DENVER – The Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) today announced the organization has signed Head Coach, Assistant General Manager Pat Coyle to a multi-year contract. The new contract will take effect immediately, with Coyle beginning preparations for the upcoming 2023-24 NLL season.
“Pat’s a proven leader and winner who sets the standard for who we are as a team and what our expectations are as an organization,” Mammoth General Manager Brad Self said. “As an experienced and long-time member of the lacrosse community, he continues to bring professionalism and accountability to our organization. Getting him signed to a new deal was our top priority this offseason and we’re very excited to have him back.”
Helping the Mammoth capture the 2022 NLL Championship honors just one season ago, Coyle led Colorado to its second-consecutive NLL West Conference Championship during the 2022-23 campaign en route to qualifying for the NLL Finals once again.
Continuing to get the most out of his veteran-based squad while ensuring the team’s young players receive the coaching and reps needed as the team continues to reload for another run at the banner-raising honors, the British Columbia native returns with nearly 20 years of coaching experience.
Leading the Mammoth to a 9-9 record last season, Coyle ensured his players understood the importance of capitalizing on home field advantage inside the Loud House, as Colorado posted a 9-2 record inside Ball Arena during the 2022-23 season, including a perfect 2-0 record during postseason action.
Originally hired during the 2014 season to coach alongside Chris Gill and Dan Stroup as a collective unit, Coyle was named the team’s Head Coach, General Manager in 2018 after four seasons sharing the load. When the organization eventually welcomed Self to the General Manager role, Coyle accepted his role as Head Coach, Assistant General Manager, allowing him to focus on coaching while continuing to contribute to scouting and personnel decisions.
Able to help the Mammoth secure a postseason berth in each of his nine seasons behind the bench, including the 2016 season when the team set the franchise record for most wins in a regular season (12), Coyle established a 38-34 record as part of the coaching trio before going on to log a 43-42 record during five seasons (including just 13 contests during the shortened 2019-20 campaign) as Head Coach.
The six-time NLL Champion (five as a player, one as a coach), who played his part as a defenseman during the Mammoth’s 2006 hardware-collecting run, has been a respected member of the lacrosse community for more than 30 years and has been able to attract fellow high-end coaching talents in Andrew McBride and Jason Bishop to the Mammoth’s coaching staff during his time steering the ship.
Capturing the league’s first-ever Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2002, he was later named to the Mammoth’s All-Decade Team in 2012 and eventually became the first defenseman in NLL history to be inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2014. Doubling down on his All-World honors, he was named to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2017.
