University of Denver Athletics

Longtime offensive coordinator, and winner of seven National Championships, David Metzbower will enter his fourth season with the Pioneers in 2027. Prior to Denver, Metzbower most notably was on staff at North Carolina, Loyola and Princeton.

Overall in his 37-year career, Metzbower has combined for a 429-185 record, has made 25 NCAA Tournament appearances, 20 visits to the NCAA Quarterfinals, 13 trips to Championship Weekend, nine Memorial Day clashes and seven national championships.

AT DENVER: 
2026:
Denver opened the season 3-0 and 4-1 with wins over Air Force and at Utah to go perfect against its regional rivals once more. Denver's best win of the year came against Michigan on February 28, a 15-9 victory over the team receiving votes entering Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. 

The Pioneers played one of its most difficult schedules in the program's history, dropping a lot of tight games against the nation's best. DU fell at No. 8 Ohio State 6-4, to No. 8 Sryacuse 13-12 and at No. 6 Duke 8-7. The Pioneers tight losses continued in BIG EAST play, falling on the road to Villanova 9-7 and at Providence 8-7 in overtime. 

Denver earned key wins against St. John's (15-9) and against Marquette in the regular season finale to punch its ticket to the 2026 BIG EAST Men's Lacrosse Championship. 

2025:
Following a season opening loss to No. 8 Johns Hopkins, the Pioneers won four of their next five heading into the meet of its non-conference schedule, highlighted by wins over regional rivals Air Force and Utah. 

Denver picked up its first signature win of the season on March 22, a 13-6 win over No. 7 Duke at a high school in the Dallas area. Noah Manning had the 26th sock trick in program history and Denver's defense blanked Duke in the middle quarters to lead Denver to the blowout win. Denver's win was its third over a top-7 opponent when being ranked outside the top-20 themselves. 

The Pioneers picked up a statement win in the BIG EAST, holding Georgetown to just three goals in a four-goal win over the Hoyas in the nation's capital. DU's win ended a five game losing streak in the series. It marked the first time Denver held a ranked opponent to three goals or less since holding No. 20 Providence on April 22, 2017. Denver's win also marked the first time it held a ranked opponent to three goals or less away from hom in program history. 

2024:
In his first season in the Mile High City, Metzbower helped lead the Pioneers back to Championship Weekend for the first time since 2017, defeating Michigan and Syracuse en-route to punching its ticket to Philadelphia.

The Pios opened the season with a win at No. 6 Johns Hopkins (13-12 OT), its first of three wins against the No. 6 team in the country during the 2025 season. Denver raced out to a 5-0 record to start the season before its first set back against Yale. DU responded with a win at Ohio State before a neutral site loss to Duke before going 5-0 in conference play to win the program’s first BIG EAST regular season title since the 10-game conference slate in 2021.

Metzbower's offense had seven different players finish with over 20 points, led by JJ Sillstrop and Michael Lampert's 46. Five different players scored at least 20 goals, as Lampert and Sillstrop were joined by Cody Malawsky, Noah Manning and Mic Kelly in that category. 

DU was efficient on both sides of the ball in power play situations, scoring on 46.5% of its offensive chances to finish 10^th in the country in the category, while leading the nation man-down, holding opponents to just a 15.2% success rate. 

PRIOR TO DENVER: 
Metzbower was the offensive coordinator at North Carolina from the 2015 season through the 2023 campaign, including his last seven seasons serving as the program's associate head coach. In his second season with the Heels, the 2016 USILA Assistant Coach of the Year helped lead North Carolina to their first national championship in 25 years and his seventh as an assistant coach. UNC finished sixth in the nation in goals per game at 13.06 in 2016 and were fifth in man-up offense, clicking at a 50-percent rate.
 
A year later, Metzbower guided UNC's offense to the 2017 ACC Tournament title, the program's second conference championship since 1996.
 
Prior to his time at UNC, Metzbower was on staff at Loyola University (Maryland), where he had served as an assistant coach and the Greyhounds' offensive coordinator in the 2013 and 2014 seasons. In his two years on the staff at Loyola, the Greyhounds earned back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and won the Patriot League regular-season and tournament championships in 2014. The Greyhounds went 26-7 in Metzbower's two years as an assistant coach to veteran Loyola mentor Charley Toomey.
 
From the 1990 to 2009 seasons at Princeton, Metzbower's offensive mind was paired with Bill Tierney's revolutionary defense. In those 20 seasons, Princeton won six national titles, qualified for Championship Weekend 10 times, advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals 16 times, won 14 Ivy League titles and combined for a 230-65 record. In his days as the Tigers' OC, Metzbower coached the top five goal scorers in Princeton history (at the time), while producing 22 All-Ivy League attackmen and seven Ivy League Players of the Year. The Princeton Tigers also had 27 first team All-Americans in his tenure.
 
Former Tigers Kevin Lowe (1994) and John Hess (1997) were named the most outstanding attackmen in Division I lacrosse, and Josh Sims won the NCAA's top midfielder award in both the 1998 and 2000 seasons. In 2009, Metzbower was named the IMLCA Assistant Coach of the Year and was inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
 
In addition to his offensive mind, Metzbower also coached the Tigers' goalies, directing Scott Bacigalupo (1992-1994), Trevor Tierney (2001) and Alex Hewitt (2006) to the Ensign C. Markland Kelly Award as the top NCAA Division I goalie a combined five times.
 
In between his college stints at Princeton and Loyola, Metzbower was an assistant coach at the Haverford School in 2010 and then the head coach for two seasons at Malvern Prep.

Prior to his time at Princeton, Metzbower followed a standout career at Delaware by spending three seasons on the Blue Hens' sidelines from 1987-89.
 
In addition to Metzbower being Tierney's right-hand man at Princeton for many years, his connection to the DU program extends to his daughter Jordan Metzbower, who was a four-year student-manager for the men's lacrosse program during her undergraduate student career.