On February 3rd Averett Vice President, Director of Athletics, and Campus Operations Meg Stevens as was inducted into Western New York Chapter of USA Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Now in her eleventh year at Averett, Stevens spent her previous eleven seasons as the head coach of Buffalo State’s women’s lacrosse team from 2003 to 2013. During that time, she coached the Bengals to six SUNYAC tournament appearances and earned an overall record of 109-65 (.626). She coached her team to its first NCAA playoff berth in 2012, which included a first-round triumph and a trip to the NCAA Final 16.
“It’s pretty special, I don’t think that’s something any coach ever thinks about while you’re doing what you love,” Stevens said. “You don’t necessarily talk about the recognition piece of that but it’s really fun for it to come ten years later. It’s really a really great opportunity and I was most excited to celebrate with my past players and staff. It was a big weekend for me and it was an honor.”
In 2009 the Bengals, led by Stevens, completely rewrote Buffalo State’s records. They broke and tied 19 records, including victories in a season. They finished 16-2 and brought home the SUNYAC regular season title with a 9-0 league record. After her team made its conference title game debut and was ranked in the national top-20 poll for the first time, Stevens was named the SUNYAC Coach of the Year for a second time. The Bengals were listed in the national top-20 coaches’ poll in 2010 and 2012. In addition, Stevens has coached and recruited two All-Americans and helped players win a total of 28 All-SUNYAC awards.
“It was recruiting,” Stevens said. “As a division 3 coach you have two things, you and the institution to help recruit 17 and 18 year olds. I think a lot of the things that attracted me to Buffalo State attracted me to Averett early on. I really liked coaching. We were the underdog, we were the team that was not supposed to win. When you look at Buffalo State prior to my arrival, they were a team that didn’t win. I think selling that to a lot of students, coming to a place where you are not supposed to win. It was a ton of fun, but it’s a ton of recruiting those right players. We talk a lot about recruiting characters at Averett, a lot of that comes from my coaching days. If you look at it a lot of the things we do at Averett are the things I did there.
Stevens did more than just coach at Buffalo State during his eleven years in Buffalo. She was one of the first members and head coach of the Buffalo Wings Lacrosse Club, which was established to teach females of all skill levels how to play the sport and compete at the highest levels. Over the years, the club recruited approximately 150 players with the help of parent volunteers and coaches, many of whom were Buffalo State players for Stevens.
“We got girls lacrosse really off the ground in Western New York,” Steven said. At the same time as being a college head coach I was trying to build a youth program. When you build a good youth program you’ve given yourself some recruits. There are areas that are better than others and when you try and lift where I was it was beneficial for the area and Buffalo State.”
Stevens moved on to become the director of athletics at Averett in 2013, leaving Buffalo State behind. Ten sports programs, including men’s and women’s lacrosse, have been added by Averett during her leadership. 2020 saw Stevens advance to the position of vice president and director of campus operations and athletics. After being chosen as one of NACDA’s 2020–21 Athletics Directors of the Year in 2021 and winning the Nike Division III Administrator of the Year award from the Women Leaders in Sports in 2022, Stevens has gained national prominence. Stevens took up her one-year role as Women Leaders in Sports president in 2023.
“It was a little bit hard because at Buffalo State I took an atypical path,” Stevens said. “A lot of coaches say you have to move out to move up. As I went on in coaching I kept saying I wanted more administrative duties. 3 to 4 years before I left I knew I wanted to be an Athletic Director, by the time I left I was an assistant athletic director and senior woman administrator. It wasn’t just given to me I had to ask for it.”
