Odierna Confident in Fairfield Rising the Mid-Major Ranks

John Odierna was named head coach of Fairfield men’s lacrosse on June 9.

The New York native celebrated something nearly as big four days later when his Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years.

“I think the shock is still wearing off that something good happened for one of my sports franchises,” Odierna said. “I definitely rode the wave of enthusiasm and excitement that whole week.”

Now Odierna, 37, is hoping to help Fairfield snap a drought of its own. The Stags haven’t won a conference crown since back-to-back CAA titles in 2015 and 2016. Odierna sees everything in place from facilities to school profile to administrative support to return to title times.

“I think it’s a total sleeping giant,” he said.

Odierna has celebrated successes at every one of his lacrosse stops. He won a state title as a player with Cold Spring Harbor (N.Y.), then he played in final fours and national championship games as a defenseman for Gettysburg. He entered the Division III coaching ranks at Colby and Stevens before moving on to lift the Manhattan program before finally helping Syracuse reach two final fours in his three seasons as the defensive coordinator. He also served as defensive coordinator for the Premier Lacrosse League’s Boston Cannons before taking on the challenge of resurrecting Fairfield.

“There aren’t a ton of coaches that have coached in the ACC and then at the MAAC level, and then at some very high academic Division III schools, and I played Division III,” Odierna said. “So, I feel like I’ve seen a lot. I’m not gonna go as far as to say I’ve seen everything, but I’ve seen a lot, and I would just say that even the different backgrounds of the different coaches I’ve worked with have helped.”

He played at Division III powerhouse Gettysburg for Hank Janczyk, whose coaching tree is extensive. Janczyk had a tried-and-true way of playing that proved successful year after year. Odierna got his first college coaching stint under former Gettysburg assistant coach Justin Domingos at Colby, serving as defensive coordinator for two seasons.

“It was trial by fire,” Odierna said. “I had to take on a lot really quickly. I was two weeks older than the oldest player on the team.”

Odierna next coordinated the defense for two years at Stevens Tech under head coach Gene Peluso, whose own coaching tree includes 2026 national champion head coach Matt Madalon of Princeton.

“Stevens was my first time coaching or working in a program that really wasn’t a Gettysburg way to do things,” Odierna said. “And it was extremely eye-opening. I learned a ton.”

His next job brought him his first challenge of a true rebuild when he joined Drew Kelleher at Manhattan as defensive coordinator. The Jaspers were 1-14 the season before they took over.

“I know it wasn’t a startup, and in a lot of ways it was with just what we walked into,” Odierna said. “I think my first year we had like 27 guys on the team. So, it was definitely how to build a program from square one and turn a program around.”

By 2019, they won the MAAC’s regular season title. In 2022, they won Manhattan’s first MAAC tournament title in 20 years.

When Kelleher left for UMass Lowell, Odierna was elevated to head coach for the 2023 season and led the Jaspers to another regular-season championship. He essentially bet on himself when he gave up the head coaching job after just one season to become defensive coordinator at Syracuse under head coach Gary Gait.

There was no guarantee he’d get another head coaching shot, and he said finding another opportunity in short order wasn’t the primary goal — but it came three years later when the Fairfield job became available.

“At the time, it was less about ‘When am I going to get another head coaching opportunity?’ and more ‘I want to challenge myself to coach at the highest level at the most historic program in the sport,’” Odierna said. “I think just having confidence that if I got there and we did what we thought we could do, that there would be another opportunity out there somewhere.”

Syracuse was the only team to host a first-round NCAA game in each of the last three seasons and the only back-to-back final four participant. Odierna received his share of credit for that success as an innovator at the defensive end.

“Coaching at all these levels, you coach against a lot of different coaches,” Odierna said. “So, having to learn who you’re coaching against and sort of reinvent yourself — and there were things we did at Syracuse that we never did at Manhattan and there are things at Manhattan we never did before that. So just having to constantly reinvent and get creative, and if you’re not trying to get better, people are passing you. I would just say holistically, it’s been very formative, and I think the nuance to my background is what’s really helped me in my career and will hopefully help me moving forward.”

Odierna prides himself on being an approachable, yet respected, coach to his players. He plans to foster relationships by meeting with players one-on-one every other week.

“No matter what chair you sit in and where your coaching relationships are, the number one thing, and honestly, the number one reason, I do this is to build relationships,” he said.

He’s had only one year as a head coach, and that was pretty seamless because Kelleher had given him so much input and responsibility as associate head coach, but Odierna won’t do things exactly the same as his season atop Manhattan, where he still coordinated the defense in addition to his head coaching duties.

“I have the ability to hire a great staff with great experience and guys that have coordinated and are very comfortable in the roles that they’ll have,” he said. “I’ll be able to be the culture driver, the relationship builder on all fronts — with the student-athletes, with the administrators, with the alumni, with the parents. That’s going to be my focus in addition to coaching lacrosse.”

He hopes to have a staff in place from a large pool of applicants by the end of the dead period July 10. They’ll work together the rest of the summer on recruiting and then start working with the team come September.

“I’m excited to spend more time as the head coach,” Odierna said. “Less in the defensive trenches, cutting all the film and building the game plans and more just developing relationships, learning how every guy ticks, learning about them, their lives and providing the best experience possible while still providing the standards and how we want to hold ourselves and ultimately being built for life.”

Odierna is hoping a lot of the program turnaround is driven by the players. He has been encouraged by his early interactions. None of the Fairfield players that went into the transfer portal have left, and he senses a cohesion from conversations he’s had thus far.

“I do think that before I can expect the players to lead the program, because I do think the best programs are player-led, obviously I have to get in there, myself and our staff,” he said. “We’ve got to set the standards and how we want things to be done.”

Alumni would love to see Fairfield return to the days when it won three straight MAAC titles in the mid-90s, two Great Western Lacrosse League championships in the early 2000s, or even the most recent triumphs when the Stags followed up an ECAC title with back-to-back CAA regular-season crowns under current PLL Philadelphia Waterdogs coach Andy Copelan.

The most optimistic Fairfield followers have posted on message boards wishes to become another mid-major power like Richmond.

“I don’t read the message boards,” Odierna said, “but I do think that line of thinking is pretty accurate.”

Odierna believes that Fairfield has everything in place to succeed. He points to their top-notch Rafferty Stadium that will host the PLL and WLL July 17-19. It’s a strong academic school with a strong history of placing graduates into the workforce, geographically situated in a lacrosse hotbed between New York and Boston and less than two miles from Jennings Beach on the Long Island Sound.

“I firmly believe that Fairfield should be a nationally relevant program that’s a perennial top 20 team and ultimately competing to win the CAA championship every year,” Odierna said. “And I think, obviously if you’re doing that, you’re on that level, you’re one of the premier mid-major destinations. My goal is to build a program, not a team. My job is to make this a sustainable thing.”