We love Coach Mike Murphy from Penn, he has always delivered great ideas on my site.  Mike Murphy was hired in July 2009 and has spent the last seven years as head coach of the Penn men’s lacrosse program.

Penn also has made the postseason Ivy League Tournament four of the last six years, winning the tourney title in 2014 with victories over Cornell and host Harvard. The Quakers’ other appearances came in 2011 and 2013. In Ivy regular-season play, Penn has gone 4-2 three times (2011, 2014, 2016); prior to Murphy’s arrival, the program went 4-2 in Ivy play just once from 1990-2010.

A strong schedule has also been one of Murphy’s points of emphasis at Penn. The Quakers boasted the nation’s No. 1 overall Strength of Schedule (SOS) in 2012, the No. 2 overall SOS in 2013, and the No. 6 SOS in 2014 (behind four ACC schools and Johns Hopkins).

A youthful Penn squad went 8-7 during the 2016 season, with six of the losses coming to teams ranked in the USILA Top 20 at the end of the season including No. 1 Maryland, No. 3 Yale (twice, both by a goal), and No. 4 Brown. (The seventh, to Virginia, came when the Cavs were ranked 11th nationally.)

Murphy also was an assistant coach with the Quakers in 2001 (as defensive coordinator) and 2002 (as offensive coordinator). Penn’s 2002 squad went 9-4 overall, at the time the program’s best record in 13 seasons.

Prior to his return to Penn, Murphy spent seven years at Haverford College where he took the program to unprecedented heights. The Fords steadily improved every year under his leadership, and Murphy will depart Haverford with 63 career wins which is one shy of the school record held by program founder Dana Swan.

Prior to his assistant coaching stint at Penn, Murphy was an assistant coach at the University of Virginia from 1993-97, coaching in the 1994 and 1996 national championship games and three semifinals. He also spent the 1992 season at Brown University, coaching a team that held a top-10 national ranking and was an NCAA quarterfinalist.

Murphy has been a member of the Division III NCAA Championships Committee since August 2005, serving as its chair since 2006. He is also a board member of the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA), and coached the South Team at the 2005 Division III North/South All-Star Game.

They are offering some awesome Prospect Camps and development camps at Penn, and with their new great facilities, including indoor…  just click here for more information,

Murphy attended Duke University, where he was a three-year starter (one as a long stick middie, two at closed defense) for the nationally ranked Blue Devils and captain of the 1991 team. He graduated with a degree in history and political science. Murphy also holds a master’s degree in higher education management from Penn, earned in May 2004.

In the full podcast we discuss how he has again modified his practice plans since our last podcast, with a little more focus on 6V6.  Interesting as the reason was preparing for teams that do not want to play a fast transition game, and being prepared defensively.

In the “Preview” below for all Free members as well as in my article section, an interesting philosophy on pre-season, and early season team-building with a true and always constant competitive element.  As this is being published in the fall I thought it was not only interesting but timely for all of us.

Special thanks to Krossover, I love this product!

Audio Preview, This is for all Free Members simply log in… Coach Murphy on a unique pre-season team-building focus with competition…he explains all this much better than I can… listen first then check out the entire article on this lacrosse drill,

Now check out my article spelling all this out, just click here

[private]Full Audio Interview For all Premium Members!

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