Coming off the most successful season in school history, Randy Mearns is in his 11th season guiding the Canisius men’s lacrosse program.
During his 10th year leading his alma mater, Mearns guided the Griffs to new heights. Among the many bright spots, the 2008 season included:
• The Griffs earned their first trip to the NCAA Tournament.
• Canisius won its first MAAC Championship, posting dominating victories over Manhattan (11-2) and VMI (14-5) en route to the title.
• Mearns mentored the Griffs’ first All-American during the 2008 season. Adam Jones was honored by USILA and was one of only three freshmen in the country to earn All-America accolades.
• The Griffs won the MAAC regular-season title for the second time in three seasons. Canisius also earned a share of the 2006 championship.
• Nick LoCoco was named the MAAC Rookie of the Year, marking the second-straight season a Griff earned the honor. Tim Rowley was named the conference’s Co-Rookie of the Year in 2007.
• Canisius set school records with 10 wins and seven conference victories. The Griffs also set a program record with eight-consecutive wins during the season, doubling the previous standard.
The 2008 season is just one of the many highlights during Mearns’ successful coaching tenure. In his 10 seasons, Canisius has won 58 games and 46 conference games. Mearns led the Griffs to their first postseason appearance in 2003, earning a trip to the MAAC Tournament. Canisius has since participated in five of the last six tournaments, winning its first title in 2008.
Individual success has also been a common theme under Mearns. A total of 16 Griffs have been earned all-conference accolades, highlighted by Jones and LoCoco in 2008, who both earned first-team honors. Along with Rowley and LoCoco, Kevin Ross was another Griff to earn an individual accolade, picking up MAAC Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2006.
Mearns has also helped guide many of his student-athletes to the next level. Four Canisius standouts have been selected in the first round of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) Draft in the last six seasons. Mark Miyashita, who graduated from Canisius in 2003, was the first overall selection in the 2003 draft.
Mearns also was an assistant coach on the Canadian national team that won the gold medal at the 2006 World Lacrosse Championship. The team was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2007 and Mearns also earned induction into the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2008.
While coaching the Griffs, playing in the NLL and working as an investment advisor, Mearns conquered another personal goal and again graduated from Canisius College with a M.S. in Sport Administration in 2002.
After helping the Canadian Junior National Team to a silver medal in the 1988 World Championships, Mearns was part of the first Canisius College recruiting class in 1989. Under former head coach Ed Vantine, Mearns thrived offensively during his three-year stay and currently ranks second in career scoring with 190 points. He also still holds the single-season records for points (94) and assists (49) and is the Griff’s all-time leader in assists (95).
Upon graduating cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in finance, Mearns was drafted by the Buffalo Bandits in the 1992 entry draft and was a member of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League World Champion Bandits team in 1993.
Mearns joined the Rochester Knighthawks in 1995. As their team captain, he lead the Knighthawks to four championship appearances (’96, ’97, ’99, and ’00) during his seven-year tenure and raised the Champions Cup with a 1997 victory over his former team, the Buffalo Bandits.
In the summer of 2001, the 1999 NLL All-Star Game MVP was picked up by the Calgary Roughnecks in the National Lacrosse League expansion draft and was immediately traded back to the Bandits. The 2002 season saw Mearns have his best offensive output in his nine-year career, scoring 14 goals and dishing out 24 assists for 38 points.
Balancing out the winter and spring months while at Canisius and playing professionally, Mearns played in the Canadian Junior A and Canadian Senior A Lacrosse Leagues. During a 10-year stint beginning in 1990, Mearns appeared in eight National Championships, five of them as team captain. Of these eight appearances, Mearns and his teammates were crowned champions six times. They include the 1990 Minto Cup Champion St. Catharines Athletics, the Mann Cup Champion Brampton Excelsiors (’92, ’93) and the Mann Cup Champion Six Nation Chiefs (’94, ‘95’ ’96).
During this same timeframe, Mearns was heavily involved in developing and coaching field lacrosse in the traditional box lacrosse hotbed of his hometown of St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the co-founder, coach, administrator and fundraiser of St. Catharines minor field lacrosse and was a significant participant in the development of the Ontario Minor Field Lacrosse League; A league that started with just under 10 teams in the early 90’s and presently flourishes with over 140 teams.
In 1994, Mearns relinquished many of his duties with the St. Catharines minor program and took over the Junior and Senior Niagara Raiders field lacrosse teams. In 1996, he was named as an assistant coach on the Canadian Junior National team that competed in the World Championships in Japan and helped guide the Canadians to a bronze medal finish. A year later, the assistant coaching job at Canisius was vacated and Mearns returned to Canisius to serve under Mike Greco.
Returning with a silver medal from the 1998 World Championships in Baltimore where Mearns served as a tri-captain for the Canadian men’s team, he found himself with a glorious opportunity. Greco, after six years at the helm, stepped down as the head men’s lacrosse coach and Mearns was offered the job by retired Canisius athletic director Dan Starr.
A 2005 inductee into the Canisius College Sports Hall of Fame, Mearns and his wife Connie reside in East Amherst with their two sons, Tanner and Owen.
