JU Dolphin Lacrosse
Mindy McCord
Director of Lacrosse and Women's Head Coach
Mindy McCord brings a wealth of head coaching experience to the job at Jacksonville University. With 16 seasons as a collegiate head coach and 3 as a high school head coach, McCord has accumulated 186 wins in two sports. More impressively, her teams have earned either 1st place championships, or runner-up status nine times during her 19 seasons as a head coach. McCord has recruited and developed 11 All-Americans, 23 regional All-Americans, and 4 Conference Players of the Year. McCord’s coaching career began while studying for her Masters Degree in Counselor Education at Virginia Tech. At Tech she coached the women’s lacrosse club team for two years, helping them to earn Division I status in the ACC. Her full-time coaching career began as a 23-year old head coach at prestigious Oberlin College in Ohio.
As one of the NCAA’s youngest head coaches, she hit the ground running winning consecutive lacrosse conference titles in 1997 and 1998. During the 1997 season her squad boasted an undefeated conference record (11-0) and she was named North Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. The two titles were the only two champinships won by any school at Oberlin College during her 4-year tenure. She continued her career at McDaniel College as head field hockey and lacrosse coach. While in her hometown (Westminster, Maryland), McCord won the school’s first and only conference title in field hockey, where she is the all-time winningest coach (61) and has the school’s best winning percentage (.640). McDaniel has played field hockey since 1935. For her efforts during the 2002 season, McCord was named Centennial Conference Coach of the year in field hockey. She rebuilt the lacrosse program at McDaniel, helping the program to a 10-6 record in 2002 and establishing recruiting in roads that have led to McDaniel becoming a consistent top=25 program since her departure in 2003 to join her husband, then an assistant coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
McCord moved to the First Coast in 2004 and immediately began spreading her joy of lacrosse in the community by building and consulting with youth leagues, high school programs and officials groups. She took over a feldgling program at Nease high school in 2006. The program had won only 3 games in their first 3 seasons combined, but in her first season at the helm, Nease won 4 games and climbed to a top-20 ranking in the State of Florida. Nease went on the win consecutive district titles, and back-to-back #8 rankings in Florida in 2007 and 2008. During the 2008 season, Nease finished with a record of 13-5 and a ranking of #16 in the southern United States. The 32 wins her Nease teams earned are nearly 11-times as many wins as the three years prior to her arrival. During her final season at Nease, McCord earned her 100th win as a lacrosse coach (102-73). For her efforts at Nease, Mindy has been named by her peers as US Lacrosse-Orlando’s Coach of the Year for the State of Florida. More importantly, since McCord moved to the Jacksonville area, the number of girls playing lacrosse has increased by more than 600% from fewer than 60 in 2004 to more than 700 at present. The high school programs have grown from two marginal programs to 13 with three ranked in the state’s top-25. Mindy sits on the board of Creeks Girls Lacrosse, the areas largest girls lacrosse youth association with more than 120 girls grades 3-8. Her camps, clinics, coaching and officiating events have helped to build a strong infra-structure for successful programs in the Jacksonville area.
McCord co-founded with her husband a national travel lacrosse club called the Lax Maniax Elite. This club has helped more than 40 young people from Florida go on to play lacrosse in college. The program won the 2007 Southeastern Lacrosse championship and is recognized as the leading national club in the south. Mindy McCord, has served as a selector for the US National Lacrosse team and Elite developmental squads, a national clinician, and former championship college coach at two different colleges. She has experience officiating lacrosse, and has worked with US Lacrosse and supported their educational initiatives.
As a player, McCord has national and international playing experience. She was a four-year starter at Lynchburg (VA) College; earning rookie of the year, team captain, all conference, regional All-American, and North/South Senior All Star game honors. Coach McCord also played while studying abroad in Australia. Mindy was born in Westminster, Maryland and attended Westminster High School where she played field hockey, lacrosse, and ran track, earning honors in all three sports. In her senior year while recovering from an ACL injury she founded and implemented the first lacrosse club in Carroll County (MD) for middle and high school girls.
Her husband Paul, former Director of Velocity Sports Performance and former NFL strength and conditioning/special teams coach with the Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Buffalo Bills also served as an assistant coach to his wife while at McDaniel College. He is presently owner of MCCSports, Inc., a sports marketing firm dedicated to helping young people to play sports like lacrosse. Their daughter Taylor is a freshman at Bartram Trail High school and enjoys basketball and lacrosse. The family resides in St. Augustine, FL.