DETROIT (6/22/2020) -- Longtime lacrosse coach
Dwayne Hicks was named the fifth women's lacrosse head coach in the 12-year history of the program for the University of Detroit Mercy in late May. Hicks, who most recently was an assistant coach for the Titan men's lacrosse program, has coached extensively in both men's and women's lacrosse throughout his coaching career.
Hicks, who played collegiate lacrosse at Notre Dame, has also been the head coach for the men's club team at Michigan State, Oakland and Eastern Michigan as well as the assistant coach for the women's club team at Oakland. Hicks has been a coach of the year six times during his lacrosse coaching career and also has experience coaching at the high school level.
In getting to know the new leader of the Titan women's lacrosse program a little better, DetroitTitans.com interviewed Hicks via a phone interview. Check out his full answers:
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the excitement in joining a new conference in the Mid-American Conference?
Hicks: "I think we are all excited about the new conference. Next year, we don't get an automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament, but that will only be for the inaugural year. The second year in 2022, there will be an automatic qualifier, which should be an interesting battle. It'll be the first team out of the MAC to represent the conference in the NCAA tournament. I think we are all getting better. It's a great opportunity for some of the smaller schools in the Midwest to step up their games and have a chance to play in the postseason dance."
Q: How have you been keeping in touch with the student-athletes during this pandemic?
Hicks: "For the most part, we've been meeting with the girls through video-conferencing. It's interesting seeing people at home in their own environments instead of walking through (Calihan Hall). It's more of a friendly conversation where you've got 30 girls all in one room and everyone's talking and we are going over what we did this week. It's more of a big locker room except everyone is sitting in their house. They have enjoyed it. We talk about everything from the weather to where they're working this summer. It's been fun and interesting. I think all of the girls are bored. A couple of the girls are rehabbing injuries so it's good for them to get the support from the other girls. It's been great."
Q: How did you get started in lacrosse and can you take us through your journey in playing and then coaching?
Hicks: "I grew up and played lacrosse in Freeport, Long Island in New York. I started playing when I was 8 years old. When I started playing, we all played with wooden sticks and wanted to be like Jim Brown. My older brother played at John Hopkins so I wanted to play D-1 as well. It's a long recruiting story but it came down to Notre Dame, Virginia and North Carolina State. I went with the Irish because they had the better aerospace engineering program. It was an awesome experience. It was interesting because I got there just as Notre Dame was changing over from club to varsity. It was a big transition. The first year, 75-percent of the guys who were club players and the rest were guys like me. Lacrosse back then wasn't as big as it is now. When I got to campus in 1981, probably 90-percent of the student body didn't know what lacrosse was. The game has changed and evolved so much in the last 40 years.
"I graduated from Notre Dame with an industrial design degree. Once I graduated, I had the choice of coming to Detroit and getting a job as a car designer or going to Europe and playing professional lacrosse. I went with the professional lacrosse route. My parents weren't happy with it, but I wanted to go overseas for a year, play and see Europe and do my thing. So I ended up going to play with the Timperley Rebels in Manchester, England and did that for two years instead of one.
"In 1987, I had the chance to continue playing in Australia, but I came back to New York and got a job in advertising. I did that for a year and got a call from the alumni association at Notre Dame and they asked if I was interested in becoming an assistant director of the alumni association. I was not interested. My goal was to stay in New York and become a Mad Men in advertising. That's what I had always wanted to do. Chuck Lennon, the Director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association, was flying to New York and convinced me to meet him at LaGuardia airport. He was looking to hire a black alumnus who would help organize fellow black alumni to come back to campus and be more involved. He said, 'I don't know how you do it, but we want to bring our alumni back to "Our Lady's" university. I think you're the guy.' He and father Ted Hesburgh wanted more black alumni to come back to campus to help make it a better experience for the black students on campus. So I accepted the position and in addition to all of the other national alumni events that I organized as one of the three assistant directors, getting more alumni involved in the association was a focus of mine for three years.
"Chuck Lennon was the best boss I've ever had in my life. He was one of my greatest mentors. He said, 'whatever you want to do, figure it out and get it done.' Kevin Corrigan, currently the head coach at Notre Dame, had just taken over the position from Rich O'Leary. I asked Kevin if I could come and help out with the team. So I was the assistant coach with him and Gerry Byrne (who I lived with and is currently the new head coach at Harvard) while I was working in the alumni association. I coached with the varsity program for one year and it was just too much. It was tough trying to do both jobs. So the second year of the alumni association job, I started the St. Joseph high school lacrosse program. Thirty years later, they are a powerhouse high school team in Indiana. After three years, I resigned from with the alumni association to resume my career in advertising. My greatest accomplishment at Notre Dame was starting the minority alumni network. Its success has resulted in many other universities and colleges following in our footsteps. Today, it is a model that many universities are now using in their alumni associations.
"After three years, I got back into advertising. I left Notre Dame in 1992 and came to Detroit and got a job at McCann-Erickson, the largest ad agency in the world. I was hired to be a creative writer on the Buick, General Motors and McDonald's accounts. Lacrosse-wise, from 1993 to 1999, I was a high school referee, a player for the Motor City Lacrosse Club and I would sometimes coach at Birmingham High School which is where I met and coached (Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse head coach) Chris Kolon.
"In 2000, I was approached to coach Oakland University. They had started a club squad and were looking for a coach. I was right in the middle of my advertising career, but I did it. I had some long days, doing the day job and then coaching at night. I coached there five years and within the first three, we were within the top-15 in the country. Oakland was a very small and talented team, but we were able to compete with some of the best teams in the country. I had the pleasure of coaching a lot of great players who are now some of the best coaches in Michigan. I take a lot of pride watching them give back to the game.
"I went from Oakland to Eastern Michigan and stayed there for three years. Then in 2008, I went to Michigan State and stayed there from 2008-12. I had some awesome years there. It was a bigger program and I was able to take them to the national championship three times (2010-12). In 2012, we had a very good year. We ended up No. 3 on ESPN Sportscenter's Top-10 Plays of the Day that season and I believe we were the first club lacrosse team to get on there. Chris Cooper was my assistant coach and he went on to coach at Denison, Princeton, John Carroll and Binghamton. He's now an assistant coach at Colgate. After Michigan State, I went back to Oakland to coach the women's program. I was hired by a former player, Towbey Kassa. I was an assistant coach for him and helped him out from 2013 to 2017. We were talented enough to win the regionals and go to the national championships all four years. We were very fortunate to have an awesome group of ladies that included a lot of All-Americans, including Lindsey (Barrett) Darling, the national player of the year.
"After four years at Oakland I resigned to get some sleep but was fortunate enough to be asked by (Chris) Kolon to be the men's assistant coach at Detroit Mercy. Until then and throughout my entire time coaching, I was still in advertising. When I took the position at Detroit Mercy, I retired from advertising to focus on coaching lacrosse. I think I'm one of the few coaches who has had a career in corporate America. I've worked for Ford, GM, Chrysler, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Miller Brewing, Leo Burnett and my last gig was with All-State. So I know what the expectations are for these players when they graduate. That's why I think it's so important for me, as a coach, to prepare them for what they're going to face. I don't want them to be lucky, I want them to be prepared."
Q: What type of playing style do you expect your program to have?
Hicks: "Our playing style is going to be fast and skillful. We're going to really try and get up and down the field and always push the ball. I'm a fundamentals coach. It has always been my forte: catch and throw and move the ball. That is lacrosse. A lot of the men's game is dependent on power, find the matchup and take advantage of it. The women's game, I feel is more dependent on moving the ball and playing like a team. Share the ball, wait for your opportunity and take advantage of it. Especially on the offensive side, you push the ball, share the ball and the opportunities will present themselves. That's the idea. I think we will be a fun team to watch. I like high energy and for everyone to always be moving. Waiting and watching is not really my style. If everyone can touch the ball and score, then everyone is a threat. That's going to help you in the long run. Our goal will be to learn how to share the ball so that everyone can score."
"Defensively, it's more about pressure and making the other team make a mistake. That's when we have to use speed to get the ball off the ground and get it up the field as fast as we can. That's where the coaching comes in. That's the game plan. Pretty easy."
Q: What's been the biggest change you've seen over all of these years in lacrosse?
Hicks: "The biggest change I've seen is the equipment. I actually brought an old stick (Brine Superlight II) out to show our men's team and none of the guys could play with it. There was no hold to the stick. The ball just sits in there. The equipment is so advanced now. Their athletes are also very different. Today, you have more information on how to make your body better. The athletes today, they have instructions on how to eat right. When I was young, our diet was anything that was on your plate, you ate it. Nutrition-wise, it's better these days. Overall, athletes today have so many more options and ways of improving themselves. Whether it's equipment, nutrition, lifting or facilities, the opportunities for today's players to reach their full potential is amazing compared to what I had. And I had it pretty good at Notre Dame."
Q: So with that in mind, how do you coach today's players?
Hicks: "My job as the head coach is to create a culture that helps these players grow as young adults, grow as lacrosse players and grow as human beings. I want them to have fun and enjoy the experience but I also want them to realize how valuable this time is. Four years goes by so quickly and then, it's over. Most players will never play again. So it's important that every player takes advantage of the time they have. This year's teams will have a great opportunity as we move into the MAC. It's going to be different. There's been talk that we may play each team twice during the 2021 season, so that'll be interesting. Whatever happens, I think it'll be a great time for them and I'm looking forward to getting in a full season. Right now, that's the plan."
