May 24th, 1998, is a date forever etched into the storied history of men’s lacrosse at Washington College. On that date, the Shoremen won their first-ever NCAA National Championship. As head coach of that team, John Haus engineered perhaps one of the most impressive postseason runs seen in the sport’s history.
Coming off a pair of one-goal losses in the previous two NCAA Division III Championship games in 1996 and 1997, the 1998 Shoremen had a hard road in the 1998 tournament. Despite playing not a single home game in the tournament, however, the Shoremen outscored their four opponents by an average of four goals per game. Three of those vanquished tournament opponents had beaten the Shoremen in the regular season.
Peaking in the postseason was the norm during John’s four years as the Shoremen’s head coach. All told, his teams went 47-21 over his four years at the helm for an impressive .691 winning percentage. In NCAA Division III Tournament games, however, they went 8-2 for an even more impressive .800 winning percentage.
In addition to the 1998 National Championship and two national second-place finishes, John also coached the Shoremen to back-to-back Centennial Conference Championships in 1996 and 1997. In his four years as head coach, Shoremen received 18 All-America and 23 All-Centennial Conference honors.
John left the College to become the head coach at Johns Hopkins University and later served as head coach at the University of North Carolina. He is currently the head coach at Lebanon Valley College.
Washington College considers it an honor and privilege to induct John G. Haus III into its Athletic Hall of Fame on this 1st day of October, 2016.
