Skip to main content

Steve Colfer, Dave Cottle, Jim Stagnitta and Lars Tiffany are US Lacrosse Magazine’s finalists for Best Men's Coach of 2019.

Head over to Twitter to cast your vote and look for results in our annual Best of Lacrosse (#BestOfLax) edition coming out in December.

More information on each finalist appears below.

Steve Colfer​
Cabrini

Steve Colfer’s building project at Cabrini reached the summit in 2019 with the Cavaliers winning their first NCAA Division III championship after beating Amherst 16-12 in the championship game. Along the way, Cabrini avenged its two regular season losses by beating York and Salisbury in the NCAA tournament. Colfer took over as Cabrini’s head coach in 2001 and led the team to a school-record 11 victories. Cabrini has won at least 10 games every year since and has now played in 18 consecutive NCAA tournaments. The Cavaliers reached the quarterfinal round for the first time in 2008 and had their breakthrough moment in front of a hometown crowd in Philadelphia this past May.

Dave Cottle​
Chesapeake Bayhawks​

Dave Cottle brought home his fourth Major League Lacrosse championship after leading the Chesapeake Bayhawks to a 10-9 victory over Denver earlier this month. Cottle previously won MLL titles with the Bayhawks in 2010, 2012 and 2013. After dropping three of four games to fall to 8-6, the Bayhawks righted the ship with back-to-back wins over the Denver Outlaws to enter the playoffs on a two-game winning streak. In the semifinals, Chesapeake trailed Atlanta 10-5 in the second half before storming back for a 14-13 overtime win. In the championship game, the script was flipped as Chesapeake held a five-goal lead before Denver scored six straight goals to take a fourth-quarter lead. Chesapeake scored two goals in the final 2:15 to bring home the championship.

Jim Stagnitta
Whipsnakes​

The inaugural Premier Lacrosse League season ended with Jim Stagnitta leading Whipsnakes LC to the championship. Fueled by three straight one-goal victories to open the season, Whipsnakes used the hot start to earn the No. 2 seed for the playoffs. In the semifinal round of the playoffs, Whipsnakes used one of the most impressive team efforts in the PLL to beat regular season champion Chaos, 15-7. In the championship game, Whipsnakes jumped out early and then turned back a late rally by Redwoods when Matt Rambo tied the game with just 21 seconds left in regulation and then won it in overtime.

Lars Tiffany
Virginia

In just his third season at the University of Virginia, Tiffany led the Cavaliers to a NCAA championship. The Cavaliers tied a school record with 17 victories, won their first NCAA title since 2011 and their first ACC crown since 2010. The 13-9 win over Yale in the championship game was a departure from the late game heroics that took place all year for Virginia. The Cavaliers won seven games by a single goal, five of them in overtime, including a 13-12 win over Duke in the NCAA semifinals when Virginia scored two goals in the final minute to force overtime.