For Bonnie Rosen, there’s ‘never a dull moment’ after 20 years as Temple women’s lacrosse coach

Three days before Temple’s women’s lacrosse season opener, Bonnie Rosen had an unexpected visitor join the longtime coach and her team at practice.

Two trumpeter swans, a protected bird species not native to Philadelphia, flew onto Howarth Field, giving Rosen another new experience in her coaching journey. One flew off but the other hung around.

Rosen and the team spent the day working with a biology professor from Temple and a volunteer animal rescuer to capture and properly release the swan. It was something Rosen never thought she would be doing.

“It’s never a dull moment and there’s always something new,” said Rosen, who has been at the helm for 20 years at Temple.

It was just the latest memory in a career full of success for Rosen. Her achievements stack up against some of the best to ever coach women’s lacrosse. She has more than 230 career wins, has been to 12 conference tournaments, two NCAA Tournaments and is a member of both the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

Through the years, Rosen has adapted to the changes in the sport. After a down 2025 season, she led the Owls to eight straight wins to open 2026, their best start since 1988, when they went undefeated and won the national championship. Temple is 8-3 entering Saturday’s contest against James Madison.

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“I’m just super grateful to be doing something that I love and didn’t know when I was growing up that this is what I was going to do,” Rosen said. “But it’s been a great journey and I hope I have many, many, many more years to coach.”

Rosen, a Bala Cynwyd native, was a standout lacrosse and field hockey player at Harriton High School. She played both sports at the University of Virginia, winning a lacrosse national championship in 1991 and being named MVP in both sports as a senior.

Rosen played 13 years on the U.S. women’s national lacrosse team, where she won gold medals in 1997 and 2001 in the World Cup championships.

Coaching never really crossed her mind, as she had other career interests.

“The people I met are what kind of drove me into coaching,” Rosen said. “I was on track and was really interested in being a physical therapist. I really enjoy the medicine side of things. I really enjoy working with people and that was kind of my plan.”

When Rosen crossed paths with former Temple standout Amanda O’Leary, now in her 16th season at the University of Florida, it was 1994 and O’Leary had recently completed her first season at Yale. She was looking for a new assistant coach and convinced Rosen to take the job.

Within three months, Rosen knew she found her purpose.

“Having watched her play — she is somebody who just played with so much lacrosse IQ. It was off the charts,” said O’Leary, one of the winningest head coaches in women’s college lacrosse. “She knew the game, she was a constant competitor. When I made the phone call, I really wanted her to join me. She was somebody who I had been watching and I knew she would be an amazing addition to my staff. It was everything that I could ask for.”

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At Yale, Rosen was on staff for a team that won the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division I championship in 1995 and finished second in the Ivy League in 1996.

In 1997, she decided to take the next step in her coaching career.

UConn was starting its women’s lacrosse program and reached out to Rosen with an offer to become the head coach. She knew it was an opportunity she could not pass up.

“I was like, ‘Well, it’s down the road. I don’t need to be a head coach, but I think I could be a really good head coach, I should throw my hat in the ring,’” Rosen said. “[O’Leary] was super supportive of me and looking back, it was so gracious of her because I ended up leaving midyear.”

Rosen never imagined leaving the program she helped launch. However, after a decade with the Huskies, she needed to be closer to her family to take care of her father.

She was hired at Temple before the 2007 season. Departing from the program she helped start was difficult, but Rosen knew it was for the better.

“One of the first big emotional decisions in my life was when I knew the job opened up, that I had to go after it,” Rosen said. “Because I had been thinking, ‘Am I going to be forced at some point to decide to move back home and have to leave a profession — because family meant the world to me?’ So when the job opened up, it was like, I got to go.

“Fortunately, Temple felt the same way about me.”

Rosen guided the Owls to the NCAA Tournament in her second season at the helm, which marked the program’s first appearance in four years. Temple has since been a regular contender in its conferences, which have included the Atlantic 10, Big East, and now the American.

Rosen led arguably her most successful season in 2021, as she guided Temple to a 7-3 record in the American and an NCAA Tournament victory, its first since 1998.

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“Quite honestly, there was nobody that I could even imagine taking over that program that I knew would do a better job than her,” O’Leary said. “She is just so committed not only to the successes of her players on the field, but more importantly, to their successes off the field.”

California coach Jennifer Wong, who played for Rosen at UConn and spent 14 years across two stints on her staff at Temple, cherishes the relationship she built with Rosen and her ability to connect with players and coaches on a human level.

“She really just cares about everyone as human beings,” Wong said. “Like, yes, we are in it to win lacrosse games, and she goes for it.
It’s not like she holds back. But whenever any player or any staff member needs anything, Bonnie pauses and she’s there for them as a human.”

Her style of coaching has led to several graduates continuing to show support for the program as alumni.

“She has the ability to recruit such an amazing group of girls,” said senior midfielder Sabrina Martin. “Our team gets along so well, and I don’t think I would change that for anything. It goes back to the player connection piece. ... We all just get along so well. All truly best friends.”

Over 30 years, Rosen has impacted countless players and coaches as a head coach, and she does not plan on stopping soon.

“It’s why I stay coaching because I think all the lessons from coaching are the same things I apply to life,” Rosen said. “Coach people, don’t just coach the game. It is always about trying to understand growing and not just focusing on success.”