Mike Dau
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- Title:
- Kickers/Punters Coach
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- Phone:
- 847-735-5297
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- Email:
- dau@lakeforest.edu
Coach Dau, a Lake Forest College Athletic Hall of Famer, is in his 57th season as a member of the Forester football coaching staff and 59th year with the program (2 as a player, 26 as the head coach, and 31 as an assistant). He helped Lake Forest claim conference titles while playing (1957) and serving as a head (1983) and assistant coach (2002, 2012, 2021). He will work with the team's kickers and punters for the fourth consecutive year after 22 seasons as running backs coach.
Under Dau's direction, Lake Forest kickers and punters have combined to average 36.7 yards per punt and make 98 extra points and 14 field goals, including a 43-yarder, in the last 23 games. Michael Bounds and Logan Persson have earned All-Midwest Conference accolades as punters and two different Foresters have led the league in points by a kicker during that span.
Dau coached the Forester running backs from 1997-2018. Under his direction, Joey Valdivia led the nation in scoring twice and was selcted as the MWC Offensive Skill MVP and a First Team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association in 2017. Under Dau’s guidance, Lake Forest backs earned 19 All-MWC honors and three MWC Offensive Player of the Year/Skill MVP awards (Al Mitchell in 2012 and Corey Honore in 1996).
Dau was inducted into the Lake Forest College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. As the head football coach from 1966-91, he won more games than any other coach in team history. He guided the Foresters to a 7-2 record and a Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference title in 1983. That team tied the program record for wins in a season, a mark that was broken in 2002.
Dau’s coaching career began while he was serving in the Marine Corps in 1960 with the 3rd Division on Okinawa and in 1961 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Additional stops include Carmel High School (1963) and Harper College (1992). While an assistant at Lake Forest in 1965, he also served as the head coach of the Lake County Rifles, a semi-pro team in nearby Waukegan.
As a player at Lake Forest, Dau was voted the Most Valuable Player of the 1957 College Conference of Illinois Championship team. He was also named to the Little All-America team as an offensive lineman and was selected to the All-Marine Team in 1959.
Dau was the College’s athletic director from 1975-92. He also coaches the handball team at Lake Forest College and has coached baseball, basketball, and track at the college. The handball team has collected 51 collegiate national championships under his direction and Dau is a member of the United States Handball Association and Illinois Handball Association Halls of Fame.
He resides in Lake Forest.
