England Lacrosse is delighted to confirm the appointment of Michael Molster as the new England senior women’s team Head Coach.
Molster takes the reigns after five years as England’s Assistant Coach, helping them to European Championship gold in 2019 and a bronze medal at the recent Women’s World Championship.
Since 2017, Molster has been best known to England fans as the defensive coach for the England senior women’s team during the 2019 European and 2022 World Championship campaigns in which he helped England’s defence concede less than seven goals in eight of their 15 games.
During the 2022 World Championship, England’s defence conceded at just 7.75 goals against average, only bettered in the top pool by USA, and goalie Britt Read was named to the All-World tournament team.
Molster also served as an Assistant Coach for the England U19 women’s team that claimed bronze at the 2015 World Championship.
After working with some of the best Head Coaches in the world during his time with England and at three NCAA Division I colleges, first with Johns Hopkins University, before finding huge success at Towson and then Penn State, Molster will now begin his journey as a Head Coach on the international stage.
With over 30 years’ coaching experience, he first garnered attention as Assistant at Towson University, developing the team’s defence into one of the best in the country, ranking in the top 10 nationally from 2016-19 in both goals against average and caused turnovers.
In 2019, he then moved to Penn State as an assistant coach where he continued his success, coaching the starting goalkeeper to All-American selection in 2020 and grabbing three wins against top 20 opponents in 2021.
Molster has also gained experience of the sixes format with England at the recent Super Sixes in Canada and will be at the helm of Rise Women at The Fly 2023.
Upon his appointment, Molster said:
“It’s an absolute honour to have been appointed as the England senior women’s team Head Coach and I’m so excited to begin!
“There’s such a talented group of players in the England squad that I’ve had the pleasure of working with for the past few years and we’ll be looking to continue the upward trajectory that the team has been on since 2015.”
England Lacrosse CEO, Mark Coups, said:
“We’re delighted to have someone of Michael’s calibre leading the senior women’s national team. Mike has had the experience of working with the national women's team for the past five years and in our performance programme. This provides him with a great knowledge of our elite women athletes to drive the team forward to further World and European medals.
“His track record in the NCAA and with the England team speaks for itself and Michael is an exciting choice for our new Head Coach. We wish him every success with England!”
Molster starts his role with a Team training session at the start of January 2023 and succeeds Phil Collier who had been in the role for eight years.
England Lacrosse would like to thank Phil for all his dedication, hard work and expertise in developing our Senior Women’s squad into a world class team. We, on behalf of lacrosse in England, want to recognise his significant achievements with the women’s programme in that time, including two World Championship Bronze Medals and two European Gold Medals, an Ashes series win in Australia alongside numerous other international successes. We wish him all the best in the future as he continues to contribute to the development of women’s performance lacrosse in England.
After Phil’s departure, Mark Coups said:
"Phil has made a huge contribution to England Lacrosse and to our women's national team over the past eight years. He has achieved Gold Medals at European and Bronze Medals at World level, which is an outstanding achievement for any coach.
“Phil has helped develop the leadership skills of our players and our coaches which has set the foundation for future success. I am grateful to Phil for all he has done for England in so many areas of the game, especially with the development of our elite women's team performance."