A Wild Ride on the WCLL Coaching Carousel
By Marc Lea
In the college lacrosse world, coaching changes are a routine part of the off-season calendar. The firing and hiring that permeates the summer months provides fans with a glimpse into the upcoming season, and helps rev up the anticipation for the coming spring.
In the virtual varsity confines of the MCLA, where head coaches must routinely balance their coaching duties with the demands of full-time jobs and the needs of family, the coaching carousel tends to spin even faster than at the varsity level. This off-season in the WCLL, the coaching carousel didn’t just spin faster, it surged into overdrive.
An astonishing nine WCLL Division 1 teams hired new head coaches during the past six months, culminating a two-year span in which the league experienced unprecedented turnover. As we head into the 2008 campaign, a staggering thirteen of twenty Division 1 teams will be led by a coach in only his first or second season with his current program.
The list of teams with new faces on the sidelines spans the league, covering the WCLL’s geographic limits from Northern California to the Arizona deserts. And the changes aren’t limited to the downtrodden and underperforming, as many of the league’s elite squads succumbed to the tornado of change that swept through the off-season. Last year’s Cinderella story, the Arizona State Sun Devils, will be forced to fill the void left by departing WCLL Coach of the Year, Adam Hopkins, and for the first time in years, perennial MCLA powers Sonoma State and the University of Arizona Laxcats will head into the season with a new head coach at the helm.
PASSING THE TORCH
Few WCLL programs can boast of a legacy that compares to the Sonoma State Seawolves. Beyond their success on the playing field, which has included a multitude of WCLL titles to go along with a 2002 National Championship, the Seawolves’ program has been a model of consistency and continuity on the sidelines. In the past fifteen seasons, Sonoma State has had only two different head coaches, a nearly unparalleled level of stability for the WCLL. Those two coaches, John Hughes and Doug Carl, developed one of the MCLA’s most dominant programs and collected four “Coach of the Year” honors in the process.
Sonoma’s steady coaching run finally hit a bump in the road this off-season, as Doug Carl stepped down after seven successful years, and it remains to be seen if this year’s transition will be as smooth as the Seawolves’ last coaching change back in 2001. One thing is certain, however, no one can claim more impressive credentials for carrying on Sonoma’s proud tradition than Dominic Gomez, who was hired by his alma mater upon Carl’s departure.
Gomez, a former Sonoma goalkeeper and defensive coach, already enjoys a prominent place in the annals of Seawolves’ history. A four-year starter and perennial All-Star at the game’s most demanding position, Gomez filled the vital role of on-field leader during his playing days and helped propel the Seawolves’ to two WCLL titles (2001 and 2002) and the team’s first national title in 2002.
After his collegiate playing career ended in 2004, Gomez immediately stepped into a critical coaching role and began coordinating the Sonoma defense. He served as the team’s defensive coordinator for two seasons, before stepping down to return to his hometown of San Diego and coach at the high school level. When the Seawolves’ head coaching position opened up this summer, the allure of sustaining Sonoma’s rich tradition brought Gomez back to Rohnert Park to follow in the footsteps of Hughes and Carl.
Looking forward to his inaugural season, Gomez understands the inherent pressure and expectations that come with being the Sonoma head coach. “Sonoma has a great tradition and I just want to continue what (team advisor) Mike Annala, John Hughes, and Doug Carl did before me.” Gomez embraces the WCLL spirit and is passionate about playing the game the right way. Describing his goals for the season, Gomez stated, “At Sonoma, we teach guys to love and respect the game while playing the highest level of lacrosse possible.”
Gomez isn’t the only WCLL alumni returning to coach his alma mater this season. In the WCLL South, Matt Holman returns to take over the head coaching duties at San Diego State. Holman, a fixture of the San Diego lacrosse scene for nearly two decades, has coached at the high school level, officiated, organized annual lacrosse camps, and coached both men’s and women’s collegiate teams, including a successful stint as UC San Diego’s head coach during the mid-1990′s.
Coach Holman will take over for Jeff Hughes, who stepped down from the Aztecs top spot at the end of last season, leaving behind the idyllic conditions of San Diego for the even more enticing appeal of Hawaii. Hughes built a solid foundation over the past few years at San Diego State, but had a difficult time breaking into the upper tier of the WCLL.
Holman has his sights set on taking the Aztec program to a higher level, and expects to build the team into a national contender within four seasons. The path to that lofty goal runs straight through the Aztecs own backyard, as Holman envisions bringing in the talent necessary to compete with the MCLA elite by tapping into the outstanding pool of high school lacrosse players located in the greater San Diego area. With Holman’s extensive lacrosse experience, and the Aztec’s addition of former UCSD defensive coordinator Mike DeWan to the coaching staff, the already formidable WCLL South just got even tougher.
SHAKE-UP IN THE SOUTH
In Tempe this off-season, the Arizona State Sun Devils were coming off their most successful year in team history. With enormous victories over the MCLA’s top-ranked teams and their first ever trip to the National Championship Tournament, Arizona State seemed like the last place that would undergo a coaching shake-up. Despite the Sun Devils’ bright future, Coach Adam Hopkins departed the program to take a teaching and coaching job back in his home state of New York.
Although Hopkins’ exit surprised many, the developments that followed provided an even bigger shock to most outside the Sun Devil program. In August, Arizona State announced the hiring of their new coach, former Maryland All-American and six-year MLL professional, Chris Malone.
The WCLL has enjoyed a number of coaches with impressive resumes from their playing days, including a handful of former professionals. Most of the pros that have ended up on league sidelines were a result of fortuitous circumstances, not a part of any personal plan to coach in the WCLL. Typically, the player had moved west answering the siren call of sunny Southern California. Lacrosse may not have been part of the original equation, but once here, they decided to give back to the sport and fill a much needed coaching role. In Malone’s case, however, he was living and coaching high school ball at Loyola Blakefield in Baltimore, and moved out to Arizona specifically to fill the open Sun Devils’ post.
Malone worked with an Arizona middle school team for the past several summers, and that connection provided him the initial news of the ASU opening. Beyond that, he had no prior experience with the university and only a tenuous connection with the area itself.
“I had never thought about moving out west,” said Malone, but the Sun Devils position was the right opportunity that came along at the right time. “Before you know it, I’m out in Arizona on an interview for the ASU job.” The interview obviously went well. Malone accepted the job and hasn’t looked back.
This fall, Malone and the Sun Devils have been busy getting acquainted and building on last season’s success. Despite being new to the program, Malone is dedicated to improving the ASU tradition and creating a culture of family for both the current players and Sun Devil alumni. He also plans on emphasizing his players’ off-field endeavors, working to assure that his entire team graduates. Long-term, Malone hopes to create a scholarship fund that rewards the team’s most deserving players
A few hours down the dusty road in the “old pueblo” of Tucson sits the University of Arizona. Former Laxcat coach, Ken Broschart, put together an impressive track record in his five seasons with the squad. Besides guiding the team to the MCLA national tourney in each of his four years as head coach, Broschart earned the 2004 WCLL Coach of the Year award. Despite the accolades, Broschart’s tenure with the Laxcats ended abruptly late this summer in an unexpected and somewhat murky split, and he now serves as an assistant coach at perennial MCLA power the University of Michigan.
P.J. Rovinelli has stepped in to fill the sizable gap created by Broschart’s departure. After coordinating the Arizona defense last season, Rovinelli will now move up to the head coaching spot after only one season on the Laxcat sidelines. A former wrestler and lacrosse player at Springfield College, Rovinelli arrived in Tucson two years ago and has quickly ascended to the head coaching position for both Arizona’s lacrosse and wrestling teams.
Rovinelli hopes to instill an unselfish, team-oriented approach where individual success takes a backseat to the development and growth of the team. Rovinelli expects to carry this attitude over to the off-field realm as well, grooming his players for success beyond the lacrosse world by fostering a culture of hard work and accountability.
As one of the WCLL’s most stable programs, the Arizona Laxcats have endured an unusual off-season. With their first game less than a month away, it won’t take long before we find out if the team shows any ill effects from this summer’s unexpected events.
TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
When a program hauls in dozens of highly touted recruits several years in a row, they’re bound to be burdened with increased expectations. Predictions swirling around the Chapman Panthers have forecasted league preeminence for a number of seasons now, but the Panthers have largely failed to live up to the hype. Their past two seasons resulted in a mixed bag defined mostly by inconsistency – impressive victories over high-ranked opponents followed by disappointing losses to less talented rivals. Combine their on-field roller coaster ride with last year’s administrative violations that left them ineligible for the playoffs, and any predictions for Chapman’s 2008 season remain problematic.
Which ever direction Chapman heads, the 2008 Panthers will undoubtedly have a different look. Head coach Chad Donnelly moves aside for former Ithaca College and Pomona College women’s coach, Mike Wood. Donnelly, a former Chapman player and enthusiastic Panther backer, was the driving force behind the bucket loads of incoming recruits, but his team also had a freewheeling style that may have hindered their overall success.
Wood, on the other hand, is everything you would expect from a lacrosse leader that doubles as the football team’s defensive line coach. Projecting a hard-nosed, no-nonsense style that has developed over his many years on the sidelines as a two-sport player and coach, Wood seemed unconcerned with any perceived shortfalls from previous seasons.
“I don’t really care what happened before I got here,” offered Wood. “We’re just going to work hard, play hard, and compete in all fourteen games we have scheduled.” Wood didn’t mention specific accomplishments he expects from the Panthers in his first season, noting he would stay focused on each regular season game as they came along and let the rest take care of itself.
As for the Panthers heralded recruits, Wood acknowledges he is inheriting a talented squad. “The cupboards were full when I got here,” he explained, but don’t look for him to relinquish the recruiting drive anytime soon. Wood expects to utilize his current players to attract even more stellar recruits from the same powerful high school programs, such as La Costa Canyon and Lake Oswego in Oregon.
The Loyola Marymount Lions are another team poised for a rise up the WCLL ladder. Although their recent improvement has flown under the radar for most casual WCLL observers, those familiar with the league have been impressed with LMU’s growth during the past two seasons. Bursting with enthusiasm for his 2008 squad, first-year head coach Mark Frey explained, “Although I will be the team’s fifth head coach in six years, the program is really getting serious and moving in the right direction.”
Frey, who runs a consulting business, moved to Southern California from back east and immediately jumped into the local lacrosse scene, spending three years coaching the offense at Chapman. The commute from his beachside home to Chapman’s suburban campus proved too exhausting, and last season Frey moved over to LMU as an offensive assistant. When the head coaching position opened up this summer, Frey seized the opportunity and all indications point toward continued improvement for the Lions.
Competing in the stacked WCLL Los Angeles Division, Frey realizes that post-season success will not be an easy journey. In order to make it to the playoffs, the Lions need to knock off either UCSB or Chapman, as well as take care of the rest of the teams in their division. “We definitely have the Santa Barbara and Chapman games circled on the calendar,” Frey noted. With a successful fall campaign behind them, including a scrimmage victory over the defending WCLL Champion UCSB Gauchos, this may be LMU’s year to challenge for a coveted playoff spot.
FIGHTING A RISING TIDE
As high school programs across the West churn out more and more quality players, the WCLL’s depth and overall strength has increased rapidly. What has been a boon for the league in general has been a challenge for a number of schools, as they’ve struggled to keep up with the rising level of play.
A trio of programs that have seen lean years recently will join the ranks of 2008 teams with a new head coach patrolling the sidelines. Stanford, a program that has been unable to recapture the success they enjoyed earlier this decade, brings in Drew Virk. Virk, a California native and former St. Ignatius standout who played at the University of Maryland, will take over a Cardinal squad that has suffered through four losing seasons in a row.
Virk takes over from close friend and former Princeton All-American and MLL player, Lorne Smith. Smith, widely acknowledged as an expert teacher and astute lacrosse mind, had only marginal success at Stanford and it will be a difficult task for Virk to carry the program beyond what Smith accomplished. Virk realizes that it won’t be easy moving the Cardinal up the ranks, but is focused on delivering a winning season in 2008 and pushing the program in the right direction. On the administrative end, Virk hopes an improving relationship with Stanford’s notoriously stringent admissions department and an increased team budget will improve the long-term Cardinal outlook.
Meanwhile, a few hundred miles south at another top tier academic university with an impressive athletic tradition, the UCLA Bruins also have a new head coach. Jacques Bagley, a former assistant coach with the MLL’s Chicago Machine, will begin his coaching tenure on the west coast with the Bruins. Bagley, a long-time indoor player and current coach with the U.S. Indoor Lacrosse National Team, will take over a UCLA program that has been struggling in recent years.
Despite a string of highly qualified coaches, from MLL All-Star Terry Riordan to WCLL Coaches of the Year, Lane Jaffe and Mike Allan, the Bruins have had only one winning season in the past six years. Bagley will have his work cut out for him heading up a UCLA squad that languished through a difficult 2007 season. The Bruins finished dead last in the tough Los Angeles Division, including a loss to cross-town rival USC for only the second time this decade.
At St. Mary’s, the barriers to long-term success in the WCLL are formidable. With a small student body and none of the athletic reputation of Stanford or UCLA, the Gaels have been the WCLL Central Division cellar dweller since moving up to Division 1 back in 2005. Jeffrey Smith, a former lacrosse and soccer player at the Rochester Institute of Technology, will take over for outgoing coach John Britton. Smith, who joined the St. Mary’s coaching staff in the middle of last season, hopes to do his best to “build a strong and winning program where the students aspire to succeed both academically and on the lacrosse field.”
A GLIMPSE OF THE WCLL’S FUTURE?
Only a few years ago, the WCLL coaching ranks resembled a fraternal order of traditional rivals. Former adversaries on the playing field carried their clashes over to the sidelines, and familiar foes commonly squared off for the right to claim WCLL supremacy. League legends like former San Diego State player John Hughes, who coached Sonoma State for nearly a decade and followed that with another handful of successful seasons at UCSD, and Mickey-Miles Felton, one of the WCLL’s early visionaries and larger-than-life figure who roamed the Laxcat sidelines in his signature red cowboy boots for over twenty seasons, were fixtures around the league.
The old guard hasn’t completely faded into the sunset – Gary Podesta, the current WCLL President is gearing up for his 22nd season with the Santa Clara Broncos, and Albert Man and Steve Dini, both former WCLL players, return to lead the UCSD Tritons and Cal Bears, respectively – but a host of new faces will test their coaching wits in 2008. Any nostalgic discussions of past WCLL exploits will be few and far between on this year’s sidelines, as introductions will dominate the pre-game coaching conversations.
As the administrative organization and overall ability of teams across the league has skyrocketed, the demand for quality coaches has likewise soared. Everyone welcomes the higher level of lacrosse, but the league’s continued growth and development creates increasing demands on WCLL head coaches and further narrows the list of potential replacements. Although the tradition of hiring alumni has been maintained at a few schools, many teams are now attracting experienced coaches from across the country, which signifies a positive milestone for the league.
The WCLL’s growing cachet and ability to bring in energetic young coaches provides a potential solution to the league’s coaching shortfall, but it also points to more tumultuous off-seasons down the road. Most programs remain light-years away from being able to pay their coach a career-level salary. Until that point is reached, expect a healthy measure of instability, as rookie coaches take over WCLL programs hoping to parlay their success into a more career oriented position elsewhere. Unless teams get creative and facilitate additional career opportunities for their staff, the days where coaches remain at the same program for a decade or more may be numbered.
Whatever message the recent barrage of turnover signals for the league’s future, this season’s outlook remains undeniably bright. The same coaching carousel that created a chaotic off-season should lead to a rousing and entertaining year in the WCLL. With new leaders across the league, teams’ historical playing styles and tendencies will fall by the wayside and fans can expect a cornucopia of exciting contests. The games begin in less than a month and the 2008 WCLL campaign promises to be a wild ride.
