John Paul
Head Coach (12th season)

Record at Michigan: 185-42 (.815) (Through the 2008 Season)

John Paul begins his 12th season at the helm of the Michigan men's lacrosse team having accumulated a 185-42 record through his first eleven years.  His teams have earned a dominating 85 - 2 record in the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association.  Under Paul, the Wolverines have won a stretch of eight of the last ten CCLA championships and have appeared in the MCLA national tournament each of the last ten years as well, reaching at least the quarterfinals every year except one.  In 2008, the Wolverines did something no other MCLA team has ever done before when they completed a perfect season by going 20-0.  The resulting national championship was Michigan's first, and it also marked the first time any team outside of the WCLL or RMLC has won an MCLA national title.

Under Paul, 46 Wolverines have earned MCLA All-American recognition, including 14 on the First-Team.  Michigan has also boasted 23 Academic All-Americans during Paul's tenure.  At the conference level, Paul's teams have produced 98 All-CCLA honorees, by far the highest total in the conference.  In 2008, Brekan Kohlitz became the first Wolverines drafted by a Major League Lacrosse team when he was selected in the fifth round by the Washington Bayhawks.  Kohlitz was a faceoff specialist, a position Paul coaches directly.

Away from the field, Paul's teams have excelled in the classroom and community as well.  Over the last several years the team has earned over a 3.3 overall grade-point-average.  In addition, team members are regular participants in athletic department visits to Mott's Children's Hospital and in area children's reading programs.

Paul has been involved with the Michigan lacrosse program, as a player and then as a coach, since 1985.  When his playing career ended, he served as an assistant coach before taking over the reigns in 1998.  While he was an assistant coach, Paul spent five years working in the Michigan Athletic Department as a development officer.  His coaching career began at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor while he was still at Michigan in 1989.

Paul brings his fundraising experience to lacrosse as the Wolverines have become well known in the lacrosse world for an operating budget that surpasses even most NCAA Division 1 teams.  He started the Michigan Lacrosse Booster Club as well as the Michigan Lacrosse Alumni Advisory Board to assist in fundraising and communications, and he has aggressively pursued corporate and business partnerships for the team.  Paul's Michigan team has direct relationships with Warrior, Adidas and Riddell.

Under his tenure, the team has played a truly national schedule, with trips to Utah, Arizona, Colorado, California, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Florida and throughout the Midwest to play top-level opponents.  Paul built the team from a perennial top-15 performer to a national contender after one year at the helm, and the Wolverines have stayed at the top since.  It is now rare to see Michigan ranked outside the top-5. 

Paul's network in the varsity lacrosse world have allowed his teams to play quite a few NCAA opponents during the regular season and in fall and pre-season scrimmages.  In the fall of 2004 Michigan participated in the Nitany Lion Invitational along with Division 1 programs Penn State and Bucknell and defending Division 2 national champion LeMoyne.  In the fall of 2005 Michigan was invited to play in the inaugural MRB Buckeye Classic, along with Ohio State, Butler and Maryland.  In the fall of 2007 the team had the honor of hosting Army and defending NCAA Division 1 National Champion Johns Hopkins in Arbor for a three way scrimmage involving all three squads.  In addition, the team plays a number of other Division 1, 2 and 3 opponents throughout each year.

The Wolverines draw recruits on a national level, with much of the team hailing from out-of-state.  Almost every player on the Michigan team was recruited to play varsity lacrosse at some level, with quite a few players choosing Michigan over mid-range Division 1 programs or high-level Division 3 teams.  The current team has five high school All-Americans, and numerous All-State selections.

Paul was on the coaching staff of the USA West team that won the International Open division of the 2002 World Lacrosse Championships in Perth, Australia.  He served once again on the USA West staff this past summer and helped lead the team to the championship of the Asia Pacific Games in Osaka, Japan.  In addition, he has established a relationship with the University of Tokyo men's lacrosse team.  Every summer he travels to Japan to work with their team, and every spring several Blue Bullets players spend two to three weeks with the Michigan team, living with the players and attending practices in a valuable cultural exchange.  This team to team international relationship is unique in college lacrosse.

In the summer of 2002 Paul took over as President of the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA).  A former member of the US Lacrosse Board of Directors (2002 - 2005), he also serves on the Executive Board of the US Lacrosse Coaches Council and on the Board of the Michigan Chapter of US Lacrosse.

Paul runs a winter lacrosse clinic at Michigan that draws over 200 players and 80 high school coaches as well as top college coaches from around the country and a Michigan summer overnight camp for varsity level players.  He also coordinates a three day goalie camp that is run by assistant coach Brad Gigliotti, and a similar defense camp run by assistant coach Scott Morrison.  Paul serves as the director of the summer Nike Lacrosse Camp held at Adrian College in Michigan, and he is one of the charter coaches at the East Valley Lacrosse Camp held every January in Phoenix, Arizona.  He is also planning to add a Team Camp to the stable of Michigan summer camps in 2008.

A three-year captain at Michigan, in 1989 Paul was drafted by the Detroit Turbos of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League.  He also played post-collegiate club lacrosse for the Motor City Lacrosse Club until 1996.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan in History (1992).  He is married and lives in Ann Arbor.

Coaching Record

Paul's Year by Year Michigan Coaching Record

Paul's Team / Player Achievements

1 MCLA National Championship

2 MCLA Semifinal appearance

9 MCLA Quarterfinal appearances

8 CCLA Championships

1 Player drafted professionally (MLL)

46 MCLA All-Americans (14 1st-Team All-Americans)

23 MCLA Academic All-Americans

98 All-CCLA Selections