PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania's James H. Greene, Jr. Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse, Mike Murphy, has announced the hiring of Mike Abbott as his offensive assistant coach. Abbott replaces Pat Myers, who recently left the program to become head coach at Lafayette College.
 
Abbott comes to Penn after spending the last seven years at Colgate—where, coincidentally, the recently departed head coach bore the same name as Penn's head coach—and has overseen three of the eight most prolific scoring seasons in the Raiders program's 87-year history. This season, Colgate scored 178 goals in 15 games, an average of 11.9 goals per game which is sixth in program history.
 
Abbott began his career at Colgate as an assistant coach prior to the 2012 season, and was promoted to Associate Head Coach following the 2015 season.
 
"I am very excited to add Coach Abbott to our staff," said Murphy, who recently completed his eighth season overseeing the Penn program. "The programmatic success he had at Colgate, especially the offensive production, speaks for itself. In addition, Mike's ability to connect with his players was an important factor in this decision, as well as his appreciation for the importance of keeping things fun. Coach Abbott also did a great job recruiting at Colgate, as well as overseeing their face-offs. He appreciates the challenges of our student-athletes, and is excited to help our players become the best they can be and help our program pursue our lofty goals. I could not be more excited about Mike Abbott joining our Penn Lacrosse family."
 
"I couldn't be more excited to start the next chapter of my coaching career at Penn," said Abbott. "Coach Murphy's energy and vision for the program moving forward is contagious. I'm extremely excited to begin working with the student-athletes here at Penn to help them achieve their goals on and off field, and assist in taking the Penn program to the next level."
 
Colgate made two NCAA Championship appearances during Abbott's tenure, in 2012 and 2015—the Raiders were quarterfinalists in 2012—and was Patriot League regular-season champion both of those years. The Raiders finished the 2012 season ranked No. 8 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse media poll, and Abbott's offense that season shattered school records in goals (236), assists (129) and points (365). After the season, Peter Baum was the Tewaaraton Award recipient as the nation's top college lacrosse player.
 
Prior to Colgate, Abbott spent five seasons as an assistant coach at SUNY Cortland where he was the recruiting and offensive coordinator. He helped lead the Red Dragons to the 2009 NCAA championship, along with three-straight title game appearances from 2007-09 and other NCAA tourney runs that reached the semifinals in 2010 and quarterfinals in 2011.

As a player, Abbott won a Division I national championship in 2003 at Virginia before moving to Cortland, where he was a two-year member of the men's lacrosse team and tallied 114 career points (83 goals, 31 assists). He helped lead the Red Dragons to the NCAA Division III title as a senior in 2006 and twice was named first-team All-America. Abbott was the ECAC Upstate New York and SUNYAC Player of the Year as a junior, and received first-team All-ECAC and all-conference honors as a senior. He earned his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from SUNY Cortland.

Mike's younger brother, Matt, currently plays for the Chesapeake Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse—in fact, he is that franchise's all-time leader in games played—and has played for the U.S. National Team. Mike's father, Tom, a longtime Division 1 lacrosse official has been the NCAA's national coordinator for men's lacrosse officiating since July 2015.