Neil Duffy is in his first year as an assistant lacrosse coach at Hampden-Sydney College during 2024-25. He most recently served as the boys lacrosse coach, girls basketball coach, as well as a math and physics teacher at Norfolk Academy. Prior to his time at Norfolk Academy, he was a teacher and head lacrosse coach at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy for five years.
Duffy has had a direct connection to Hampden-Sydney Lacrosse going back to 1993, with at least one of his former players on the Tiger roster in all but one year. His former players have captained nine Tiger Lacrosse teams, earned numerous All-ODAC and All-America awards, and three have been inducted into the H-SC Athletic Hall of Fame (Richard “Chamie” Burroughs ’99, Tom Oast ’00, and Bryan Duquette ’00 [tennis]). Former player T. W. Johnson ’96 is enshrined with the 2002 Limestone College Men’s Lacrosse team as their head coach.
Duffy is the namesake of the recently-established Neil V. Duffy Fund for Teacher-Coaches at Norfolk Academy. He was named the recipient of the 2019 USA Lacrosse Gerald J. Carroll Jr. Exemplary Coaching Award which is “given annually to one boys’ high school coach nationwide to honor success not in victories, but in care and guidance given to the balanced development of young men who play the game.”
Duffy was the Keynote speaker for the 2009 USA Lacrosse Youth Council Awards Breakfast and the 2024 Norfolk Academy Athletic Celebration. He is a five-time Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools (TCIS) Coach of the Year (three in Boys Lacrosse, two in Girls Basketball) and a three-time Virginia Independent School Athletic Association (VISAA) State Assistant Lacrosse Coach of the Year.
Duffy has written two books, The Spirit in the Stick and Fly to Honor and he is featured in Thirty Days with America's High School Coaches: True stories of successful coaches using imagination and a strong internal compass to shape tomorrow's leaders by Martin A. Davis (2022).
A native of Massapequa Park, New York, Duffy earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States States Academy and a Master’s Degree from Old Dominion University. He was a four-year member of the Navy Lacrosse program and co-captained the team during his senior campaign. He was the recipient of the 1984 VADM E.C. Waller Lacrosse Award and participated in the 1984 North-South College All-Star game.
Duffy and his wife Jen are the parents of Catherine Duffy Sherin, an assistant coach of the Virginia Wesleyan University Women’s Lacrosse team, and Drew Duffy '24, who co-captained the lacrosse team during his senior year.
