Launching the Mitten State Lax Newsletter
Ten years ago I made the @mittenstatelax Twitter account. Nine years ago I made the mittenstatelax.com web site (inspired by the OGs All Lacrosse Michigan and Great Lax State) to collect and share my (admittedly somewhat obsessive) interests in lacrosse in Michigan. Today I’m starting a newsletter. Much of the content will be the same kinds of stuff that I’ve been sharing on social media and the web site all of these years…but now conveniently arriving in your email inbox. I anticipate a few posts a week in the spring and a few posts a month the rest of the year. Most won’t be as long as this one (with this first one there’s a big backlog of info to share).
Please share this on social media or forward it to anyone that you think might be interested.
What’s On My Mind
The college season kicked off in the Mitten State last Friday night on the men’s side with Madonna’s win over visiting Montreat in the field house at Detroit Country Day and on the women’s side with Michigan State’s 12 to 8 win over Grand Valley State’s club team. On Saturday the Michigan and Michigan-Dearborn men got wins while Davenport fell to #10 Indianapolis. The Detroit Mercy men open their season on Tuesday afternoon at Ohio State. On the women’s side Division I, Michigan and Detroit Mercy have their first games on Friday and Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan have theirs on Sunday.
Excitement is in the air as Saginaw Valley State (first game Feb 14 at Lake Erie) and Northwood (first game Feb 14 at William Jewell) are launching women’s teams and Northwood is launching a men’s (first game Feb 11 at Quincy). The Northwood men have a roster of 35 with all but one hailing from the Mitten State. The Northwood women have a roster of 19 featuring players from around the Midwest and a few from Canada. Saginaw Valley State has 14 players on its roster and was looking to add an assistant coach and having open tryouts to add players in early January.
On the down side, Concordia-Ann Arbor’s men’s and women’s teams are entering their final seasons as the university will discontinue all athletic programs after the 2024-25 school year.
Men’s College Scores
Fri Jan 31
Madonna 22 - Montreat 7 - WATCH
Sat Feb 1
Davenport 4 - Indianapolis 19 - Indianapolis, IN - WATCH - RECAP
Michigan 14 - Marquette 1 - Ann Arbor, MI - WATCH - RECAP - RECAP
Michigan-Dearborn 12 - Montreat 9 - Beverly Hills, MI - Detroit Country Day - WATCH - RECAP
Men’s College Schedule
Tue Feb 4
Women’s College Scores
Fri Jan 31
Grand Valley State Club 8 - Michigan State 12
Sat Feb 1
Lawrence Tech and Davenport scrimmaged at Detroit Country Day
On the web site I maintain interactive schedules consolidating info for all of the Mitten State’s college teams. I link to previews, live streams, recaps, etc. and post scores there. You might want to bookmark these pages (you can also find the links at the top of the mittenstatelax.com home page):
Headlines
Michigan-Dearborn Wolverines Down Montreat, Win Lax Season Opener
Michigan MLAX Defense Stifles Marquette in Season-Opening Victory
Lawrence Tech Men's Lacrosse Anticipates Exciting Season Under New Head Coach Shane Lewandowski
Adrian Women's Lacrosse Announces Team Captains for the 2025 Season
Aquinas College Announces Coaching Change for Women's Lacrosse
NCAA Men's Lacrosse Preview: No. 16 Michigan Leaning on Transfers
NCAA Women's Lacrosse Preview: No. 3 Michigan Primed for an Encore
Coaches Corner
Launching and building new Division I programs seems to be Michigan-native Sara Tisdale’s thing. Last summer she resigned from the head coaching position at Eastern Michigan (where she had built a new program over two seasons) to lead the new program at Florida State which is embarking on their first season this spring. Tisdale replaced former GVSU head coach Alicia Groveston Jackson who was named EMU’s first head coach but departed to pursue a family opportunity out of state before their first season. Before joining Eastern Michigan, Tisdale had a successful tenure at Central Michigan where she built the program from the ground up over the course of seven seasons. Tisdale’s move down south triggered several other coaching changes in the Mitten State’s women’s college community.
The vacancy at EMU was filled with the hiring of Maddie Dugan after one season as the head coach at Detroit Mercy. Maddie was hired as an assistant coach on Dwayne Hicks’ staff at Detroit Mercy in 2021 after serving as head coach at Division III Trine from 2017-2021. Dugan coached high school lacrosse in Texas during the 2023 season before returning to Detroit Mercy when she was hired to the head coach role in the summer of 2023 after Hicks took the head coaching position at Division I Longwood University in Virginia. Maddie is from Rochester, MI, where she played at Notre Dame Prep in high school before playing collegiately at Adrian and later serving there as an assistant coach.
The vacancy at Detroit Mercy was filled when Alex Matta (hired as an assistant to Dugan in July) was elevated to head coach in August. Prior to joining Detroit Mercy, Matta spent five seasons at the helm of NAIA Siena Heights.
The vacancy at Siena Heights was filled with the hiring of Brandon Allwood in July. Allwood spent the previous eight years as head coach for Division III Hanover in Indiana after a couple years as an assistant at Albion. He’s a native of New Buffalo, MI, and played a season at Albion.
Also, Tisdale took with her MacKenzie Plaskey, née Lawler, to serve as an assistant coach at Florida State. MacKenzie is a 2010 grad from Okemos who played collegiately at Robert Morris. Most recently she was the head coach at Grand Valley State’s Division II program where she achieved a 83.5 % winning percentage [math teachers look away…that article states it as “a .835 winning percentage” rather that 83.5] over six seasons after joining in 2018. Prior to that, she spent four seasons as an assistant coach on Tisdale’s staff at Central Michigan. In November GVSU filled the resulting vacancy when they hired Dominique Hamman as their new head coach. A native New Yorker, Hamman played four seasons at goalie for Central Michigan and then spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at GVSU where she primarily worked with the goalies. Most recently she spent two seasons as the head coach of the new Division II program at Daemen University is Amherst, New York.
In other collegiate coaching news:
Charlie Hayes was promoted to head coach at Detroit Mercy, taking over for Michigan-native and long-time Detroit coach Chris Kolon
Shane Lewandowski is the new men’s head coach at Lawrence Tech
Graison Ringlever was named head women's lacrosse coach at Kalamazoo
Peter Treppa was promoted to be the new head coach at Aquinas
Aquinas announced in January that women’s head coach Chip Vasquez was stepping down after one season to pursue other interests and have not yet announced his replacement or published their 2025 schedule on their web site
In December Alma announced that their women’s head coach Ashley Johnson was departing after nine seasons to pursue opportunities outside athletics and have not yet announced her replacement (although the job listing is no longer active)
Matt Wagner joined the men’s staff at Aquinas as an assistant
Connor Beals took on the head coaching position for Michigan State’s MCLA club team
GVSU added two graduate assistants (Aislynn Alkire and Jackie Wolford) to their staff
Zach Palmer joined Charlie Hayes’ new staff at Detroit Mercy
There have also been several notable coaching changes at the high school level
Steven Petersen replaced former boys MHSAA Division 1 coach of the year Nick Levanti while Ryan Skomial took the girls’ spot at Hartland
Haslett has new varsity coaches with Max Linscott on the boys’ side and Kaili Miller on the girls’ side
Saline announced that Zachary Maghes is coming over from Ann Arbor Pioneer to take the girls varsity spot and Ty McGuire is taking the helm on the boys side (Ty is in the final season of a very successful run as head coach at NAIA Concordia-Ann Arbor which is discontinuing all athletic programs after this school year)
Steven Rooney joined Plymouth as girls lacrosse coach
Jeff Rork is the new boys varsity coach at Canton
James Brunk is the new boys head coach at Warren De La Salle
Joe Fitzgerald is the new boys varsity coach at Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard
Greg Durham left the boys head coach position at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and is the new head bowling coach at Detroit Catholic Central
Here are some recent coaching openings (not sure which have been filled already)