Q&A: Harvard coach Gerry Byrne on philosophies, program direction

Gerry Byrne has high hopes early into his Harvard tenure. (Harvard Athletics)

The Harvard men’s lacrosse team recently scored a huge coup in the coaching ranks when hiring former Notre Dame head man Gerry Byrne to take over from Chris Wojcik.

Byrne helped lead the Fighting Irish to 14 NCAA tournament appearances, 11 conference titles (both regular season and tournament), and national seeds in the NCAA tournament 11 of the last 12 years. A defensive specialist, he’ll look to help the Ivy League program back to prominence after crashing out of the playoff race each of the past three seasons.

A graduate of UMass Amherst, Byrne also has New England ties from coaching at Saint Anselm from 2003-06. He was inducted into the New England Chapter of the United States Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1999, too.

We got a chance to speak to Byrne over the phone and get his thoughts on Harvard, his offensive and defensive philosophies, and what it’s like to come back to New England. It's fair to say he is over-the-moon excited to get started with the Crimson.