How Massapequa's Dawn Sachs balances being a mother and coaching the Mercy women's lacrosse team

When the Mercy University women’s lacrosse team earned a conference championship this spring, it wasn’t the trophy that stood out the most to coach Dawn Sachs.

It was watching her 5-year-old daughter, Shea, dart across the field, celebrating alongside the players she has grown up around.

“I used to really live through the eyes of my players when we had success,” Sachs said. “Now, when we have success there, I really get to see it through the eyes of my kid because she’s such a big part of it.”

Said Shea, “She really loves her team and it’s really fun when we’re together, especially when we [travel] and stay together.”

For Sachs, those moments represent years of carefully balancing one of the busiest schedules in college athletics with raising a daughter who has become, in many ways, part of the team.

The 41-year-old Massapequa resident has coached Mercy’s women’s lacrosse team since 2013, but that’s only part of her workload.

She also holds several administrative positions including the university’s senior associate athletic director, senior woman administrator and chief academic officer. Away from the Dobbs Ferry campus, she coaches two club lacrosse teams for Long Island's FLG program while traveling throughout the year for recruiting, camps and clinics.

“It’s nonstop,” Sachs said. “I just got promoted again. I do compliance, I do student-athlete academics, I manage a multi-million-dollar scholarship allocation, I’m in charge of our branding and I’m now in charge of our administrative staff.”

The calendar is loaded and Sachs always has something new on deck but, despite the demanding schedule, Shea is rarely far away.

“Shea is definitely a coach’s kid,” Sachs said. “She has traveled to probably more states than any other 5-year-old because she’s just constantly on the recruiting trail with me, or we’re traveling for Mercy.”

The kindergartner has become a familiar face around Mercy’s program, often appearing in postgame photos and celebrating with players after big wins.

“As the [athletes] are wrapping up their year, they'll put some pictures on their Instagram, and somewhere there’s always a picture with Shea,” Sachs said. “Letting the girls have those experiences too, where they get to be the older sister, are some of the most fun times.”

And, sometimes, it’s those “older sisters” who are there to look after Shea when Sachs can’t. Sachs said that if she is away, her current players and alumni can always be relied on to be there when she needs them.

Sachs also credited her husband, Keith, the longtime high school football and baseball coach at Wantagh, along with her sister, sister-in-law and best friend, to always be her lifeline whenever coaching or administrative duties keep her away.

“It takes a village, right?” Sachs said. “So much of what I’ve been able to do — in an administrative role and in coaching — has come from them really helping out.”

And while some might feel strongly about having a work-life balance, Sachs embraces the blend.

She said the victories aren’t defined only by championships or promotions. They’re measured in the example she’s setting for her daughter — proof that a demanding career and an engaged family life don't have to exist in separate worlds.

“My school being accepting of me bringing her with me and having these past five years to raise my kid in this environment is like nothing I could have ever imagined,” Sachs said. “I get to show her what I do and I get to show my athletes what it’s like to [succeed] in my profession while also being a mom.”