Joe Laird is entering his first year as Head Men's Lacrosse Coach at Emory & Henry College. Laird is the first person to hold the position as the Wasps will play their first season of varsity lacrosse in the spring of 2025.

The addition of men's lacrosse at Emory & Henry represents a rebirth and enhancement of the sport as men's lacrosse existed in the form of a club team in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Prior to joining the Emory & Henry staff, Laird spent three years as the head men's lacrosse coach at the University of Illinois, a member of the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association. He guided the Fighting Illini to a third-place finish in the Western Division of the Upper Midwest Lacrosse Conference in 2023 and was the runner-up in the UMLC West in 2022.

Before arriving in Champaign, Laird had a 12-year run as the head coach at Crown Point High School in Indiana, where he was named the Indiana Coach of the Year in 2019 by USA Lacrosse.

As an undergraduate at Eastern Michigan University, Laird was a four-year member of the Eagles' MCLA squad which competed in the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association. He graduated in 2012 from EMU with a Bachelor of Science degree in clinical laboratory science.

-7/12/2023