New Coach

Inter president Massimo Moratti announced Tuesday that an agreement has been reached for Rafa Benitez to become the club's new coach. Moratti said the only thing outstanding was a countersignature to complete the deal, adding that Benitez was not in Italy. "We've reached agreement, we've finalized the last details, which regardless weren't important, and tomorrow we'll announce when Rafa Benitez will be presented," Moratti said. The Spanish coach, who left Liverpool last Thursday after six years in charge of the Premier League club, will succeed Jose Mourinho, who left for Real Madrid.

For three weeks in June 2009, Tom Schreiber was in a bit of limbo about his status as Princeton's most prized men's lacrosse recruit. Bill Tierney had just resigned as coach after 22 seasons, and Schreiber, a midfielder, was growing worried. Then the university named Chris Bates from Drexel as Tierney's successor. Bates dispelled Schreiber's anxiety quickly, driving to the family home in East Meadow, N.Y., the day after he was hired to meet with Doug and Liz Schreiber, and then spend a few hours with their son. "I kind of had a unique recruiting experience," Tom Schreiber recalled.

Texas A&M introduced its new men's basketball coach, Billy Kennedy, on Monday. During the press conference, the former Murray State coach, who has made 13 stops in his 26 years on the college circuit, praised his predecessor, new Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. He then explained why the Texas A&M gig was his "dream job. " In doing so, he made an interesting reference to Turgeon. "This is a dream job for me. I don’t want to go anywhere," Kennedy told reporters, according to The Houston Chronicle . "There’s no Maryland, Kansas, Carolina, wherever.

Five months ago, Brian Kelly was tabbed to succeed Kyle Hannan at Goucher as head coach. Kelly, who had spent the previous five years as the team's top offensive assistant, now has the unenviable task of taking over a squad that won four consecutive Landmark Conference regular-season titles and two of the last three league tournament championships and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last season under Hannan, who was 121-79 in...

The small, quiet campus is five miles from downtown, and the arena opened in 1984. The administration will allow some recruiting leeway, and since the team hasn't been to the NCAAs since it went to the Division II tournament in 1973, the fans aren't spoiled.Do you think there might be some interest in the vacant Loyola job?Athletic director Joe Boylan took over as interim coach of the Greyhounds Friday, after the resignation of Tom Schneider. The players are his first concern -- the team is 1-11 and about to play six of its next nine on the road -- but the hiring process has begun.

The Ravens are going to make a coaching change after this season, but that's not what they need most after three losing seasons.What they need most is a general manager.They can use any title they want. Director of football operations. Vice president. Godfather of on-field personnel. Whatever. By any name, he'd be in charge of the football side of the organization. His vision of the Ravens, and his vision alone, would count.Sure, he'd have a staff of lieutenants to help make decisions -- scouting director, pro personnel director, etc. And the coach would be close to his equal.

The Westminster Owls girls soccer team will look different this season -- on and off the field. Terry Malloy takes over as coach and tries to rebuild after losing many players to graduation and injuries.Malloy, who coached the five previous seasons at Susquehanna University, is incorporating a possession-oriented attack with a 4-4-2 alignment (four defenders, four midfielders and two strikers)."We want to try to keep the ball on the floor and maintain possession," Malloy said."We have some fairly skilled individuals and what I'm teaching them is pretty new. They are more attuned to the kick-and-run style so it's taking some time, but things are coming along."

Paul Kitson, whom Blast fans may recall not only for his scoring prowess over three seasons in the 1980s, but also for the snake he sometimes draped around his neck, returns to Baltimore today as the Maryland Mania's new coach.Kitson succeeds Darryl Gee, who was fired Monday by the new, Columbia-based A-League team. Kitson will meet Mania players at practice this evening and be on the sidelines for the team's home-opener at 4 p.m. Sunday at UMBC Stadium against the Charleston (S.C.) Battery.

Dunbar principal Charlotte Brown began interviewing candidates Saturday to replace basketball coach Paul Smith, whom she dismissed in May after perhaps his most rewarding of three seasons at the school.Smith's Poets teams compiled a 69-10 record and won three state championships. His overall record is 329-169 over 22 seasons, including a stint at McDonogh in Owings Mills. Smith did not return a phone call yesterday.Ollie Matson, a junior varsity coach at Randallstown, confirmed that he was one of five men who have been interviewed for the job. Matson said the others are Southern of Baltimore coach Meredith Smith, Douglass coach Lynn Badham, former Dunbar and Maryland standout Ernie Graham and Dunbar junior-varsity coach Kevin Parsons.

No sooner had Mike Stankovic been named the Spirit's coach yesterday than he gave the team a 20-minute description of his notion of indoor soccer in Baltimore.It is not just on the field, it is in the community. It is in the mind. It is a lifestyle."I was loyal to the Blast back then and to the Spirit now," said Stankovic. "I didn't go from club to club. It was the Blast first, Mike Stankovic second. The biggest challenge for me now is to find who on this team wants to go in that direction."

No one expected the Washington Capitals' season opener to be perfect. Not after just six days to learn a new system from a new head coach, not when there's chemistry to establish, communication to pin down and players on the roster without professional game experience in eight months. Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, each of those elements played a role as the Capitals fell, 6-3, in Adam Oates' debut as coach. There were plenty of little miscues, especially defensively, as players struggled to identify assignments or regroup when caught out of position.

Arians can help Cutler Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times Bruce Arians is the best choice for the Bears. This is a team that has the franchise's best quarterback in the modern era in Jay Cutler, an elite receiver in Brandon Marshall, a running back who's making $8 million per year in Matt Forte, yet can't consistently generate an offense. Arians is the guy who can get the most out of Cutler, just as he did with Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh. The Bears want a power running game?

Et cetera Gilman's Poggi to coach Md. vs. Pa. in Big 33 Classic Gilman's Biff Poggi will head the coaching staff for the Maryland team that will play Pennsylvania in the Big 33 Football Classic, the executive board of Big 33 Team Maryland announced. Poggi's staff includes Milford Mill coach Reggie White , Atholton coach Kyle Schmitt and Gilman assistant coach Chris Baucia as well as Wise coach DeLawn Parrish and Quince Orchard coach Dave Mencarini . Teams from the two states will renew their rivalry after 21 years apart in the June 15 game at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pa. Maryland will play in at least the next five Big 33 Classics, and River Hill coach Brian Van Deusen will take the reins in 2014.

Archbishop Curley has named alum Patrick Curran as its new varsity wrestling coach, replacing Gregg Kessler, who resigned in August, the school announced Tuesday. Curran, a 1999 graduate, previously served as an assistant coach at St. Paul's School and most recently for the Middle River Rhinos junior wrestling program.  As a member of the Curley wrestling program, Curran recorded over 100 wins and was a four-time place winner at the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament.  Named a National Prep All-American, Curran helped the Friars capture consecutive state championships in 1998 and 1999.

The Severna Park field hockey players were working on their traditional pregame chants as new head coach Ann Andrews stood on the sideline. As she continued her conversation, the chants became louder. Andrews turned her head to look at the girls in their white-and-blue practice uniforms. She saw their excited smiles, faces lit by sunlight, their collective eyes focused on her. "They think if they chant long enough they can get out of the running," she said, a smile curling her lips.

Since Larry Mitchell's days as a lineman at Patterson, he has dreamed of only one job - coaching the Clippers' football team. Over the past 17 years, as Mitchell coached Pop Warner youth football teams and assisted with a couple other Baltimore City high school football programs, he held onto that goal - even after a gunman nearly shattered it with one paralyzing bullet 11 years ago. That shooting left Mitchell, who had inadvertently walked into...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Meeting the Atlantic Coast Conference vTC media for the first time yesterday, new Maryland football Ron Vanderlinden reviewed his role in the improbable rebuilding jobs at Colorado and Northwestern and candidly discussed a rare failure.The occasion was the ACC Football Kickoff, new territory for a coach more familiar with the Big 12 and Big Ten. Vanderlinden did work against one ACC team last year, but that experience was a disaster, as Northwestern lost to lowly Wake Forest.

This is "Soccer Mom's Day," in the words of embattled Maryland Mania founder and president A. J. Ali, switching modes momentarily from crisis management to marketing.Tailoring Mother's Day to your business is fun, of course. And Ali said mothers attending the Mania's home opener this afternoon will get flowers.But for those moms and others -- Ali is hoping for about 1,500 -- who buy tickets this afternoon, not to mention Mania players, there can't help but be questions about what will happen on the field.

It never would have occurred to Jim Barker that on the day he began coaching in a league meant to combine the antics of professional wrestling with football, he would meet a man he'd later hire as his own replacement. It was about 9:30 p.m., and Barker had just finished one of his first meetings as offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Xtreme of the XFL, a league started by World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon. Barker walked out of the meeting room and was immediately greeted by Scott Milanovich, a former Maryland star, and Tommy Maddox.

It didn't take long for Maryland to find its new baseball coach. John Szefc, who was last an assistant coach at Kansas State, was named to the position Wednesday, less than a month after former coach Erik Bakich announced he was leaving to coach at Michigan. "Erik [Bakich] did a really good job creating a strong foundation for this program," Szefc said. "Now it's my job to continue that and move our program ahead. " Szefc served as Kansas State's hitting coach for two years as the team advanced to an NCAA regional in 2011.