Maryland’s dynasty created next wave of women’s lacrosse coaches

Reese interviewed for a career offering everyday living insurance policies, “and I didn’t even know what everyday living insurance was,” she states now, appreciating the fortuitous selection that quickly emerged. Reese’s mentor, Cindy Timchal, needed her to remain at Maryland as section of the coaching staff members. Reese experienced worked lacrosse summertime camps at Maryland and excelled as a player. She just hadn’t understood university coaching could be a occupation.

In hindsight, Timchal primed Reese and other potential coaches for their profession simply because she “instilled this appreciate of the game for us, and we just liked becoming collectively,” Reese reported. “We cherished remaining all over the sport.”

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So Reese hardly ever remaining. She labored with Timchal for 5 seasons, then was Denver’s head mentor for a few. Maryland brought Reese back again to College or university Park to lead the plan in 2007, and considering the fact that then she has orchestrated a single of the most successful operates in the sport’s record.

Timchal’s coaching tree extends prominently through the business, with 6 of her previous Maryland gamers serving as head coaches in the 29-team NCAA tournament area. Reese potential customers the second-seeded Terrapins (17-1) as they look for the school’s 15th NCAA title, and three other seeded teams are coached by Maryland graduates. Reese’s group earned a to start with-round bye and will meet Duke, coached by former Terp Kerstin Kimel, or in-point out rival Johns Hopkins in the 2nd spherical Sunday.

Reese and her fellow Terps-turned-coaches maintain incorporating branches to the Timchal tree. Maryland alumna Kelly Amonte Hiller, who led Northwestern to seven national titles all through an eight-yr stretch from 2005 to 2012, has four of her previous Wildcats coaching groups in this year’s match. Virginia is the only other university that has multiple previous players top systems on this stage — Jenny Levy of leading-seeded North Carolina and Julie Myers at her alma mater.

“Either we make the occupation definitely seem glamorous as coaches or it is that these gamers are loving their expertise and they want to give it again to other student-athletes,” explained Jen Adams, a previous Terp who’s now the coach of sixth-seeded Loyola (Md.). “That’s what can make me so proud. And we figured out that at the College of Maryland. That’s bred into all of us.”

Transfer Aurora Cordingley has Maryland lacrosse back again in title hunt

Adams, the Terps’ all-time leader in points, played her freshman year in 1998, when Reese was a senior. Reese and Adams received the nationwide title every single calendar year they performed for Maryland, with Adams’s senior period capping a 7-calendar year operate of dominance. Adams, whose first aspirations provided becoming a athletics agent or working in professional actual estate, served as an undergraduate coach as she concluded her diploma. By means of that encounter, she recognized, “Okay, you are likely to skip this too much.” So she stayed in the sport, also, eventually doing work below Reese at Denver and Maryland.

Reese’s impact permeates the activity as her players go on to grow to be Division I assistants and substantial school coaches. Mindy Jones, a 2009 Maryland graduate who prospects St. Mary’s Substantial in Annapolis, finds herself executing “this two-hand intense clap” that reminds her of Reese. Kathy Rudkin at Severn doesn’t mind if methods are shorter as lengthy as her crew accomplishes what it demands — the same mind-established Reese has. Taylor Cummings, a three-time Tewaaraton Award winner, mentioned she repeats a common “Cathy-ism” to her gamers at McDonogh: “Expect nothing. Be all set for anything.”

“You just witness firsthand the effects that a good coach can have on you,” Cummings mentioned of Reese and longtime assistants Lauri Kenis and Caitlyn Phipps. “Those three had been our mentors, our moms, our buddies, our coaches, our major advocates and also the persons who pushed us harder than anybody.”

The faculty coaches who performed for Timchal never have equivalent courses. Each individual has added her possess aptitude, Reese claimed, and their groups are also formed by assistants, who may possibly occur from unique backgrounds. But lots of of these Maryland alumnae have attained identical heights.

Amonte Hiller has gained 7 national titles at Northwestern, the No. 4 seed this year. Reese’s teams have been to the Last 4 11 instances considering that she took over in 2007. The Terps have gained 5 nationwide championships since then though Reese has compiled an astonishing 300-33 report. Acacia Walker-Weinstein of Boston University, seeded third this year, broke by means of final period with a national title immediately after a few straight runner-up finishes. All a few groups could access the Remaining Four later on this thirty day period.

The championship knowledge attained at Maryland assists make previous gamers promising coaching candidates. Alex Kahoe played underneath Timchal at Maryland, and as the head mentor at Saint Joseph’s she stated she needed to deliver a related design and style of “relaxed intensity.” Kahoe has an all-Terps personnel, with current graduates Caroline Steele and Julia Braig as assistants.

In Kahoe’s eighth time, Saint Joseph’s just won its initially Atlantic 10 title in method record. Now the Hawks are in the NCAA event for the initial time.

Kahoe, a two-time NCAA goalkeeper of the 12 months, set out to build her plan with a “championship mentality, in which we need to have to work really hard and have enjoyment though we’re accomplishing it,” she stated, leaning on what led to results when she was a participant in College or university Park.

That philosophy — emphasised by Timchal, who now coaches at Navy — is what former gamers credit history when outlining why they liked their time at Maryland. Some of the modern graduates point specially to Reese.

“We test in just about every way that we can to emulate her and go the torch,” stated Rudkin, a transfer from Syracuse who performed only the 2018 season at Maryland. Nonetheless, she calls Reese her biggest coaching purpose design. “You don’t will need 4 several years with her to know how wonderful she is.”

It is a bit psychological for Reese to listen to players make that direct tie — that she built them want to coach. But a person of her main plans, she claimed, is for her gamers to adore their higher education yrs, just as she did. So when they want to give other people a identical working experience, “that would make me genuinely very pleased,” Reese mentioned.

Each individual yr, additional players go as a result of the system, normally successful titles along the way. Aurora Cordingley, a transfer from Johns Hopkins, is in School Park for her last season and sales opportunities the Terps’ attack. With a master’s degree in organization and administration, she envisioned to land a desk work. This season prompted her to rethink. She’s not prepared to depart the sport, so she’s searching at roles as an assistant coach or a director of functions.

When questioned what sparked that choice, she pointed out how substantially pleasurable she has experienced this yr and included, “Cathy kind of encouraged me.”