Massachusetts coaching staff named Division I men’s Coaches of the Year

Massachusetts’ coaching staff of Dylan Tunnell, Sam Losen, Christian Foster, Marshall Lian and Calan Kirkpatrick was named Division I men’s Coaches of the Year after steering Zoodisc through a championship run that never really slipped into doubt. Ultiworld’s honor is built on film, statistics and conversations around college ultimate, and this year it landed on a staff that did more than ride a loaded roster to a trophy.

The case for Massachusetts started with the way the season looked from the first weekend to the last. Ultiworld described the staff as having taken a talented team and lifted it into a dominant force, one that swept through the Series without playing a game closer than four goals. That level of control mattered because the roster was not moving through a clean, easy year. Massachusetts dealt with injury, illness and travel delays during the regular season, yet still arrived at Nationals with a 6-0 record and kept tightening its grip as the bracket got harder.

The title run itself showed what the coaches changed. Massachusetts beat Western Washington 15-10, UNC 15-10, Yale 15-6, Pittsburgh 15-9, Cal Poly-SLO 15-8 and Oregon 15-10 before the final, then outlasted No. 2 Carleton CUT 15-11 for the championship. Carleton led 8-7 at halftime, but Massachusetts opened the second half with five breaks, including three straight, and turned the game from level ground into a 12-9 lead. That burst was the clearest proof that the staff’s preparation, line management and in-game adjustments were not abstract advantages. They were baked into the moments that decided a national title.

The award also fits the larger history of Massachusetts ultimate. The 2026 championship was the program’s second in men’s Division I and its first since 1986, ending a 40-year wait. Ultiworld’s team history shows the program winning three straight early national titles, returning again in 1988, then disappearing from the national stage until a resurgence in 2014. That makes this staff’s season less a one-off surge than the latest step in a long rebuild that finally produced another title game, then another trophy.

Tunnell’s background adds another layer to the honor. Ultiworld previously described him as a firefighter in Amherst and a former Team USA Open assistant coach who won gold at WUC, a résumé that helps explain how Massachusetts paired calm sideline leadership with a team that only got sharper under pressure.