A former Princeton captain, Hirsch in 2019 became the first defensive coordinator to return for a second season in seven years, and the importance of such consistency has been obvious. The 2019 Tigers ranked second in the Ivy Leaguein scoring defense, after his defense allowed nearly four goals per game fewer during the 2018 season-ending five-game winning streak than it had during the first eight games of the year.

Hirsch, a 2010 Princeton grad and the sole captain of the 2010 Tigers, returned to Princeton after spending four years as the defensive coordinator at Hobart.

Hirsch was a three-year starter for the Tigers as a defenseman. He helped Princeton to the NCAA tournament three times, including the quarterfinals his junior year, and played on Ivy League championship teams as a junior and senior. Princeton also won the inaugural Ivy League tournament when Hirsch was a senior.

At Hobart Hirsch was the coordinator for a man-down defensive unit that led Division I in 2016, when Hobart won the Northeast Conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament. Hobart defeated Bryant and St. Joe's, two teams averaging a combined 23 goals per game, in the 2016 NEC tournament and allowed just 13 total goals in the two games.

The Statesmen then won the NEC regular-season championship this past season and reached the conference tournament final.

After graduating with a degree in history, Hirsch began his coaching career at Malvern Prep in 2012 before getting his first college coaching position at Hampton-Sydney, where he coached the defense and was the program's strength and conditioning coach.

Other than former longtime volunteer assistant coach Bryce Chase, Hirsch is the first Princeton alum to be a member of the coaching staff since Matt Striebel in 2005.