Dave Bradman enters his 10th season as an assistant coach with the women's lacrosse program during the 2024-25 school year after starting the women's lacrosse program at SUNY Canton and serving as head coach for four seasons.
The Roos won their fourth consecutive North Atlantic Conference (NAC) championship in May 2024 resulting in their fourth NCAA Tournament berth in program history. Canton led 3-2 against No. 23 nationally-ranked Shenandoah midway through the first quarter and were within 10-8 early in the third quarter of an eventual 17-9 loss in the NCAA First Round. The Roos finished their time in the NAC winning their last 25 conference games. Samantha Dayter was named the NAC Player of the Year (Co-Player) for the fourth consecutive year, while Maddy Caron and Aayliah White earned First Team All-Conference honors. Coach Todd was named the conference's Coach of the Year for the second time as Caroline Nappi, Lindsey Wunder and Olivia Scott earned second team accolades. Dayter finished her career with numerous program records including scoring 400 career points on 221 goals and 179 assists in 56 career games.
The Roos held an early lead in the 2023 NCAA First Round against SUNY Geneseo before falling to the Knights. Samantha Dayter was named the NAC Player of the Year for the third consecutive season. Maddy Caron and Maddy Thompson earned First Team All-Conference nods and Morgan Montgomery, Lindsey Wunder, Ali Servati and Olivia Scott all earned Second Team All-Conference honors. The Roos also won NAC Championships in 2019 and 2022 making NCAA Tournament appearances in both seasons.
Bradman, who retired from his position as the physical education teacher at Canton’s Hugh C. Williams High School in 2008, was the school’s athletic director when the girl’s lacrosse program was started. “I had an administrative hand in the process,” he said, “I supported the kids and coaches who wanted to get things going.”
With SUNY Canton, Bradman’s involvement will be much more hands on. The decision was made to add women’s lacrosse in February, and Bradman will be responsible for building the program from the ground up, which should not be difficult given his extensive resume. In addition to holding the athletic director position, he also served as the school’s football and boy’s lacrosse coach for 24 years.
While coaching boy’s lacrosse, Bradman amassed 364 wins, which places him 20th on the list of New York State coaches, according to LaxPower.com.
He graduated from Adelphi University in 1970 with a degree in physical education before obtaining a master’s degree in health. While at Adelphi he was a member of both the football and lacrosse teams.
He was inducted into the Upstate New York Chapter of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2008.
His son, Sam, graduated from Salisbury University in Maryland in 2012 where he was a standout for the Sea Gulls lacrosse team scoring over 200 career goals and finishing with more than 300 career points.
(Updated 12/19/24)
