Cabrini University Athletics

Duke University men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski once said “a common mistake among those who work in sport is spending a disproportional amount of time on x's and o's as compared to time spent learning about people.”  For the last 18 years, Jackie Neary has gotten that proportion 100% correct.  

It is the relationships Neary has developed not only with her players, but all types of students, staff and faculty has kept her at Cabrini. “I love coaching at Cabrini,” Neary said. “I have become extremely attached to the school and the students.  In the words of Coach John Dzik, I bleed Blue!”

After years of coaching lacrosse at her alma maters Temple University and Ridley High School, Neary took a year off to referee, but found that she missed the relationship between coach and player.

“Even while officiating, I found myself focusing as much on the interaction between the coaches and players as I was on the play on the field,” Neary commented.  “I missed those relationships and knew I had to get back on the sidelines.”

Lucky for Neary, her husband Joe saw an ad in the Delaware County Times for a small college in Radnor that was looking for a women’s lacrosse coach to start its program.  Without any head coaching experience, Dzik, who was the Athletic Director at the time, gave Neary the chance.

Neary’s first team had 17 players, just a few of whom had lacrosse experience.  Neary led the team to an 11-4 record and the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference championship game, as she collected the first of her nine conference Coach of the Year honors.

“The girls really deserve the credit,” Neary said.  “They went to Coach Dzik and the president to start the team.  We also had tremendous support from the entire College community.  It was a tremendous experience for all of us.”

It didn’t take Neary long to establish Cabrini as a dominate team, as the club went 15-0 in the program’s second year and winning the first of her 12 league titles.

Just prior to beginning her second year as women’s lacrosse coach, the school’s field hockey head coach position opened and Dzik wasted little time tabbing Neary for the job.  

While Neary has led her programs to places many could only dream, 392 career wins with 14 conference titles between her field hockey and lacrosse teams, her impact goes much further.  Neary has created a family that goes well beyond, Joe and her four kids, all of whom have been raised on the Cabrini sidelines.  

She has touched thousands of lives on and off the field through her 18 years in the Blue and White, as evidenced by receiving both the prestigious Denise Edwards Award in 2001, annually given to an individual who best exemplifies the spirit of Cabrini Athletics, and being named an Honorary Alumnus Award in 2011.