Men's Lacrosse
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Kevin Donahue is one of the most innovative and respected coaches in the game. In August, he retired from full-time coaching and stepped into the Orange’s volunteer role. A Syracuse University alum, Donahue has spent more than three decades on the Orange sideline as an aide to head coaches Roy Simmons Jr. and John Desko.
Donahue’s work with the Syracuse program and his service to lacrosse has not gone unnoticed. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Jay Gallagher Award as the nation’s top Division I assistant coach. Five years later, he was inducted into the Upstate New York chapter of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame for his achievements both as a coach and as a player.
Currently, Donahue is responsible for the team’s faceoff specialists and goaltenders, but has coached all aspects of the game in his tenure at ‘Cuse.
Under Donahue’s guidance, Syracuse has been one of the top clearing teams in the nation in recent years, including setting a school record with a .919 clearing percentage in 2017 (248-270). Since 2001, there have only been 35 seasons where teams have cleared at 90-percent or better, six of those were Syracuse. The Orange cleared at .918 in 2013 and 2011 and .905 in 2015 before finishing at .902 in 2016.
Donahue has also mentored some of the top faceoff men in the game. Ben Williams re-wrote the Syracuse record books in his three seasons with the Orange, earning All-America nods in each of those years.
It was his expert tutelage that helped Danny Brennan earn honorable mention All-America laurels at the position in 2008. Brennan led the nation with a .667 faceoff winning percentage that season. He won 214 draws to help the Orange win the national championship.
Brennan is one of Donahue’s more recent protégés. He’s also worked with Bill Dirrigl, Kirk Pratt, Bob Feisee, Chris Cercy and Jon Jerome. In addition, he tutored Jeremy Thompson and Gavin Jenkinson, who ranked first and second in the BIG EAST, respectively, in faceoff winning percentage in 2010.
Donahue has also been a key mentor in the cage, helping turn 2011 Orange graduate John Galloway into one of the top goaltenders in college lacrosse history. Galloway left Syracuse as the NCAA’s winningest netminder with 59 victories. In addition, he was a two-time winner of the Ensign C. Markland Kelly Jr. Award as the nation’s top goalie, a two-time USILA First Team All-American and two-time BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year.
From 2008-12, Donahue assisted Lelan Rogers at the defensive end of the field and the unit never performed better. The Orange finished in the top five nationally in scoring defense for three straight years (2009-11). Donahue also previously directed the team’s man-down unit, which led the nation in 2011 with an 81.7 percent success rate (49-60).
Offensively, much of Donahue’s experience lies in formulating the plays that have helped create one of the most efficient attacks in the nation. As a team, Syracuse has shot better than 30 percent in each of the last-five seasons and ranked in the top 10 in the country in shooting percentage in two of the last four seasons.
Under Donahue’s guidance, a host of Orange attackmen and midfielders have received All-America honors, including most recently ACC Offensive Player of the Year Sergio Salcido and Nick Mariano, who each earned first team All-America nods. 2015 Turnbull Award winner Kevin Rice and 2013 First Team All-American midfielder JoJo Marasco were also recent benefactors of Donahue’s offense. Working within the framework of Donahue’s offense, Marasco set an SU midfield record for assists (42). His son Dylan Donahue earned first team honors on attack under his watch.
Over the years, the SU midfield has produced some of the sport’s all-time greats and several of the nation’s top players, including Paul and Gary Gait, Charlie Lockwood, Dom Fin, Roy Colsey, Matt Caione, Josh Coffman and Sean Lindsay.
Prior to joining the Orange, Donahue spent seven years as a lacrosse coach at West Genesee High School, where he taught for several years in the science department.
A 2011 inductee into the West Genesee/Town of Camillus Hall of Fame, Donahue came to Syracuse University after a standout high school career at West Genesee. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from SU in 1979 and was the first of three brothers to play for the Orange, earning All-America honors in 1977 (honorable mention), 1978 (second team) and 1979 (first team).
A high school and college teammate of Desko’s, Donahue was a two-time Orange captain and Coach Roy Simmons Jr.’s first first-team All-American. As a senior in 1979, Donahue was third on the team in scoring with 49 points, including a five-goal, three-assist masterpiece against Maryland in the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game.
Kevin and his wife, Laurie, have two sons, Collin and Dylan, and one daughter, Riley. All three children have followed in their father’s footsteps. Collin played for Syracuse in 2011 and 2012. Dylan was a three-time All-American before graduating in 2016 with over 200 career points. Riley graduated in 2018 after an All-American career with the women’s team, finishing seventh on the program’s points list (227).
