It's been long time coming for Penn State's Thiel

Coach made his last trip to NCAAs 29 years ago

Men's notebook

College Lacrosse

Glenn Thiel deserves a prize for his patience.

Thiel is the lacrosse coach at Penn State, which will play its first NCAA tournament game Saturday night when the Nittany Lions visit Towson for a first-round game.

It has been 29 years since he took a team to the NCAAs, and if that's not a record for all of college sports, it's easily the longest a coach has had to wait to get back into the lacrosse tournament.

Thiel, 58, got his start in the business on Liberty Heights Avenue in the late 1960s, at what is now Baltimore City Community College. He was 27 in 1972, when he coached Virginia to its first NCAA championship. Five years later, he left Charlottesville and returned to his hometown.

"I'm sure it took people by surprise when I left Virginia," Thiel said. "I just wanted to come home."

Thiel's father was the Penn State lacrosse coach from 1934 to 1956. His son went to State College High, then played for the Nittany Lions in the mid-1960s. How bad were those teams? When Thiel was a senior, Penn State lost to Maryland by 20 goals.

"Football is everything here, but we've been good in other sports, too," Thiel said of his team's status in one of the nation's broadest-based athletic programs.

"We've had lacrosse here since 1913, but for long stretches we were pretty mediocre. It's all a matter of funding. Recently, we've put more money into it, but there was a time when we sat in limbo."

Penn State last had a first-team All-American in 1940, four years before Thiel was born. A few years after he returned to his alma mater, men's lacrosse lost what little funding it had. It has gradually been built to the point where it has the equivalent of nearly eight scholarships, but Thiel still teaches in the kinesiology department.

Last season, the Nittany Lions scored their biggest win ever as they handled a Virginia team that wound up in the final four. A veteran team with proven talent like goalie Chris Garrity, a senior from St. Mary's, and long-stick midfielder Rob Bateman, a junior from Hereford, was supposed to challenge for the Eastern College Athletic Conference crown, but it stumbled out of the block.

At one point, Penn State was 1-5. Since then, it has lost once, by one goal, at second-seeded Virginia. That April 26 game dropped Penn State's record to 6-6, but the losses were by a combined eight goals, as it got in as an at-large selection.

It's exam week for the Nittany Lions. If Penn State had been able to guarantee the NCAA that it could draw a crowd for the first round, it might have stayed home to play Towson, but Thiel would play on the moon this time of year.

"To be honest, I'm glad to be going to Towson, and I'm glad we're playing Saturday night," Thiel said. "It's been awhile since I worked on this weekend."

Tourney tips

Instead of having to go to Happy Valley for the first time since 1994, Towson can remain inside the Beltway as long as it wants, thanks to its ability to draw a crowd.

The selection criteria mention the availability of personnel. The committee didn't consider the season-ending injury to long-stick midfielder Kyle Sweeney that hurt Georgetown, but it did note that Princeton wasn't at full strength when it lost to Dartmouth.

The committee was charged with limiting air travel. That's why Mount St. Mary's is going to Virginia, so Army can bus down to Johns Hopkins. Ohio State is playing at Maryland because it's easier for the Buckeyes to get into College Park than to Charlottesville.

The NCAA still needs to address a redundancy in its criteria. The three main components are won-loss record, strength of schedule and ratings percentage index, which includes strength of schedule. Teams should be rewarded for playing a strong schedule, but not twice.

Ground balls

Army coach Jack Emmer guided Washington & Lee to an upset win over Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field in the 1975 quarterfinals. He gets another crack at the Blue Jays Saturday. ... College Sports Television will carry the Army-Johns Hopkins and Ohio State-Maryland games live on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

The week ahead

Team (W-L) ..................... Schedule .......................... Paul McMullen's skinny

Johns Hopkins (11-1) .... *Army, Saturday, noon ... The top-seeded Blue Jays have a 15-game winning streak over the Patriot League champions, who last won at Homewood Field in 1966.

Loyola (7-6) .... .... .... ..... Season complete .... .... Senior Ryan Radonis most likely will lead the nation's Division I teams in faceoff percentage (67.1) and ground balls per game (7.7).

Maryland (10-3) .... *Ohio State, Sunday, 2 p.m. .... The Terps have won their three previous games against the Buckeyes, the last by a 16-2 score in 1994. Ohio State is in the NCAAs for the first time.

Mount St. Mary's (10-7) .... *At Virginia, Saturday, 1 p.m. .... Metro Atlantic champs for the third time in five years, the Mountaineers will make their first NCAA appearance and play their first game against the Cavaliers.

Navy (6-7) .... .... .... Season complete .... .... .... The Mids are headed to the Patriot League, where they will be early 2004 favorites and try to win their first NCAA berth since 1999.

Towson (8-5) .... .... *Penn State, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. .... If the Tigers beat the Nittany Lions, the NCAA quarterfinals May 18 would be their fifth straight home game. Defenseman Adam Baxter was CAA tournament MVP.

UMBC (7-6) .... .... Season complete .... .... .... Josh Gerber, a senior from Perry Hall, got 30 goals this season, the most by a Retriever since 1999.

* - NCAA tournament first-round game.