Completed Event: Men's Lacrosse versus Georgetown on May 10, 2025 , Loss , 12, to, 16
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Men's Lacrosse
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AP: Former Duke Lacrosse Coach Says He's Moved On
4/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
SMITHFIELD, R.I. (AP) - Mike Pressler said he knew the truth from the outset and his faith in his players never wavered - even as his coaching career was in jeopardy and as three members of his Duke lacrosse team stood accused of sexual assault.
The ex-Duke coach said Wednesday's announcement that the North Carolina attorney general was dropping all remaining charges against Collin Finnerty, David Evans and Reade Seligmann was long overdue and affirmed what he already knew: the players were innocent.
"It is the same truth today as it was a year ago," Pressler said at a late afternoon news conference at Bryant University, where he now coaches. "The injustice, the lies and the myths have been fully exposed."
Pressler resigned in April and left behind a program he shaped over 16 years into a perennial powerhouse and one of the sport's best. He resurfaced months later as head coach at Division II Bryant, a school of about 3,600 students in northern Rhode Island. It was a dramatic fall from prominence for a man who in 2005 guided the Blue Devils to the Division I championship game and received national coach of the year honors.
The sexual assault case threatened to derail his career. The season was canceled and three team members were charged with raping a woman hired to dance at a party. He has co-authored a book, "It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered," about the case that is scheduled to be published in June.
In a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, Evans choked up as he thanked Pressler, saying his coach sacrificed everything.
"Sixteen years he spent building up a team to fall on a sword so that we could continue as a team at the university he loved," Evans said. "We owe him everything."
Pressler said he was moving on from Duke, and his family planned to move next month to Rhode Island, where he bought a house. But he struggled to contain his emotion when asked about Evans' comments.
"A lot was taken from us," he said.
Pressler was 153-82 with the Blue Devils, losing by a goal to Johns Hopkins in the 2005 championship game.
But while Duke played Maryland, Virginia and Syracuse, the Bryant Bulldogs compete with minimal fanfare against less prominent schools such as Franklin Pierce and Le Moyne. Bryant's lacrosse program is less than 10 years old. Pressler was preparing for a game against Bentley on Wednesday night.
Pressler traveled to Durham, N.C., to attend the funeral of a friend, and was invited to speak to the team Tuesday, he said.
"I've had kind of a speech rehearsed 1,000 times to give to them someday," he said. "It was a little bit emotional at the beginning. We had some laughs and talked about the old times. I don't know if the players got anything out of it; I got something out of it."
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