Young Harris College Athletics

Forrest MacConnell begins his third season as the head coach of the men's lacrosse program at Young Harris College.

MacConnell led Young Harris to a tie for fifth place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in 2019. MacConnell had four players named to the All-Great Lakes Valley Conference second team.

MacConnell led the Mountain Lions to 13 straight victories and the inaugural Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season title and to the conference tournament championship in the 2018 season. The 13 wins in a season are the most ever for Young Harris. The Mountain Lions finished fifth place in NCAA Division II in face-off wining percentage, seventh in shot percentage and scoring defense, ninth in assists per game, 11th in scoring margin and winning percentage, 12th in poitns per game, 14th in scoring offense, and 24th in ground balls. 

MacConnell served as the interim coach this past season. MacConnell led the Mountain Lions to a 7-8 ledger during the 2017 season. Four of the Mountain Lions' losses came to nationally ranked programs - Rollins College, Lynn University, Lenoir-Rhyne University and Saint Leo University. In addition to Lenoir-Rhyne, the Mountain Lions also lost to NCAA Division II Tournament participant Wingate University.

Prior to becoming the interim head coach, MacConnell served three years as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator for the Mountain Lions. MacConnell has worked extensively with Trilogy Lacrosse, the leader in lacrosse education, for the past four years as well as coaching and working with numerous club teams around the Atlanta community.

The Cary, North Carolina, native attended Lees-McRae College where he studied Sports Management and was a four-year starter as a defensive midfielder. MacConnell earned the team's Most Improved Player Award as a Freshman for the Bobcats and helped guide his team senior year to one of the best records in the history of the program.

After Lees-McRae College, MacConnell served as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at NCAA Division III Bethany College for a season and then as an assistant and defensive coordinator with Cary Academy for two years working with both the Middle School and High School teams. MacConnell has also coached at the Navy Lacrosse Camps for six summers, Xcelerate Lacrosse Camps for five years, as well as many other camps all over the country.

MacConnell, who earned his Eagle Scout award in 2006, played lacrosse and football at Cary High School where he was named to the all-conference first team and a team captain for both sports. He was named the team's MVP for lacrosse as a junior and received the Coaches' Award for football as a senior.

MacConnell and his wife, Caroline Tucker MacConnell, reside in Blairsville, where she is an eighth grade language arts teacher at the local middle school.