Mark Egner - Field Hockey Coach - Dartmouth College Athletics

Mark Egner field hockey action versus vermont

Photo by: John and Matt Risley

Mark Egner

Title:
Head Coach
Alma Mater:
Church of Ireland College of Education ’09
Email:
mark.egner@dartmouth.edu
Phone (603):
603-646-2498
At Dartmouth:
Fifth Season (2020-)

Mark Egner enters this sixth year (fifth season) as Dartmouth field hockey head coach in 2025.

Dartmouth's 2024 season featured three wins with all three wins coming at home. The Big Green notched its first win of the season on Sept. 15 as they defeated Sacred Heart at Chase Field. The Big Green limited the Pioneers to just four shots on goal in the game as Dartmouth scored one goal in each of the first three quarters. Dartmouth notched its second win in thrilling fashion as the Big Green scored with less than a minute left in regulation to tie the game and then won the game in overtime. The Big Green earned a 7-0 win on senior day over Colgate, four different players scored including Emilia Callahan '25 scoring four goals in the game. As a team Dartmouth earned the NFHCA Academic Team Award while 21 student-athetles were named to the NFHCA National Academic Squad.

On May 23, 2024, Mike Harrity, the Haldeman Family Director of Athletics and Recreation announced a contract extension for Egner ahead of the 2024 season.

In 2023, the Big Green won their most games since the 2018 season and the most games in the Egner era. Dartmouth notched six wins which included its first two Ivy League wins since 2018. The Big Green defeated Brown 2-0 on Sept. 30 at Chase Field. Dartmouth notched its second Ivy League win against Columbia on Senior Day. The Big Green started the season by going 2-1 with wins over Stonehill and Merrimack. Dartmouth turned in a 4-3 record at home, the four home wins are the most in a single season since the 2017 season. Following the conclusion of the regular season, five Dartmouth Student-Athletes were named to the All-Ivy team which was the most since the 1999 season. 22 Dartmouth Student-Athletes landed on the NFHCA National Academic Squad while five earned Scholars of Distinction honors. For the fifth straight season, Dartmouth posted a top-five GPA in the country with a 3.78 GPA which was the second in the country.

The Big Green’s 2022 campaign was highlighted by strong early-season success, which included three straight wins from Sept. 9 to Sept. 18 — marking the program’s longest winning streak since 2017. It was the first time the Big Green won three straight in regulation since 2013. Dartmouth began the streak by beating Northeastern, 4-3, for the Big Green’s first win over the Huskies since 1987. The other wins came against Sacred Heart (4-2) and Merrimack (2-1).

Dartmouth lost each of its last five Ivy League games by a single goal — which included a 1-0 defeat at No. 8 Princeton and 3-2 loss vs. No. 15 Harvard — as the Big Green are inching closer to breaking through. In the Princeton game, senior goalkeeper Hatley Post made 19 saves, which was tops in the nation at the time, earning her Ivy League Goalkeeper of the Week and national recognition. She was just the second Ivy League goalkeeper to stop 19 or more in 13 seasons. Post had a third-quarter sequence that earned No. 10 on ESPN SportsCenter’s Plays of the Day.

Post, along with classmate Holley Cromwell earned Ivy League weekly awards in 2022, with Cromwell garnering Offensive Player of the Week following the weekend sweep of Northeastern and Sacred Heart. It was the first time since 2012 that two Big Green student-athletes received a weekly award during the same season.

At the end of the year, Cromwell and junior Bronwyn Bird were named second team All-Ivy while Post and freshman Olivia Galiotos garnered honorable mention laurels. The four recognized were the most for the Big Green since 2011. Bird was also named NFHCA second team All-Region.

Dartmouth made major strides offensively, scoring a goal in each of its first seven games of the season, its longest streak to begin a year since 2015. The Big Green also scored 4+ goals in back-to-back games vs. Northeastern and Sacred Heart, marking the first time they’ve done that since September of 2017. Against reigning Final Four qualifier Harvard, Dartmouth scored twice, this against a Harvard team which entered the day second nationally in goals against average (0.79). It was also the first time the Crimson had allowed multiple goals in an Ivy League game since 2019. Dartmouth would fight until the very end in 2022, scoring the equalizer with just 3:01 remaining in regulation to force overtime in the season finale against Penn.

Defensively, the Big Green allowed just over two goals per game in Ivy League play. Allowing only 16 in total, that was eight fewer than any other year since 2015.

The Big Green began Egner’s first season in 2021 with a 4-3 record. Dartmouth started with a thrilling 2-1 shootout win at UC Davis while also beating Central Michigan (2-1), Bryant (2-1) and Merrimack (5-0). Bird was named second team All-Ivy while Meg Barnes received honorable mention.

Egner was hired in February of 2020, becoming just the fifth head coach in program history. He came to Hanover after spending the previous five seasons on the sidelines at William & Mary with the last two seeing Egner elevated to associate head coach. Prior to his years at William & Mary, the native of Ireland spent two seasons as an assistant at Longwood.

During his stint in Williamsburg, Egner was responsible for coordinating the Tribe's midfield unit, while also handling the program's administrative responsibilities and recruiting duties. William & Mary earned a spot in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship Game in both 2017 and 2018 — a first for the program since 2002 — winning the title and earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament in the latter. The Tribe defeated Monmouth in the 2018 opening round for the program's first-ever win in the national tournament.

Under his guidance, a William & Mary student-athlete was named the CAA Defensive Player of the Year in three straight seasons with Erin Menges becoming just the second player in league history to win the award multiple times. Egner coached multiple players who would go on to earn spots on several Team USA squads at various levels during this time.

At Longwood, Egner served as an assistant and helped the Lancers improve their team defense to a top-50 unit in the nation and recruited the department's female rookie of the year across all sports in 2014-15.

Egner also has several years of experience with USA Field Hockey, having served as coach, site director and selector for the Futures program in Virginia. In those roles, he worked with various individuals in the high school and collegiate ranks to identify and train those on the path playing for their country. He also helped coach the U19 Junior National Team on a tour of Germany in the spring of 2016, and has coached at the Young Women's National Championships over two recent summers. In March of 2018, he again traveled with the U19 team on a competition tour of Ireland, and was named an assistant coach for the U17 Junior National team for the 2018-19 season.

Egner also worked for the Irish Hockey Association and spent several years coaching at levels of the national program in his native Ireland before making the journey across the Atlantic.

Egner earned a Bachelor of Education degree from the Church of Ireland College of Education in 2009, and completed the same degree with Honors the following year at Trinity College Dublin. He completed his Master's of Science in Performance Coaching from the University of Stirling in Scotland in 2019.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
"It is my pleasure to welcome Mark to the Dartmouth Athletics Department and the greater Dartmouth community. Mark impressed everyone with his thoughtfulness, passion, work ethic and vision for the field hockey program. The women on the team have every reason to be excited about the future." - Harry Sheehy, Dartmouth Director of Athletics and Recreation

"Mark possesses a passion for life which carries over into coaching. His enthusiasm for teaching field hockey and developing a positive team culture is contagious. The results are players playing for each other and a stronger overall team. Based on his knowledge of the game, he is able to challenge players on both the technical and tactical side of the game. I believe Mark is one of the most talented coaches in the country whose stock continues to rise. He has helped in the development of the William & Mary program into one of the top-25 teams in the nation." - Tess Ellis, William & Mary Field Hockey Head Coach

"The enthusiasm and passion that Mark has for the game will serve him well in his new role. His commitment to develop his coaching practice over the past years is admirable and I am pleased he has been given the opportunity to lead a Division I program. I look forward to following the team's progress over the coming months and years." - Craig Parnham, Director of Coach Education & Learning, USA Field Hockey