Maryland’s dynasty created next wave of women’s lacrosse coaches
Reese interviewed for a career offering everyday living insurance coverage, “and I didn’t even know what daily life coverage was,” she claims now, appreciating the fortuitous choice that before long emerged. Reese’s coach, Cindy Timchal, wanted her to keep at Maryland as element of the coaching staff members. Reese experienced worked lacrosse summer camps at Maryland and excelled as a participant. She just hadn’t understood college or university coaching could be a job.
In hindsight, Timchal primed Reese and other long run coaches for their occupation because she “instilled this like of the game for us, and we just beloved becoming collectively,” Reese reported. “We loved being all over the activity.”
So Reese never ever left. She worked with Timchal for 5 seasons, then was Denver’s head mentor for three. Maryland introduced Reese back to College Park to direct the method in 2007, and since then she has orchestrated just one of the most profitable runs in the sport’s heritage.
Timchal’s coaching tree extends prominently via the field, with six of her former Maryland gamers serving as head coaches in the 29-crew NCAA tournament field. Reese potential customers the second-seeded Terrapins (17-1) as they look for the school’s 15th NCAA title, and three other seeded groups are coached by Maryland graduates. Reese’s team attained a initially-spherical bye and will meet Duke, coached by previous Terp Kerstin Kimel, or in-condition rival Johns Hopkins in the 2nd round Sunday.
Reese and her fellow Terps-turned-coaches maintain introducing branches to the Timchal tree. Maryland alumna Kelly Amonte Hiller, who led Northwestern to 7 nationwide titles all through an 8-yr stretch from 2005 to 2012, has four of her former Wildcats coaching teams in this year’s tournament. Virginia is the only other school that has many previous players primary programs on this stage — Jenny Levy of leading-seeded North Carolina and Julie Myers at her alma mater.
“Either we make the job really appear glamorous as coaches or it’s that these gamers are loving their encounter and they want to give it back again to other student-athletes,” claimed Jen Adams, a former Terp who’s now the coach of sixth-seeded Loyola (Md.). “That’s what will make me so happy. And we realized that at the University of Maryland. That’s bred into all of us.”
Adams, the Terps’ all-time chief in details, performed her freshman season in 1998, when Reese was a senior. Reese and Adams received the nationwide title each individual year they played for Maryland, with Adams’s senior year capping a seven-12 months operate of dominance. Adams, whose first aspirations integrated turning out to be a athletics agent or doing work in business actual estate, served as an undergraduate coach as she finished her diploma. As a result of that experience, she realized, “Okay, you’re going to overlook this too a great deal.” So she stayed in the sport, far too, inevitably working beneath Reese at Denver and Maryland.
Reese’s affect permeates the sport as her players go on to turn into Division I assistants and large college coaches. Mindy Jones, a 2009 Maryland graduate who leads St. Mary’s High in Annapolis, finds herself performing “this two-hand aggressive clap” that reminds her of Reese. Kathy Rudkin at Severn doesn’t thoughts if methods are limited as very long as her group accomplishes what it needs — the similar brain-set Reese has. Taylor Cummings, a three-time Tewaaraton Award winner, claimed she repeats a common “Cathy-ism” to her gamers at McDonogh: “Expect very little. Be ready for every thing.”
“You just witness firsthand the impression that a fantastic coach can have on you,” Cummings mentioned of Reese and longtime assistants Lauri Kenis and Caitlyn Phipps. “Those a few had been our mentors, our mothers, our buddies, our coaches, our most significant advocates and also the folks who pushed us harder than any person.”
The higher education coaches who played for Timchal never have identical programs. Every single has additional her own flair, Reese claimed, and their groups are also shaped by assistants, who might arrive from various backgrounds. But quite a few of these Maryland alumnae have reached very similar heights.
Amonte Hiller has gained 7 countrywide titles at Northwestern, the No. 4 seed this 12 months. Reese’s teams have been to the Closing Four 11 instances given that she took above in 2007. The Terps have won five national championships considering the fact that then although Reese has compiled an astonishing 300-33 file. Acacia Walker-Weinstein of Boston Higher education, seeded 3rd this yr, broke by means of very last year with a national title just after three straight runner-up finishes. All a few teams could arrive at the Last 4 afterwards this month.
The championship working experience acquired at Maryland assists make former players promising coaching candidates. Alex Kahoe performed below Timchal at Maryland, and as the head coach at Saint Joseph’s she said she preferred to bring a equivalent design and style of “relaxed depth.” Kahoe has an all-Terps personnel, with the latest graduates Caroline Steele and Julia Braig as assistants.
In Kahoe’s eighth period, Saint Joseph’s just received its to start with Atlantic 10 title in plan record. Now the Hawks are in the NCAA tournament for the first time.
Kahoe, a two-time NCAA goalkeeper of the year, set out to establish her software with a “championship mentality, wherever we require to do the job really hard and have fun when we’re accomplishing it,” she stated, leaning on what led to results when she was a player in School Park.
That philosophy — emphasised by Timchal, who now coaches at Navy — is what previous players credit history when detailing why they liked their time at Maryland. Some of the current graduates issue specifically to Reese.
“We try in every single way that we can to emulate her and pass the torch,” claimed Rudkin, a transfer from Syracuse who played only the 2018 time at Maryland. Nevertheless, she calls Reese her most significant coaching function product. “You do not require four yrs with her to know how incredible she is.”
It is a bit emotional for Reese to hear players make that direct tie — that she designed them want to coach. But just one of her principal plans, she said, is for her players to adore their faculty many years, just as she did. So when they want to give others a comparable expertise, “that tends to make me genuinely happy,” Reese explained.
Each individual 12 months, extra players move through the software, often winning titles along the way. Aurora Cordingley, a transfer from Johns Hopkins, is in Higher education Park for her remaining period and prospects the Terps’ attack. With a master’s diploma in organization and administration, she predicted to land a desk occupation. This period prompted her to rethink. She’s not prepared to depart the activity, so she’s on the lookout at roles as an assistant mentor or a director of functions.
When asked what sparked that determination, she outlined how a lot exciting she has had this yr and added, “Cathy sort of influenced me.”