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Dan Sheehan paused for 15 seconds to search for the right words. Le Moyne’s longtime men’s lacrosse coach had just earned his 376th career win — a 9-4 win over Wagner Saturday — moving him into 10th place on the NCAA men’s lacrosse all-time career wins list.

Postgame, Sheehan admitted he still hadn’t processed the accomplishment. He wasn’t sure if it would ever truly sink in. Instead, he reflected on what working for Le Moyne meant to him, especially after the school made the jump to Division I two years ago.

“I’m pretty fortunate to have a job where I love coming to work every day,” Sheehan said.

Since taking over in 1998, Sheehan has reshaped Le Moyne’s program. He inherited a team with losing records in two of its past three seasons and transformed the Dolphins into six-time Division II national champions. In his 28 years, he’s etched his name among the sport’s best, capped off by earning a place among college lacrosse’s top-10 winningest head coaches.

“Our kids all fly under the same flag of work hard, expect nothing and good things will come,” Sheehan said. “Nothing in life that is easy is worth a damn.”

Dan Sheehan’s 376th career win on Saturday against Wagner cemented his place in the NCAA’s all-time top 10 for career wins in men’s lacrosse. Courtesy of Le Moyne Athletics

Despite playing lacrosse while growing up in Syracuse and at Ithaca College, Sheehan envisioned himself working on Wall Street. He wanted to become a stockbroker. Coaching was never a topic of conversation.

But, coaching first piqued his interest when he wanted to stay involved in lacrosse after graduating from Ithaca in 1995. So, in 1997, he talked with then-Le Moyne head coach Shane Lynch over the phone about getting involved with the team.

After a lengthy chat, Lynch offered Sheehan a role as a volunteer assistant coach. Sheehan accepted, showing up a few times each week to work with the Dolphins’ goalies. When Lynch died a few months later, Sheehan was offered the interim head coaching position by Dick Rockwell, Le Moyne’s athletic director at the time.

Sheehan started by helping connect current players with Le Moyne alumni, so they can better understand “the blood, sweat and tears that went into building the program.”

Sheehan took years to install a consistent culture at Le Moyne. He didn’t notch his first winning campaign until his third season in 2000. His recruitment strategy now consists of finding “Le Moyne kids,” Sheehan said, describing how he looks for prospects who come from families where toughness and discipline are emphasized.

“He recruits guys that are a mold of himself,” former Le Moyne defenseman Travis Morgia said. “They want to win at all costs.”

Sheehan can coach any position on the field and likes to prioritize fundamentals, per assistant coach Vinnie Alexander. He believes this philosophy helped Le Moyne succeed, as the Dolphins constantly had a diverse scoring attack under Sheehan.

Forming tight bonds with his players and coaches also helped boost chemistry within the team. Alexander said he and Sheehan didn’t get along when he was a player. He didn’t understand why Sheehan worked him so hard in practices. But after moving into coaching at Onondaga Community College, Alexander matured.

Alexander joined Sheehan’s staff in 2015, and the two have become close friends since.

“Sheehan took a chance on me,” Alexander said. “If you would’ve told me that the guy would have been a part of my wedding, I would have told you that you were crazy. We went from being at odds ends with one another to borderline boys.”

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Sheehan said that helping his former players and coaches prepare for the professional realm provides more satisfaction than lifting a trophy could ever. Still, Sheehan is as competitive as it gets, former Le Moyne player Brandon Spillett said. He said Sheehan’s high expectations get the most out of his players. Spillett noticed the intense competition while his cousin played at Le Moyne, influencing him to join the program.

Ethan Loun, a current Dolphins graduate student, added that Sheehan constantly pushes him, helping him break out for a 42-point season in 2023. Morgia noted Sheehan offered persistent feedback, intent on preventing players from making the same mistake twice.

“There is not a single day that we wake up wanting to be average,” Sheehan said. “We have a locker room full of gentlemen that are motivated to be special.”

During Morgia’s second season at Le Moyne, he constantly got into penalty trouble. Looking back, he believes he was in his own head. It took Sheehan pulling him off to the side to break out of his funk.

“I was trying to make too many plays (as a defenseman),” Morgia said. “You get to a point where you are just pushing too much and not letting the game come to you. That was a conversation that helped me a lot.”

Sheehan’s attitude was on full display in 2021, when Le Moyne captured the No. 1 seed in the D-II playoffs after going 15-0 in the regular season. But because of New York’s COVID-19 protocol, the Dolphins couldn’t host the game. The situation forced Le Moyne to travel and play the semifinals in Pennsylvania against the lower-ranked Mercyhurst.

The coach stayed calm as Le Moyne edged out an 11-9 win to reach the finals. Emotionless throughout the game, Sheehan later praised his team’s resilience in the locker room, reflecting on how it overcame the adversity of the previous COVID-shortened season.

“His postgame speech was probably one of the first times I had seen him expel some emotion,” Alexander said. “Being a guy that had been around him for almost 14 years, it showed how much he cares about the guys on the team.”

That meticulousness is what makes Sheehan successful. But Le Moyne’s 28-year head coach didn’t want any of the attention that came with reaching his historic milestone Saturday. Still, his accolades speak for themselves, cementing him as one of lacrosse’s coaching legends.

“You don’t find many guys that have been around (the same school) for 25 years,” Alexander said. “He’s been the sole leader of this program.”

Published on April 6, 2025 at 9:28 pm