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Jim Stagnitta

 
Profile
Jim Stagnitta joined University of Pennsylvania's coaching staff as an assistant coach in 2014

A player and later an assistant coach during the heyday of the University of Pennsylvania men’s lacrosse program in the 1980s, Jim Stagnitta returned to the program in July 2014 as an assistant coach and enters his first season back with the Quakers.

As a student-athlete at Penn, Stagnitta was a three-year letterwinner while earning a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1984. He helped lead the Quakers to Ivy League titles and NCAA Championship appearances in both his junior and senior seasons. After that, Stagnitta began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant with the Quakers, helping lead them to a pair of NCAA Championship berths including a trip to the semifinals in 1988.

Overall, Stagnitta brings 27 years of experience to the coaching staff, and he has a proven record of success at the highest levels of lacrosse. He holds a career professional and amateur record of 226-136 (.624), and has guided teams to seven NCAA tournament appearances and two MLL playoff appearances.

Stagnitta returned to his alma mater after spending last year as the head coach at nearby Arcadia University. The Knights posted an overall 6-8 in Stagnitta’s first season at Arcadia, setting a school record for wins in a season, and finished just one game out of a Freedom Conference Tournament berth.

Prior to arriving at Arcadia, Stagnitta spent two seasons leading the Denver Outlaws of Major League Lacrosse (MLL) to two first-place finishes in the regular season with a combined 26-4 record. Denver went 11-3 and advanced to the MLL championship game in 2012 while establishing five team records, including wins and a single-season MLL record 229 goals. Stagnitta was named the MLL Coach of the Year after the Outlaws had another record-setting season in 2013, going 14-0 during the regular season before being upset in the MLL semifinals.

Stagnitta’s previous collegiate coaching stop was at Rutgers University, where he led the Scarlet Knights to 58 victories in 10 seasons -- placing him fifth on the program’s career victories list -- and back-to-back NCAA Championship appearances in 2003 and 2004. Stagnitta was named U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division I Coach of the Year in 2003 after engineering the biggest turnaround in Division I lacrosse history, leading Rutgers to a 10-5 record after the team went 2-12 in his first season.