Hicks Named New Lacrosse Coach - Longwood University Athletics (2024)

Women's Lacrosse 6/3/2024 3:15:00 PM

Lancer Assistant Coach Elevated To Top Role

FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood athletics director Tim Hall announced that Longwood lacrosse assistant coach Dwayne Hicks will be elevated to the head coaching position today.

Hicks, a Long Island native and University of Notre Dame lacrosse alum, is a coaching veteran. He helped Longwood vault back into the Big South Tournament in his first season in Farmville this past spring. Hicks brings more than 35 years of coaching experience and is the only lacrosse coach to be a National Coach of the Year in both men's and women's lacrosse.

"Dwayne embodies all the qualities I look for in a head coach," said Hall. "Most notably an overwhelming concern for the comprehensive welfare of the whole student. His record of success and high level lacrosse acumen is abundantly clear. I am confident his leadership will pay dividends going forward."

During the spring, the Lancers tied a program record with five Big South wins which helped the program finish fourth in the standings. The finish propelled the team to the Big South Tournament for the first time in five seasons.

In addition, the team won five straight games in the middle of the season, the sixth five-game winning streak in the past two decades. Four of those wins came against Big South foes.

A trio of players earned All-Big South honors in Julia Koenig, Riley McDonald and Claire Libby. McDonald broke a pair of team single-season records, scoring a program best 63 goals and notching 20 free position goals.

"I'd like to thank Tim Hall for offering me this great opportunity to continue the work that Coach Ferguson and I started last year," said Hicks. "We have a lot of potential here at Longwood, and last year was a big step in the right direction. I'm looking forward to next year and continuing to work with these talented players to grow this program. I'm excited for what this team can accomplish!"

With more than four decades of experience as both a player and coach, Hicks served as the head coach at the University of Detroit Mercy for three seasons. Prior to that, he worked with the men's lacrosse team for three years at Detroit Mercy.

During his time at Detroit Mercy, he helped the women's lacrosse team navigate the return from the pandemic as well as a transition to the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

While on the staff for men's lacrosse, he helped coach back-to-back winning campaigns in 2018 and 2019 along with a trip to the MAAC Championship game.

He started his coaching journey at his alma mater, Notre Dame, where he served as an assistant on the men's staff under Kevin Corrigan in Corrigan's first season, and he has also coached at the club level at Oakland University, Eastern Michigan University and Michigan State University. He was named the National Coach of the Year on both the men's side (Michigan State as the head coach) and women's side (Oakland as an assistant coach), the only coach in the country to do so.

While at Oakland, he helped lead the women's club team for four seasons and qualified for nationals all four years, with the team placing as high as third. He had the same success with the Oakland men's lacrosse club team as well, winning a conference title and making one national championship appearance. He helped EMU build its club program before leading Michigan State club lacrosse to their first regional championship and three national championship appearances.

Outside of the college game, Hicks has also worked to spread the game of lacrosse throughout the state of Michigan. He spent 15 years as the Director of Lacrosse at the Total Sports Complex in Michigan and was also the head coach and director of the Total Lacrosse's Train and Play program and the Team Total Lacrosse travel team.

Hicks graduated from Notre Dame, where he was the team's first African-American varsity player, and a three-time monogram winner. In his last two seasons, he helped the Fighting Irish win the Midwest Lacrosse Association. He graduated in 1985 with a degree in Industrial Design with a concentration in automotive and product design.

Following his graduation, Hicks was recruited by the English Lacrosse Union and played professionally in Manchester, England. In his two seasons coaching and playing with the Timperley Rebels, he helped the team advance to the national championship twice, finishing as runners-up both times.

Hicks then returned to the states and spent two decades working as a creative writer in advertising and coaching lacrosse. It wasn't until he was asked by Chris Kolon to be an assistant coach for the men's program at the University of Detroit Mercy that he retired from advertising to pursue his passion for coaching lacrosse full-time.

Hicks and his wife Sharon have two daughters, Sarah and Jordon, who are graduates of Purdue and Villanova, respectively.

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