By Adam Levine
Sports Editor
Devyne Doran, 27, is in her second season as the Rams’ head lacrosse coach.
Doran said one of her best memories as a coach is winning a MASCAC championship in her first season as the Rams’ head lacrosse coach. Doran said, “First year coming in and winning - that's kind of hard to top.”
Doran said she began playing lacrosse in seventh grade, which was “late-ish compared to everyone else who were on my teams.”
Doran said her best friend growing up, and their whole family, played lacrosse. She said, “I was sick of soccer, so I picked up lacrosse and really liked it.”
She said she played lacrosse through middle school, high school, and at Eastern Connecticut State University.
Doran said her first experience coaching lacrosse was at Eastern Connecticut as an assistant coach right after she graduated. She said, “Because of who I was as a player, that transition for me wasn't super hard.”
Doran said she coached her former teammates at Eastern Connecticut when she became an assistant coach.
She said, “I was just really able to have that honest conversation with my friends of, ‘Hey, I'm not your friend.’
“‘This is gonna be my job and when you graduate, we'll be friends again.’”
Doran said former Rams’ head lacrosse coach, James Rippey, mentored her during her first head coaching position at Mitchell College.
She said, “Rippey actually reached out to me as he was leaving.”
Doran said she came to Framingham because of everything it offers.
She said, “Being in the MASCAC conference is awesome. The location is awesome. The school here - your education actually means something when you graduate from Framingham.”
Doran said her favorite part about coaching at Framingham is the athletes.
“My student athletes are awesome. I show up and have fun every day,” Doran said.
She said, besides the memory of winning the 2022 MASCAC championship, her athletes always stand out to her.
Doran said, “Being able to teach lessons through lacrosse and having it translate into their life, postgrad, or even as they go through their college career - I think it’s really, really cool.”
Doran works alongside Assistant Coach Dave Planchet. She said, “He's like the dad of our team.”
Doran added, “I could not, probably, get through a day without Dave.
“The girls love him. They trust him.
“We would not be where we are right now if it weren't for him,” Doran said.
Doran said her favorite athletes growing up were female athletes, such as professional tennis player Venus Williams, now retired professional tennis player Serena Williams, and now retired professional soccer player Mia Hamm.
Doran said, “I feel like the ones [athletes] that definitely had the most impact on me personally were girls that I played with in college and in high school also who just supported me and pushed me a lot.”
Doran said she categorizes her coaching style as “holistic” and “balanced.”
She said, “I know that being a student first, being a person, having a social life, having family, all that kind of stuff - playing lacrosse is an added bonus to being a college student.”
Doran said, “We definitely have a lot of fun and I think that's a big part of our success is ‘winning is fun.’”