Princeton University's William G. Tierney, who was a midfielder on SUNY Cortland's 1973 national champion lacrosse team, ranks as the premier men's collegiate lacrosse coach in the United States today. The head coach of the U.S. Lacrosse Team which won the 1998 World Championship, Tierney inherited a mediocre Princeton lacrosse program in 1988. He soon developed the Tigers into a national powerhouse unit. Princeton won five NCAA Division I championships in the seven years between 1992-98. During the close of that span, his teams won 43 of 45 contests including nine straight NCAA tournament games.
A native of Levittown, N.Y., Tierney has enjoyed success at every level in which he has competed and coached. After graduating from Levittown Memorial High School, Tierney came to SUNY Cortland. A resident assistant in Clark Hall, he played football and lacrosse. He competed as a junior on the Red Dragon squad that advanced to NCAA Lacrosse semifinals. He was a member of Cortland's 1973 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) championship team - the first Cortland team in any sport to win a national title. Tierney earned a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1973. He received a master's degree in physical education from Adelphi University.
In 1976, he began his professional career as a teacher and head lacrosse coach at Great Neck (N.Y.) South High. Between 1980-81, he taught and coached at his alma mater, Levittown Memorial. He captured the league championships and was voted Nassau County Coach of the Year three times as a scholastic mentor at the two schools. Tierney joined the collegieate ranks as head coach at Rochester Institute of Technology from 1981-84. His Tiger teams won 10, 12 and 15 games, while making their first two appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs. He was the 1983 NCAA Division III Lacrosse Coach of the Year.
Between 1984-87, Tierney was assistant lacrosse coach and head soccer coach at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The Blue Jay lax teams won NCAA titles two of his three years there, while he led the soccer squad to its first NCAA bid in 11 years.
In the 10 years since becoming the Princeton University head lacrosse coach, Tierney's teams have posted a 125-40 record, won six Ivy League crowns and had two national players of the year. In 1992, Tierney won the Morris Touchstone Award as the NCAA Division I Coach of the Year. Within his community, Tierney established the Infiniti Lacrosse Tournament which has raised more than $50,000 for pediatric AIDS treatment.
He and his wife, Helen, have four children: Trevor, Brendan, Courtney and Brianne.
UPDATE (10/8/19): Internationally, Tierney coached Team USA to a Gold Medal with a 15-14 OT win over Canada in the 1998 World Lacrosse Championships. In 2002, Tierney was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame with the distinction of being "a truly great coach." In 1998 and 2001, Tierney and his sons Trevor (a goaltender) and Brendan (midfield/attack), became the first father-sons combination to win a NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship together. His daughter Brianne Tierney, a former player at Loyola of Maryland and Colgate, is currently the women's head coach at Kent State, which began varsity play in the 2019 season; her husband Dylan Sheridan is the current men's head coach at Cleveland State.
Tierney began coaching the men's lacrosse team at the University of Denver on July 1, 2009. Coach Tierney called the change a "wonderful opportunity to start this new chapter in my life."
On May 25, 2015, Tierney led Denver to the team's first NCAA Division I championship with a 10-5 win over Maryland. Denver was the first men's lacrosse NCAA championship team west of the Appalachian Mountains.
