Pat Coyle (lacrosse)
Pat Coyle is a retired lacrosse player. He was inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2017.
In his National Lacrosse League career, Coyle played for the Detroit Turbos, the Ontario Raiders, the Toronto Rock, and the Colorado Mammoth. Coyle was named [National Lacrosse League National Lacrosse League Defensive Player of the Year Award|Defensive Player of the Year Award|Defensive Player of the Year] in 2002, and won five NLL Championships; four with the Toronto Rock and one with the Colorado Mammoth. He has been the head coach of the Colorado Mammoth since 2017.
Professional career
In 1994, Coyle played with the Detroit Turbos of the MILL, but was suspended indefinitely from the MILL for striking a referee. When the MILL became the NLL in 1998, it was decided that the suspension did not apply to the new league, and Coyle was signed by the Ontario Raiders. The Raiders became the Toronto Rock the next season, and Coyle went on to win four championships with the Rock before being traded to the Vancouver Ravens after the 2004 season. However, just weeks before the 2005 season began, the league announced that the Ravens would not play in 2005, and Coyle immediately became a free agent. He was signed by the Colorado Mammoth, where he won his fifth championship in 2006. During the 2008 season, Coyle announced that he would be retiring after the season.Capturing the league’s first-ever Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2002, he was later named to the Mammoth’s All-Decade Team in 2012 and eventually became the first defenseman in NLL history to be inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2014. Coyle joined his 2006 championship winning teammates in the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame Class of 2017.
As a coach, Coyle was originally hired during the 2014 season to coach alongside Chris Gill and Dan Stroup as a collective unit, he was named head coach in 2018.