Doug Sharp

MHSLCA Hall of Fame, 2025

 

 

 

A New Jersey trained adolescent, who made his way back to the Mitten state after his high school career, is being honored for a lifetime commitment and achievement to the sport he loves, lacrosse. Spring Lake’s Doug Sharp is the lone recipient for the Michigan High School Lacrosse Coaches Association’s (MHSLCA) Hall of Fame Class of 2025, said Brian Kaminskas, the association’s Hall of Fame committee chair. Sharp is being inducted for an outstanding coaching career that spanned more than a quarter century and influenced a large body of student-athletes, Kaminskas said. “I was shocked when Brian called me last week and honestly humbled by such an honor,” Sharp said. “To join this class of coaches here in Michigan is a big honor and I can’t thank the association and the HOF committee enough.” In addition to Sharp being inducted into the 2025 MHSCLA HOF, he is also being honored by the Michigan High School Coaches Association (MHSCA) this year as that organization’s 2025 Lacrosse Coach of the Year. The MHSCA is an association that represents 32 Michigan High School Athletic Association individual sport organizations. Sharp will be honored during the MHSAA’s lacrosse state finals in June at the University of Michigan. The likeable Sharp recently retired from the head lacrosse post at Spring Lake with a record of 134-120 and hopes to keep his hand in the sport potentially as a referee, something he did during his coaching career 15 years ago. Sharp grew up in Flemington, New Jersey and played four years of high school lacrosse at Hunterdon Central High School, in the middle of a lax hot bed area. He began playing in the fifth grade and finished his senior year after his family had moved to west Michigan during the previous summer. He said after high school he entered the service, the US Marine Corps, and ended up spending four years before leaving military duty. Upon leaving the US Marine Corps, Sharp found himself still interested in the sport and quickly picked up a job as a volunteer assistant at West Fredrick Middle School in Fredrick, Maryland. It wasn’t too long after his stint as a volunteer coach, he migrated back to west Michigan, where his family had settled. And again, the lacrosse bug came calling as Sharp took the Varsity Head Coach position at Forest Hills Central, before eventually landing the head spot at Caledonia. Since Sharp lived in Spring Lake and had children, he made the decision to start a program in Spring Lake after only one year at Caledonia. “Driving from Spring Lake to Grand Rapids for work and coaching and back to Spring Lake, I made the decision to start a program in my hometown,” he said. Sharp started the program, which flourished under his direction and management until he recently retired. He said his wife, Jessica (Jessie) and this three children Lauren, 23, Paige 21 and Rob, 19, were always a part of the lacrosse family, something he thoroughly appreciated. “None of this would have happened if my family didn’t allow me the time and patience it takes to coach…. a lot of the kids in Spring Lake are part of our extended family,” he said. Sharp, who spent five years as an MHSAA lacrosse official, said he will keep his hand in the game and mentioned “individual awards like these are shared by all those who have contributed to our family, our Spring Lake program and west Michigan. I am really proud and appreciative of the award and want to thank the MHSLCA board.”