinity played in seven-consecutive NESCAC Finals from 2011 to 2017 and won the league title for the fifth-straight year in Szymanski's rookie year as head coach in 2015. The Bantams returned to the NCAA Elite Eight for the seventh straight season in 2018, finishing the season with a 13-7 overall record and a 6-4 mark in the NESCAC. Trinity earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament where they defeated Springfield, 16-4, and Rhodes College, 20-11, before ultimately ending their season with a 9-8 loss at Salisbury in the quarterfinals. In the final poll IWLCA poll, Trinity was ranked No. 8 in the country. Szymanski guided a Trinity team that boasted three All-Americans, five All-Region selections, four All-NESCAC honorees, and 13 NESCAC All-Academic selections. Senior goalie Zoe Ferguson was the 2018 IWLCA Division III National Goaltender of the Year and the New England Lacrosse Journal Division III Player of the Year, marking the second consecutive spring that Szymanski has coached a national player of the year.
In 2017, Szymanski led Trinity back to the NCAA Final Four, as the Bantams posted a 17-5 overall record and 8-2 NESCAC mark. Trinity fell to eventual National Champion Gettysburg, 8-4, in the semifinals, snapping Trinity's streak of five NCAA Finals appearances in a row. Senior Clare Lyne capped off her career by being named as the IWLCA National Division III Attacker of the Year, as Szymanski guided a Bantam team that featured three All-Americans, six Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-Region players and 13 NESCAC All-Academic selections.
In her second season at the helm of the program, Szymanski guided the Bantams to the NCAA Final Four and the National Championship game for the fifth straight season. Trinity finished 2016 with a 19-4 overall record and a 9-1 mark in NESCAC action. After ending the regular season as the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC Championship Tournament, the Bantams fell to Middlebury, 10-7, in the league title game. Senior midfielder Martha Griffin capped off a stellar season for Trinity, as she was named as the ECAC Division III Offensive Player of the Year, the NESCAC Player of the Year for the second straight season, was the first Bantam lacrosse player to grace the CoSIDA Academic All-American Team, and received the Trinity College Senior Female Athlete of the Year (Trinity Club of Hartford Award). Szymanski led a 2016 squad that boasted three All-Americans and 11 NESCAC All-Academic honorees.
Szymanski's rookie season in 2014-15 as head coach was equally remarkable, as the Bantams finished 21-2, tying the College record for wins in a season, and downed Franklin and Marshall, 11-6, in the NCAA Semifinals before falling to Cortland State, 17-6, in the finals. The Bantams won their fifth consecutive NESCAC Championship title with a 13-8 triumph against Bowdoin on May 3 and won 21 games in a row in between a season-opening loss at Colby and the NCAA Finals. Griffin garnered National Midfielder of the Year honors and three Trinity players received All-American honors.
Szymanski arrived at Trinity as an assistant coach in 2011-12, and immediately proved herself to be a huge asset to the women’s lacrosse program. She performed all the duties of head coach during the fall while the head coach was on a semester-long maternity leave and guided the team through its off-season preparations following a home loss to Bowdoin in the 2011 NCAA Quarterfinals. The Bantams went on to an historic run to the College's first NCAA crown in any women's sport that spring. The Bantams finished that season and defeated Cortland State and Salisbury in NCAA Final Four to win the title. Trinity won its first 21 games in 2013, before falling to Salisbury in the NCAA Finals, and finished 19-3 in 2014 including an 8-7 win over top-ranked and previously-undefeated Cortland State in the NCAA Semifinals before losing, 9-6, in the finals to Salisbury.
Szymanski earned her bachelor's degree from Bowdoin in visual arts and environmental studies in 2011 and added a master's degree in public policy from Trinity in 2013. Szymanski starred at center midfielder for her alma mater from 2008 to 2011, earning IWLCA All-Regional honors twice and receiving the program's Ellen Tiemer Trophy for excellence in lacrosse by a vote of her teammates and her coach. Szymanski, who was also an assistant field hockey coach at Trinity from 2011 to 2013, is an assistant professor at the College in physical education. She organizes a fall clinic for inner-city youth in Hartford each autumn and serves on the athletic department's marketing and communication committee and its sports medicine committee.
Szymanski has served on the Venture Orientation Committee for the past eight years, helping to develop and expand programming for first-year females committed to making a difference in the world. The program runs for three days during orientation and provides an opportunity for first-year females to meet faculty, alumnae, senior administrators and trustees while focusing on building their strengths and confidence before entering Trinity. There are a handful of year-round programming throughout their four years. She resides in West Hartford with her husband, Tom.
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