Taylor Wray Leaving Saint Joseph's to Take Penn Job

Taylor Wray is set to become the next head men’s lacrosse coach at Penn. He informed his players at Saint Joseph’s of his decision in a Zoom meeting Friday morning, sources confirmed with USA Lacrosse Magazine.

Players were informed that Scott Meehan, the most tenured member of the current staff, will take over the program. Meehan was promoted to associate head coach in 2023 and just wrapped up his seventh season with the program in 2025.

The Crosse Commission reported on X Thursday that Penn was “zeroing in” on Wray as its preferred candidate to replace Mike Murphy, who was let go last month after 16 seasons. Shortly thereafter, Wray texted the team to schedule the meeting.

Wray is the winningest coach in Saint Joseph’s history. He led the Hawks to a 127-79 record in 14 seasons. They broke through with conference championships and NCAA tournament appearances in 2022 (with the Northeast Conference) and 2024 (with the Atlantic 10).

Notably, Saint Joseph’s has defeated Penn in each of the last three seasons, including an 11-10 victory in March to complete a sweep of Philadelphia schools.

Wray has been named conference coach of the year five times in his career, three times in the NEC (2014-16) and twice in the A10 (2023-24). He was an assistant coach at Lehigh before coming to Saint Joseph’s ahead of the 2012 season.

An Edmonton, Alberta native, Wray was a defenseman and team captain at Duke. He graduated in 2003, was the No. 2 overall pick in the National Lacrosse League draft and was named the NLL Rookie of the Year with Calgary Roughnecks in 2004.

Wray was a three-time NLL All-Star, finishing his career with the Philadelphia Wings in 2011. He’s been in Philly ever since.

Wray also has experience playing and coaching internationally for the Canadian national team. He suited up for the 1999 U19 team and gold medal-winning 2006 senior team. He was Canada’s defensive coordinator for senior world championships in 2010, 2014 and 2018 and head coach of the U19 team in 2012 and 2016.

The Hawks return three of their top four scorers, including Ben Dutton coming off a sensational 47-goal freshman campaign. Starting goalie Tommy Gross also returns after posting the second-best goals against average (9.17) in Division I.

They'll have a first-year head coach in Meehan, a 2012 Washington and Lee graduate who had previous stops as an assistant at Binghamton (August 2018-January 2019), Mount St. Mary's (2017-18), Richmond (2016) and Franklin & Marshall (2013-15).