Nick Griffin

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Title

Assistant Coach
Email

griffin9@umbc.edu

Nick Griffin, UMBC ’21, enters his fifth season on the UMBC men’s lacrosse staff in 2026-27 and his first on head coach James Purpura’s staff.

Purpura retained Griffin as an assistant coach after Griffin served as the Retrievers’ defensive coordinator during the 2026 season.
In 2026, Griffin coordinated the UMBC defense and led a unit that finished 18th nationally in scoring defense.

Griffin previously served as the Retrievers’ offensive coordinator. In 2024, his first season coordinating the offense, he helped unlock the talents of Mike Doughty and Brian Tregoning, who finished as the America East leaders in points per game. Doughty recorded the most points per game by a Retriever since 2014 and produced the most assists per game by a UMBC player under a first-year offensive coordinator.

Griffin was promoted to a full-time assistant coach in July 2023. During the 2023 season, he assisted with the defense and oversaw the man-down unit. The Retriever defense finished among the nation’s best in goals-against average, goalie Jayson Tingue was nominated for the Tewaaraton Award and defenseman Ethan Robinson earned First Team All-America East honors.

Griffin began his coaching career at UMBC in 2022, assisting with the Retriever offense during his first season on the sidelines.

Prior to joining the coaching staff, Griffin was a member of the UMBC men’s lacrosse program beginning in the fall of 2016. As a sophomore in 2018, the defenseman became the first UMBC men’s lacrosse NCAA Division I student-athlete to earn Google Cloud Academic All-America honors. He also earned First Team All-America East honors that season.

Griffin suffered a foot injury prior to the 2019 campaign and did not compete but earned the America East Elite 18 Award for having the highest GPA among participating student-athletes in UMBC’s conference championship victory.

A three-time team captain, Griffin was selected to lead the Retrievers in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Griffin also distinguished himself academically during his time at UMBC. The university’s mechanical engineering department recognized him as its Outstanding Senior in the spring of 2021, and he was inducted into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. He graduated from UMBC with a degree in chemical engineering.

A native of Marriottsville, Maryland, Griffin resides in Baltimore, MD.