In June of 2020,
Diane “Dee” Stephan was named the sixth permanent head coach in the 25-year history of the program and despite operating just one year after the pandemic and featuring 13 first-year letterwinners, promptly turned around a 3-15 team in 2019 to 9-6 in her first season in the spring of 2021.
In 2022, the Warriors won their opening four games for the first time in program history -- all on the road -- before losing in Boca Raton to Division II Lynn University, a Top 10 nationally-ranked team which won 13 of its first 15 matches during the year. In all, Eastern won seven of 11 games away from Rick McCarthy Field during the season.
A native of Clinton and current resident of Avon, Stephan brings an abundance of coaching and administrative experience and business acumen to Eastern. She currently serves as founder and owner of the Avon-based Dodgers, Inc., an elite travel lacrosse program for girls that trains and teaches grade-school student-athletes and which has grown to encompass 11 states since its creation more than a decade ago.
“What intrigued me about the job,” said Stephan upon her appointment, “is that there is a lot of potential here. I’ve learned over the years that I’m really good at taking what is there – what I’ve been given – and maximizing it. I think that one of my strengths is taking the type of student-athlete that I inherit, and helping them maximize their potential,” added Stephan, whose previous collegiate coaching experience came as head women’s lacrosse coach at the University of Saint Joseph for one year in 2011 and as a graduate assistant field hockey coach at Syracuse University in 1988.
While Stephan prides herself on an ability to maximize the available talent, she points to the university’s academic reputation as a selling point in her effort to attract potential recruits
. “I really feel that the academics are a lot stronger than I think some people in Connecticut realize. I think that Eastern is positioned very well to really make a dent recruiting-wise in the Northeast.”
For 17 years beginning in 2000, Stephan coached women’s varsity lacrosse at Avon, Canton, and Lewis Mills high schools and field hockey at Windsor High School, and also coached women’s lacrosse for five years at The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, where her teams won league titles every season and went on to reach the finals of the Western New England Prep School Class ‘C’ championship three times, winning twice. Her teams at Avon qualified for the state tournament each year after her first season, reaching the Division I second round twice and the quarterfinals once.
Administratively, Stephan served as director of athletics and as assistant to the head of school at Ethel Walker and director of athletics at Canton High School.
Stephan has been a driving force in the administration and advancement of girls and women’s lacrosse in Connecticut for more than 25 years at both the public school level and as a member of US Lacrosse.
In 2010, Stephan was inducted in the second class of the Connecticut Lacrosse Foundation Hall of Fame for her numerous contributions to lacrosse in Connecticut, and in the fall of 2021, was inducted into the New Agenda-Northeast Hall of Fame.
Among her wealth of contributions: she served as president of the Connecticut Chapter of US Lacrosse for three years, as co-director of Farmington Valley Youth Lacrosse for ten – where she was instrumental in the formation of girls’ and women’s program -- coached and/or coordinated the Connecticut U13 and U15 girls’ teams for the US Lacrosse Festival for three years, organized the Connecticut U17 high school girls’ team at the World Cup U17 Games, and served as an organizing committee member and on-site coordinator for the inaugural U15 national championships in 2009.
Inductees into the Northeast Hall of Fame "must have made a significant contribution to the advancement of girls and women in sport within the six New England states through coaching, officiating, mentoring, or advocating" and must have at least 15 years of experience.
At the public school level, Stephan served for two years on CIAC committees that defined the competitive structure for girls’ high school lacrosse in the state and selected CIAC All-State teams, and for four years, served on the Academic All-America Committee, serving as chair in 2004.
Stephan played field hockey as a freshman at the University of Connecticut – where she was part of a program that won the national title during the first contested NCAA Division I tournament in 1981. After injuring her knee during a tryout with US Field Hockey during the summer of 1982, she transferred to Southern Connecticut State University, where she played the 1982 and 1983 seasons.
Stephan holds a B.S. Degree in Physical Education from Southern Connecticut and an M.A. in Education from Syracuse, and resides in Avon with her husband, Chris. The Stephans have four children, all three of their daughters having played collegiate lacrosse.
