Men's lacrosse coach Mike Daly bleeds brown and blue. What else would explain the Tufts "T" tattoo on his leg, or why he decided to coach a sport he had never even played after dominating as a player on the Tufts football and baseball fields?
Daly took the reigns of the struggling men's lacrosse program in January of 1999. Though he had never actually played the sport, Daly learned the game as a graduate assistant coach before moving up to the head coach position. Pride in his alma mater and a little bit of luck brought the then 26-year-old Daly to take the job.
"I had such a great and positive experience here as an undergraduate playing sports... and fell in love with lacrosse as a grad student," Daly said. "It just kind of spiraled from there and things had a neat way of working out."
The team had floundered in the two previous seasons before Daly took over, going 1-13 and 2-12, respectively, in 1997 and 1998. With little support from the administration, lacrosse was in trouble and Daly was just the man needed for the rescue.
Upon taking his new job, Daly had one goal in mind.
"I had such a positive experience as a player and I didn't feel strongly that the lacrosse guys were getting that experience at that time," Daly said. "I wanted to make sure our athletes received the attention they deserved and to offer them a positive experience [like mine]."
Daly has since taken the program to a whole new level and gained the deserved attention of the Tufts community. With a school record-breaking 12 wins and second place NESCAC finish in 2003, the Jumbo lacrosse program finally has come together at the hands of one of the school's alumni.
Daly graduated from Tufts in 1995. He won the Rudolph J. Fobert Award for most outstanding multi-sport athlete during his tenure on the football and baseball teams. Daly had 84 catches for 1425 yards and 11 touchdowns as a receiver and helped take his baseball team to the 1995 NCAA national tournament as the starting centerfielder.
"Daly was an outstanding player for us," baseball coach John Casey said. "He was always a real tough, hard nose player. He's a winner and has brought that to the lacrosse program. He has always cared about Tufts and has become a very good lacrosse coach by working hard and caring about his kids."
Daly has taken these winning ways and applied them to the lacrosse team. At the beginning of this, his sixth season as head coach, Daly has led his squads to 41 wins over five years. This success rate well eclipses that of the previous five years in which the lacrosse teams won just 25 games.
"The fact that we have accomplished our goal of giving guys not only a positive, but a life changing experience [as well as building] a program that is now considered as one of the best in the country is my proudest moment as a coach," Daly said.
In 2000, Tufts won nine games and earned an ECAC tournament berth. The team also won bids into the inaugural NESCAC tournament in 2001 and again reached the playoffs in 2002 and 2003.
Daly's young career reached new heights last season as he brought his improving squad to the NESCAC championship game against Middlebury. For his efforts, Daly was voted New England coach of the year by his peers. His initial reaction to this honor was not one of joy, but of modest pride.
"[Receiving the award] was very humbling," Daly said. "Something we don't really talk about as a team is individual effort. My immediate thought was that the players and assistant coaches had more than a lot to do with it."
This season, Daly and assistants Pat Cain, Nate Tucker and Dan Kollar will all look to take the team to even greater success than during its school record-breaking 2003 campaign. As for the tattoo on his leg, Daly looks back to his days as a student when his Tufts pride first began.
"As an undergrad, [my friends and I] were thinking about getting tattoos," Daly said. "I guess that was where my loyalties were. My dad told me I would regret it. I don't regret it."
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