Alan Vrooman    6/2/1913 - 4/21/2012
Head Coach 1952-1961
Assistant Coach 1938-1942, 1947-1951
Record as Head Coach-  77-19-3

Alan saw his first lacrosse game at the age of 12 years old when his parents took him to West Point for a brief visit. Although Alan was born and raised in an area of Long Island that eventually became a lacrosse hotbed, lacrosse was unknown there in the 1920's. Alan eventually become engaged in lacrosse as a participant during his freshman year at Princeton in 1931. Alan modestly believes his immediate starting assignment at the defensive end was due to all the better athletes being involved in baseball or track. Nevertheless, he was to play that starting position for the Tigers during his entire four-year career. There were no collegiate champions declared in those days, but in Alan's senior year of 1934, Princeton went undefeated with a tie against Navy, so a claim to at least a share of the national title is certainly justifiable. Lacrosse was played 12 to a side in those days, and not only did the equipment of that era not look like the high tech lax weapons of today, the rules were also very much different.

While earning his PhD in English at Princeton from 1934-1937, Alan started his illustrious coaching career with the defense of the Princeton freshman. When he joined the Exeter faculty in 1937, his teammate Bob Kesler, who was two years ahead of him at Princeton, had just taken over the head coaching duties from Norm Hatch. The coaching team of Kesler assisted by Vrooman led Exeter lacrosse to great success from 1938-1942, and from 1947-1951. While Kesler handled the offense, Alan coached the defense. With Norm Hatch running the club system as a feeder organization, and everyone stressing fundamentals, Exeter lacrosse teams had incredible success. When Bob Kesler stepped down from coaching, Alan took over the reigns as head coach in 1952. Alan recorded his own amazing record of 77-19-3 during his time as head coach, with undefeated seasons in 1953, 1957, and 1960. Exeter never had a losing record during Alan's twenty years coaching lacrosse at Exeter as either head or assistant coach. Alan also was instrumental in teaching defense to future college All-Americans Bill Lovejoy, Jack Pendergast, Dave Tait, and Doug Levick

Alan retired from the Exeter faculty in 1978 as Chairman of the English Department and Woodbridge Odlin Professor of English Emeritus. Having devoted over 40 years to the Academy, Alan has been honored by the Exeter classes of 1950 and 1952 as an honorary member of those classes. Alan was born on June 2nd, 1913, and resided in Exeter, NH until his death on April 21st, 2012 at the age of 98.