Mark Egner
Coach
Mark Egner begins his fourth year at William & Mary in 2018, and first as Associate Head Coach after earning the promotion in February of 2018. On the field, Egner coordinates the Tribe defense, while also helping with all administrative and recruiting duties for W&M's nationally-recognized program.
Egner recently completed his third year as an assistant coach for W&M, a span in which the Tribe has improved its win total every year from 7-12 in 2015 to 9-10 in 2016, and 13-7 in 2017. This most recent campaign also saw the Tribe appear in the national rankings in each of the last nine polls, including a No. 19 ranking in the final poll of the season. W&M's 13 wins were the most since 2004, and its 1.95 GAA (goals-allowed average) was the best since 2012 and the fourth-straight year of improving goals-allowed and save percentage (up to .727, best since 2009). The results on the field included a 1-0 road upset of then-No. 7 Michigan, the last loss the Wolverines suffered until the NCAA Semifinals, as well as a 3-2 road win over Old Dominion that was the first for W&M since 1977. The Tribe also beat No. 15 James Madison in the CAA Semifinals to reach the conference championship game for the first time since 2002, and just the third time ever.
Individually, Erin Menges '18 capped her career with back-to-back CAA Defensive Player of the Year honors, becoming just the second player in conference history to accomplish that feat. She was also named first-team All-Region, All-CAA, and All-State as a senior. Booter Ellis '18 was a three-time All-CAA honoree along the defensive line, and Christie van de Kamp '20 was named to the 2018 Team USA U21 Junior National Team.
Before coming to W&M, Egner was an assistant coach for two years at Longwood. With the Lancers, he was responsible for assisting with all program aspects including practice, academics, recruiting, and clinics. He helped Longwood improve its defense into the nation's top 50 in 2014, and recruited Longwood's top overall female rookie of the year for 2014-15. He has served as a clinician and camp staff for field hockey camps both in Europe and in the U.S. since 2008, including at VCU, North Carolina, Princeton, W&M, and Longwood.
Egner has also worked for USA Field Hockey for the past several years, serving as coach, site director, and selector for the Futures program in the state of Virginia. That includes working with several levels of athletes in the high school and collegiate ranks, identifying and training athletes who are the path to joining Team USA squads. He also helped coach the U19 Junior National Team on a tour of Germany in the spring of 2016, and has coached at the Young Women's National Championships each of the past two summers. In March of 2018, he again traveled with the U19 team on a competition tour of Ireland.
Prior to coming across the pond to coach in the U.S., Egner spent four years as a coach in his native Ireland. He was an assistant coach and video coordinator with the Irish Hockey Association's U-18 and Senior National teams in 2012, before becoming the head coach at the Fermoy Hockey Club. Egner also served turns as head and assistant coach of the U18 women's program for the Munster Hockey Association in Munster, Ireland, selecting and training 18-20 athletes each year for the national team selection tournament.
Egner earned his Bachelor's of Education from the Church of Ireland College of Education in 2009, and completed the same degree with Honors the following year at Trinity College Dublin. In 2015, he coached a U-19 team from the Richmond area to third place at the National Indoor Championships, and led Railway Union to the Irish Junior Cup title in 2011. Egner was also nominated for the Irish Hockey Association's "Coach of the Year" in 2013. He is currently pursuing an MSc in Performance Coaching from the University of Stirling in Scotland.