Lake Forest College

The 2026 season was Phil Dodson's fifth as head coach of the Foresters, 15th as a coach at the collegiate level, and eighth at the helm of an NCAA program.

Under Dodson's direction, the Foresters posted an 11-7 overall record and finished in a tie for third place in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference standings with an 8-3 mark in league play. They also ended Aurora University's 46-game winning streak against conference opponents with a thrilling 12-11 overtime victory to reach the championship game of the NACC Tournament. Liam Bradley repeated as a First Team All-NACC selection while two of his teammates earned second team honors and two more were honorable mention selections.

Ten players on the 2026 team reached double figures in goals and four more had at least 10 caused turnovers. Meanwhile, Forester goalkeepers combined for the most saves (210) and highest save percentage (.561) in program history.

Lake Forest captured back-to-back Midwest Lacrosse Conference regular season and tournament titles in 2023 and 2024 and the team was 29-8 overall with victories in each of their 13 games against league foes during that span. The Foresters also hosted and defeated Transylvania University 12-10 in the opening round.of the 2024 NCAA Division III Tournament.

Forester players have now earned 42 all-conference honors, including 14 first team selections, in the last five seasons and Dodson was named MLC Coach of the Year twice (2022, 2023). In addition, Lake Forest has garnered 72 conference academic awards in Dodson's first four years as head coach.

A 23-5 victory over Beloit College on March 27, 2024, made Dodson the Foresters' all-time leader in coaching victories and he is now 58-30 overall and 29-7 in league play at the College.

Dodson came to Lake Forest after four years as the first head men's lacrosse coach at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After a year of recruiting, he led the Cougars to a 7-8 record in their first season and a 9-7 mark in year two. The 2019 team also became Chatham's first spring sport to reach the semifinals of the conference tournament. Despite the 2020 season being cut short after just seven games by the COVID-19 pandemic, Chatham players earned a total of 15 all-conference honors during his two full seasons.

Dodson was also a head coach at the club level from 2015-20.

No stranger to collegiate lacrosse in the Midwest, Dodson spent the 2013 season as the defensive coordinator at Carthage College (Kenosha, Wis.) before filling the same role at Aurora University (Aurora, Ill.) for the next three years. Those teams combined for an overall record of 62-19 and a Midwest Lacrosse Conference (MLC) mark of 31-1 with three league titles and NCAA Division III Tournament appearances.

A native of Wilmette, Illinois, Dodson had a stellar playing career at New Trier High School before becoming a four-year starter and two-year captain at the University of Illinois. The defender also earned Scholar-Athlete honors and a pair of All-American awards from the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association. He later served as the team's head coach for three years and made a pair of trips to the national tournament.