Eric Clakeley recently concluded his fourth season as the head women's lacrosse coach at Presbyterian College in the spring of 2023. He was announced as the sixth head coach in program history in August of 2019.
Over his time in Clinton, Clakeley has overseen a pair of All-Big South postseason honorees, nine weekly award-winners, and is currently directing the program's highest point-getter in Blue Hose history (Abby Edmisten, 160 points).
Clakeley's 2023 squad assembled its best Big South progression in program history, beginning the league slate with a 3-1 mark against conference opponents and a combined scoring sequence of 41 goals in those contests. PC found six overall victories on the year, the most since the university made the jump to the Division I level in 2008.
Senior defender Kendall Goldfarb was selected as the 2023 Big South Scholar Athlete of the Year and was additionally selected as the conference's recipient of the prestigious George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence (an award given to one male and female student-athlete league-wide for each sport).
In the 2022 season, junior Abby Edmisten led the Blue Hose with 38 goals including 19 free position goals to pace the offensive attack throughout 2022. Edmisten set the program’s DI record with 41 free position goals in her career. Senior Heidi Shafer became the fourth player in DI history with 300+ saves in her career.
Presbyterian improved its win total for the second straight season in 2021, including a 12-11 win at Longwood, its first Big South road win since 2017. Sophomore Abby Edmisten earned a Big South Offensive Player of the Week award and finished second in the league in goals/game (3.42) and third in points/game (4.08) on her way to being selected to the All-Big South Second Team. Edmisten's season included tying the program's single-game record for both goals (9) and points (10) in a win at Lander. The sophomore finished the season with 41 goals, second-most in a season in Blue Hose history.
The 2020 season was cut short due to COVID-19, but not before the team showed an improvement over previous seasons. The Blue Hose picked up an early win against Howard at home before improving to 2-1 on the season with an exciting 10-9 overtime win against Akron. Sarah Marshall and Abby Edmisten both picked up weekly honors from the Big South, while players like Kara DiClemente were in the middle of breakout seasons with collegiate-best totals in various statistical categories.
Clakeley came to PC from Lafayette College where he served two seasons as the defensive coordinator for the women’s lacrosse team. In his time with the Leopards, the team ranked highly within the Patriot League in save percentage and saves per game. In his first spring, he lowered the team’s goals against average by half a goal. The program also had the most players receive Patriot League All-Academic honors as well as receive All-Academic Team honors from the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association.
Prior to his time at Lafayette, he spent one season as an assistant coach for women’s lacrosse and field hockey teams at Lindenwood University-Belleville. While with the Lynxs, Clakeley worked on both sides of the ball.
Clakeley got his start at the high school level in 2012. In one season as defensive coordinator with University High School’s boy’s lacrosse, the team led the state in every defensive statistical category. He then accepted a job with Seneca Valley High School, where he spent four seasons as an assistant coach. The team advanced into Pennsylvania’s Class 6A district playoffs on three occasions during his tenure. While there, he also assisted the Athletic Director in day-to-day operations and spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the varsity football team.
He served as a men’s lacrosse official for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association from 2009-2016 in which he completed over 200 game assignments and was selected to officiate the 2015 and 2016 WPIAL Playoffs.
Clakeley graduated from Penn State in 2016 with a degree in business and from Lindenwood in 2018 with a master’s in business administration. Alongside his wife, Nicole, he has two daughters - Marion and Eliza.
