Ohio State released an announcement of the hiring of an assistant coach for the men’s lacrosse team Monday. Dylan Sheridan, the former head coach at Cleveland State, will be joining head coach Nick Myers’s staff.
Here is the complete release from the universities’ athletic department:
COLUMBUS – Dylan Sheridan, the architect of Cleveland State’s men’s lacrosse program and its head coach since 2015, has been hired by Ohio State as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator, head coach Nick Myers announced today.
“We are excited to welcome Dylan Sheridan to our Buckeye Lacrosse family,” said Myers. “He is an incredible leader and I have no doubt that he will make a positive impact on Buckeye Lacrosse right from the start. We have played Cleveland State every year since the program started and been incredibly impressed with what he has built in such a short time. In addition, Coach Sheridan grew up in northeast Ohio and has been a difference-maker in terms of growing the game and developing young men across the great state of Ohio. He truly values what it means to be a Buckeye and we can’t wait to get him in the Scarlet and Gray!”
Beginning in 2015 and continuing through their debut on the field in 2017, Sheridan steadily built the Vikings program from the ground up. It culminated in 2019 when Cleveland State won seven of its final 10 games and doubled its win total from the previous season. CSU posted a winning record in just its third season of existence while facing six teams among the top 25 in the NCAA’s RPI.
Cleveland State’s improvement was not only evident in the win column, but also on the stat sheet. The Vikings finished ranked in the Top 25 in eight different statistical categories – opponent clearing percentage (No. 1, .707), face-off win percentage (No. 6, .631), assists per game (No. 17, 7.53), scoring defense (No. 19, 10.27 goals/game), caused turnovers (No. 22, 8.93 per game), clearing percentage (No. 22, .853), points per game (No. 25, 19.00) and ground balls per game (No. 25, 32.60).
“I’d like to thank Janine Oman and Nick Myers for providing me and my family with the opportunity to join Buckeye Nation,” said Sheridan. “My singular focus moving forward is to serve the men of Buckeye lacrosse in pursuit of a National Championship. I will work tirelessly to help our student-athletes reach their goals, on and off the field. I’m eager to learn and grow from everybody in the Ohio State community and extremely excited to get started. Go Bucks!”
Prior to the breakout season in 2019, the Sheridan-led Vikings put together some notable efforts in 2018. Sheridan increased the Vikings’ DI win total to four while facing six teams among the top 25 in the NCAA’s RPI. Included among those four victories was Cleveland State’s first road win over a Division I foe—an 8-7 victory at defending Southern Conference champion Air Force. In 2017, utilizing a roster comprised almost entirely of true freshmen, Sheridan led the Vikings to five wins in their inaugural season. CSU played one of the toughest schedules in the nation despite being a first-year program, as the Vikings faced five teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament, three that advanced to the quarterfinals, two that made the semifinals and a national finalist (Ohio State).
Sheridan built the Cleveland State program after spending the 2015 season as the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Princeton where he was responsible for the training and coaching of the defense, clearing and faceoff units.
Sheridan helped lead the Tigers to a share of the regular season Ivy League title and a top-20 mark in the final RPI rankings. Under his direction, Princeton was among the top 10 teams nationally in clearing percentage with an .889 mark.
From 2011 through 2014, Sheridan was an assistant coach at the University of Denver, helping the Pioneers to NCAA semifinal appearances in 2011, 2013 and 2014. Denver also won three regular-season conference championships in four years with Sheridan, twice winning the ECAC and also claiming a BIG EAST crown. Sheridan joined the Denver staff first as a volunteer assistant coach. He helped the 2011 team to a then program-record 15 wins and an unbeaten conference mark. His faceoff unit finished 15th nationally in winning percentage after ranking 36th the year prior to his arrival.
On the international stage, Sheridan served as the head coach of the Thailand National Team at the 2014 World Championships. Despite it being the nation’s first appearance in the world event, Sheridan led the team to four wins during the competition.
After attending Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio and helping his team to three Ohio high school state championship games, Sheridan graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 2006 as a double major in psychology and film studies. While at Claremont McKenna, Sheridan was a member of the club lacrosse team, serving as team captain three times. He began his coaching career at Division II Pfeiffer and also coached at Division III Lebanon Valley. His wife, Brianne Tierney, played lacrosse at both Loyola and Colgate and is the head women’s lacrosse coach at Kent State. The couple have a 2-year-old son.
