Jennifer Thomas '14 enters her fourth season at the helm of the Springfield College women's lacrosse program for the 2025-26 academic year.
Last season, Thomas led her team to a 14 win season and an appearance in the semifinal round of the NEWMAC Championship Tournament. Six of her student-athletes were named to All-Conference teams and two were IWLCA All-Region selections.
The 2024 campaign saw the Pride earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament and host a national tournament game for the first time since 2006. Thomas and her staff was chosen as the NEWMAC Coaching Staff of the Year as the Pride won the regular-season conference title and had five student-athletes chosen to the NEWMAC All-Conference Teams, including just the second NEWMAC Rookie of the Year in program history.
In 2023, Thomas guided the Pride to 11 wins and an appearance in the NEWMAC Championship semifinals. She coached three student-athletes who earned All-Conference accolades from the NEWMAC.
A standout for the women's lacrosse program during her time as a student-athlete at Springfield College, she helped lead the Pride to New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championships in 2012 and 2013. Thomas also served as a team captain during her career at Springfield.
Thomas spent the previous two years at Johnson & Wales University, where she was named the GNAC Coach of the Year in 2022 and led the Wildcats to an appearance in the 2021 NCAA Division III Championship Tournament, after winning the 2021 GNAC Championship. Under Thomas’ leadership, the Wildcats also earned the Team Sportsmanship Award in 2022. Prior to her time in Providence, Thomas spent five years as the head coach at Western Connecticut State University and also had stints as an assistant coach at Mercyhurst University and Mount Holyoke College.
Thomas was on former head coach Kristen Mullady’s first NEWMAC Championship teams in 2012, and repeated in 2013. She is the granddaughter of Springfield graduates, Emerson W. Dunton ‘56 and Marjorie M. Dunton ‘54 & ‘56. Emerson W. Dunton ‘56 was inducted into the Springfield College Hall of Fame in 2011, while Thomas was pursuing her undergraduate degree.
Thomas graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Movement and Sports Studies, Physical Education from Springfield College in 2014 and a Masters of Science in Organizational Leadership with a concentration in Sports Leadership from Mercyhurst University in 2020.
Thomas will take over a Springfield College women's lacrosse program that has a storied history of success and will become just the eighth head coach in the program's history.
