Jim Mitchell - Offensive Coordinator - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Jim Mitchell

Title:
Offensive Coordinator
Email:
Phone:
609-258-4978

Jim Mitchell, a veteran of Division I lacrosse who has orchestrated the record-setting Princeton offense that returned to Championship Weekend in 2022 and has reached three straight NCAA tournaments, has been the Princeton offensive coordinator since the 2020 season. He also serves as the OC for the Cannons of the Premier Lacrosse League. During that time, Mitchell has orchestrated three of the top seven scoring offenses in program history — and this is a program that has had some of the most legendary offenses in college lacrosse history.

Princeton's offense has averaged 14.54 goals per game since Mitchell has been with the Tigers offense. His first three full seasons have seen the Tigers reach the NCAA tournament each time and win two Ivy League tournament championships. The team was ranked second in the country when the 2020 season was canceled.

During his time at Princeton, he has coached the program's single-season goals leader (Coulter Mackesy, 55, in 2023), the No. 2 freshman scorer in program history (Nate Kabiri, 57 points, 2024) and the top scorer in Princeton history (Michael Sowers, who was averaging 9.4 points per game under Mitchell's tutelage). Kabiri, Mackesy and Colin Burns are three of the top five freshmen goal scorers in progream history; all three did so during Mitchell's tenure.

The 2024 team, starting two freshmen on attack and a third in the midfield, scored 14 or more goals 11 times, including in both Ivy League tournament games, where the Tigers put up 33 goals while winning a second-straight title. The 2023 Tigers averaged 14 goals per game and scored at least 16 goals on six different occasions, including in the 19-10 win over Yale in the Ivy League tournament final.

The 2022 Princeton offense set a program record by scoring 237 goals during an 11-5 season that ended up with two NCAA tournament wins and a spot in the Final Four. Mitchell's offense ranked seventh in Division I with 14.81 goals per game, and his "share the ball" philosophy led to seven players who had at least 20 goals, also a first in Princeton history.

Mitchell came to Princeton in 2020 and led the Tigers to an average of 18 goals per game in the five games prior to the cancelation of the season due to the Covid pandemic. Mitchell's offense scored at least 16 goals in every game and averaged 16.7 goals per game in wins over Virginia, Johns Hopkins and Rutgers. The Tigers were ranked second or third in every poll when the season ended.

Before that, he spent the 2019 season as the head coach at Bellarmine, where he improved the Knights' offense by 2.5 goals per game from the year before and saw his team have a dramatic improvement as the year went on. Bellarmine began the year 0-8 before winning three of the final five, and the team went from 8.75 goals per game for the first eight to 13.0 per game for the last five.

Before his year in Kentucky, Mitchell spent four years as the coordinator of the high-powered offense at Rutgers, helping the Scarlet Knights to a No. 1 national ranking for the first time in program history. The team reached the top 25 in scoring offense each of his four years.

Mitchell had his first stop at Bellarmine before his time at Rutgers, as he spent two years as the defensive coordinator for the Knights. Bellarmine ranked in the top 15 in scoring defense in both of those seasons.

Mitchell is a 2006 graduate of St. Mary's College in Maryland, where he earned a degree in psychology and played midfield and served as team captain. He began his coaching career at Goucher College, where he coached the defense and earned a master's degree in education, with a focus in athletic administration.

From there he spent two years at Roanoke, the alma mater of Madalon, and then the 2011 season at Duke, where he helped the Blue Devils to the NCAA Final Four.

Mitchell and his wife Eileen, a St. Mary's grad who works for NASA, have two children, Lila and Jack.