Lacrosse Coach

When Maryland decided to overhaul its men's lacrosse program at the end of the season, defensive coordinator Dave Slafkosky was left pondering his options after spending almost 27 years at the school. Just about seven miles down the road from Slafkosky's home in Catonsville, Mount St. Joseph was looking for a varsity boys lacrosse coach, and Gaels athletic director Paul Triplett knew that Slafkosky might be available. There was already some familiarity as two of Slafkosky's sons, Kevin and Alex, had graduated from the school.

Rick Sowell says that Navy contacted him about the vacant men's lacrosse head coaching job "about four or five days ago. " And after meeting with athletic director Chet Gladchuk and other school officials, visiting the campus in Annapolis, and touring the lacrosse facilities on Wednesday, Sowell needed less than 24 hours to agree to vacate his head coaching position at Stony Brook for the same post at Navy. Sowell, who became the eighth coach in the program's 104-year history, said Thursday afternoon that he wasn't too surprised at the pace of his decision.

Sonia LaMonica, former Maryland Terrapins All-American and Mount St. Mary's coach, was named Friday to take over a Towson University women's lacrosse program that has made huge strides on the national stage in the past few years. LaMonica spent two years as a Tigers assistant coach before taking her first head-coaching job last season at the Mount, where she guided the team to an 8-9 season and the Northeast Conference tournament semifinals. "I am charged with excitement and energy for this next chapter in my coaching career and look so very forward to reuniting with the student-athletes and staff at this outstanding institution and continuing the growth this program has experienced over the last few years," she said in a news release.

Among the candidates whom Towson's search committee interviewed for the head men's lacrosse coaching vacancy, the best man for the job was one who was already within the Tigers' ranks. In confirming the news that the school had promoted associate head coach and defensive coordinator Shawn Nadelen to head coach, athletic director Mike Waddell said Nadelen's background and experiences helped him emerge as the school's choice to succeed Tony Seaman, who parted ways with the university May 9. "From the very get-go, Shawn was the standard that we were measuring things up against because when you look at his background as a prep and as a collegian and as a professional and member of our world championship team and the captain of the [the New Jersey Storm of the National Lacrosse League]

A football player in his days at Edmondson, Anthony “Merc” Ryan didn't need much convincing to come out for the lacrosse team in the spring. He was a member of the track team, but that was boring and he quickly found lacrosse to be the exact opposite. These days, as the coach at City, Ryan is devoted to teaching the game of lacrosse. His sell to get players involved is a simple one: Just pick up a lacrosse stick and score that first goal or dish out that first check. Ryan, who went on to play at Morgan State, has coached at City for seven seasons, taking over a program that went winless the year before and going on to guide the Knights to three Baltimore City titles and, at one point, a 44-game winning streak inleague play.

Western Maryland College's men's lacrosse coach has been arrested - as the team heads for its conference playoffs - on charges that he interfered with police called to a loud party with underage drinkers at a student's off-campus apartment, Westminster police said. Keith Robert Reitenbach, 45, of the 100 block of Pennsylvania Ave., a college-owned property, was charged with two misdemeanors: disorderly conduct and failing to obey a police officer, Maj. Dean A. Brewer, a Westminster police spokesman, said yesterday.

Brenndan Mohler, 24, a Catonsville High graduate who played lacrosse for four years at the University of Virginia, including on the Cavaliers' 1999 national-championship team, is the new Reservoir High boys varsity lacrosse coach. Mohler, a midfielder, played on two Atlantic Coast Conference championship teams at Virginia and was selected to play in the senior North-South All-Star game. He was drafted by Major League Lacrosse's Bayhawks after his senior season but decided to finish his education.

For Courtney Vaughn, earning a place in the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame was the easy part. Trying to succinctly sum up her emotions at last weekend's induction ceremony, however, proved more difficult for the Winters Mill girls lacrosse coach. "It was really tough trying to get it to 500 words or less," said Vaughn, 43. "You have 20 years of thoughts and memories and people you want to thank." Vaughn was one of 10 inductees during a ceremony in Hunt Valley on Jan. 27, and for good reason.

Thomas Kenny Carey Sr., a retired teacher and lacrosse coach, died of injuries sustained in a fall and complications from cancer Feb. 26 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 82. Born in Baltimore, he attended Windsor Hills Elementary and Garrison Junior High schools. He was a 1946 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, where he played ice hockey. While a student at Loyola College, he married Mary Esther Carroll, whom he met at the Cahill Recreation Center near his boyhood home in Walbrook.