Evan Gaffney

Biography

Evan Gaffney enters his second season as an assistant coach at Duke and is in charge of the goalkeepers. Gaffney, a native of Dublin, Ireland, arrived in Durham in 2025 after spending three seasons at East Carolina (ECU Gaffney made an immediate impact in his first season at Duke helping lead the Blue Devils to a 17-5-1 ledger, an appearance in the NCAA College Cup and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. On the pitch as Duke's goalkeeper coach, Gaffney was presented with three goalkeepers who had never started a match in 2025. He helped lead the unit to 12 shutouts on the season, which ranked tied for the sixth-most in program history. Sophomore Caroline Dysart started 22 of the 23 contests and concluded the season ranking tied for first in the ACC with 11 clean sheets. In the NCAA Tournament, Duke was the lone team to not allow a goal over the first four matches and finished the tournament allowing only one tally. During the three years with the Pirates, Gaffney and the ECU squad totaled 27 overall wins and 12 league victories, while helping claim ECU’s first conference tournament championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024. Coming off one of the best seasons in program history in 2024, Gaffney helped the Pirates to a 10-4-7 ledger and to a 1-0 victory over top-seeded Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Championship to send the Pirates to the NCAA Tournament. He mentored goalkeeper Maeve English to AAC Tournament Most Outstanding Defensive Player honors, whi