Staff Directory

Joseph Manna

Title:
Head Coach
Email:

Joseph Manna was named Central Michigan’s third Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach on July 31, 2026 following a nationwide search ahead of his sixth year as a collegiate head coach.

Manna arrived in Mount Pleasant after a five-year stint as head coach at NCAA II Dominican University (CA) where he established himself as a program builder as the inaugural coach of the Penguins’ program. He established the university as a pioneer in collegiate women’s lacrosse as the first NCAA II program on the West Coast.

Under his leadership, the Penguins have appeared in back-to-back conference title games in the Mountain East Conference (2025, 2026) and amassed a 39-15 record in its first four seasons. Manna built Dominican’s program from scratch with four high school all-Americans in a 25-player first recruiting class and burst on the scene with a 13-1 record and a No. 18 final ranking in the WLCA in 2023. After the program’s transition to NCAA II in 2024, the Penguins posted double-digit win seasons in 2025 and 2026 to reach the Mountain East tournament final in both seasons.

Manna was on the coaching staff of the Haudenosaunee (pronounced “haw-den-uh-sho-nee”) National Team for the 2022 World Championships and 2022 World Games that upset Scotland, the world’s fifth-ranked unit, for the program’s first-ever win over a Pool A squad en route to an eighth-place finish in the tournament.

Prior to Dominican, Manna made a pair of stops in the NCAA I realm on staff for the final season of Furman’s men’s lacrosse program (2019-20) and as a graduate assistant for both the men’s and women’s programs at Detroit Mercy (2020-21). With the Titans, Manna simultaneously coached the nation’s 11^th-ranked faceoff unit on the men’s side and produced a standing-record 24-goal outing against Youngstown State in 2021.

The Levittown, New York-native remains SUNY Delhi’s single-season record holder in faceoff percentage and was an integral part of the Broncos’ first-ever NJCAA national tournament appearance with a 14-4 overall record and a victory over the second-ranked team in the nation. After graduation in 2015, he returned in 2016 for the first two seasons of his collegiate coaching career as a volunteer.

As he began his career on the sidelines, Manna still did not hang up the cleats as he spent three seasons with the Allegany Arrows of the CAN-AM Lacrosse League (2016-18).

Joseph is joined in Mount Pleasant by his wife, Courtney, and their son, Orrick.

THE MANNA FILE

Birthdate: Dec. 18, 1992
Hometown: Levittown, New York
Family: Courtney (Wife), Orrick Oisin “Ori”

Education
SUNY Delhi ‘15

Collegiate Coaching Career (Women’s unless otherwise denoted)
Head Coach, Central Michigan University, July 31, 2026-current
Head Coach, Dominican University (CA), July 2021-2026
Graduate Assistant Coach, Detroit Mercy (men’s and women’s), May 2020-June 2021
Volunteer Assistant Coach, Furman (men’s), 2019-2020
Volunteer Assistant Coach, SUNY Delhi (men’s), 2016-18

Other Notable Positions
Regional Director of Operations, Alliance NorCal Lacrosse, Dec. 2024-July 2026
Assistant Coach, Haudenosaunee National Team, June 2021-Jan. 2023

Playing Career
Allegany Arrows, CAN-AM Lacrosse League, 2016-18
SUNY Delhi Broncos, NJCAA Region III, 2014-15

Coaching Accomplishments
Inaugural head coach for Dominican University, first NCAA II women’s lacrosse program on the west coast
Back-to-back conference title game appearances for Dominican in first two seasons in Mountain East
Produced 39-15 record in first four seasons in Dominican’s program history
Successfully guided young Dominican University program in transition to NCAA II
Led Dominican to one of the nation’s best defenses statistically in 2025
Dominican’s inaugural season led to 13-1 record and No. 18 national ranking in WLCA