Coach Profile: Erica Adams
Bridgewater State University women’s lacrosse Head Coach Erica Adams is in her seventh season at the helm. She has taken the Bears to five seasons with over 10 wins each, as those are all the season not shortened by COVID. She is also in her second year as the athletics operations manager, where she manages the fall events while men’s soccer Head Coach Brendan Adams (no relation) operates the winter and spring events.
Coach Adams has a 78-60 head coaching record with the Bears, and she is 14 wins away from having the most wins as a BSU women’s lacrosse coach. Former head coach Erika Smith, who led the team between 2006 and 2013, set the record at 91 wins. Coach Adams was the head coach when the Bears last won the MASCAC Championship in 2016.
Coach Adams is a graduate of Nichols College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2008. She played on the women’s lacrosse and women’s soccer teams, along with club women’s hockey. In lacrosse, she was a goaltender where she registered 322 career saves, which is currently third in program history.
However, during her senior season, she tore her ACL and was out for the season. Since she was the team captain, she acted as an assistant coach, which is where she got her knack for coaching. She started off her professional career as the JV head coach and varsity assistant coach for the Braintree High girl’s lacrosse team.
Then, in 2010 she got a head coaching job at Pine Manor College (now part of Boston College) in Chestnut Hill, where she stayed for two years before they shut down the women’s lacrosse program due to budget cuts and low player interest, according to Coach Adams. She then had stops as an assistant at Mount Ida College (now part of UMass Amherst), Hendrix College in Arkansas, and Norwich University in Vermont before she got the BSU head coaching job in the fall of 2015.
As of Saturday, the Bears have a 4-9 overall record, a 1-2 MASCAC Conference mark, but are currently suffering a three-game losing streak. Coach Adams said, “Our locker room is great, our team culture is great, and our win-loss margin is not by a lot of goals. We’re just trying to find some consistency, and let that show on the field. The year is not over, so we’re trying to get back on the winning track.”
