Monmouth University Women’s Lacrosse announced recent Stony Brook Women’s Lacrosse alumna Dorrien Van Dyke would be their new assistant coach last week.
“I’m super excited to see where this program is going to go,” Van Dyke said over the phone Wednesday. “I’m really excited for us to roll the ball out and see what type of talent we have and hopefully grow the program.”
Van Dyke, who graduated in the spring, spent her summer playing in the United Women’s Lacrosse League and looking for assistant coaching gigs. The Monmouth women’s lacrosse team overhauled its entire staff this summer, starting with the head coach hiring of Jordan Trautman, the former head coach at Kean after becoming a Georgetown All-American during her playing days.
“We were looking for assistant coaches and… she was definitely a candidate that I wanted to look further into,” Trautman said. “I’ve never heard references quite like the one’s she got from hers – people wanted to adopt her.”
One phone interview and one in-person interview later, Van Dyke got the job. Trautman said they “clicked” immediately.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have her. Just the caliber of player and coach she will be and is, is really exciting to have,” Trautman said. “She is definitely going to be a role model for our players to look up to.”
Trautman pointed to Van Dyke’s prolific career as an asset in which she can use to help equip the Monmouth players with proper guidance to succeed. Van Dyke is second in goals and third in points in Stony Brook program history. A Tewaaraton finalist last spring, her senior season, the Northport-native was a dominant force her entire tenure at Stony Brook.
Monmouth is not Van Dyke’s first coaching stint. Since she graduated high school she has spent summers working with the Long Island Yellow Jackets, a powerhouse travel team she played for. The experience helped her learn what coaching entails, beyond the knowledge of the game.
“You have to know how to talk to certain players certain ways. Not every way gets through to every player,” Van Dyke said. “You have to get to know the person and respect them otherwise they won’t respect you.”
Van Dyke said her Seawolf teammates and coaches were all “really supportive” when she told them. Stony Brook head coach Joe Spallina was unavailable to comment prior to publishing, but tweeted his congratulations.
“He’s super happy for me,” Van Dyke said. “[Spallina and assistant coach Kim Hillier] said to be yourself and just enjoy the experience, get as much knowledge as you can, just enjoy the experience of being somewhere else.”
Congrats @MULACROSSE @VanDeuces_ one of the top people and players I’ve ever coached in any sport!World class @StonyBrookWLAX great!!#deuces https://t.co/6M0DGgKgJv
— Joe Spallina (@JoeSpallina) September 4, 2017
Monmouth and Stony Brook have not played since 2014 and the teams play in different conferences, but Van Dyke will be back at Stony Brook sooner than she thought.
“We have a fall play day in mid-September, so we’ll actually be back to Stony Brook to play a couple of teams,” Trautman said. “I’m sure for [Van Dyke] it will be bittersweet, but exciting to kind of be on the other side of things.”The first-time college coach confirmed as much.
“I’m really excited for us to roll the ball out and see what type of talent we have and hopefully grow the program from where it is now,” Van Dyke said. “All of us are super excited that it’s a new staff and we can make an impact on the team here.
