August 3, 2010
Venechanos leaves UMass for Ohio State
by Staff Report/
After leading the UMass women’s team to two Atlantic-10 titles in the last four seasons, Alexis Venechanos took the head coaching job at Ohio State University.
When Venechanos took over at UMass in 2006, the Minutewomen had not been to the NCAA tournament in over 20 years; within three seasons, she led the squad back to the postseason.
UMass made a second-consecutive NCAA trip in 2010; Venechanos’ overall record was 36-38, including double-digit wins in each of the last two years, an Atlantic 10 regular-season record of 18-10 and an A-10 tournament record of 5-1.
Venechanos’ successor at UMass is actually her former assistant, as the Minutewomen hired UConn’s Angela McMahon to take over. McMahon, a native of Weston, Mass., was the associate head coach at UMass in 2007-2008 before leaving to take over the rebuilding challenge at UConn.
For McMahon, 28, the UMass gig is actually her third head coaching job, as she served as the head coach at Bentley College in 2006.UConn finished a dismal 1-15 the season before McMahon arrived in Storrs, and improved to three wins her first year before finishing 2010 with a 9-8 overall record, the team’s first winning season since 2007.
Carmean leaves Amherst
Following 11 years as the head coach at Amherst College, New England lacrosse legend Tom Carmean has left the school to become head coach at Guilford College. As a player, Carmean was a three-time All-American at UMass-Amherst and led the Minutemen to two NCAA quarterfinal finishes.
He played 10 seasons of professional indoor lacrosse – mostly for the Boston Blazers, but also the New York Saints and Rochester Knighthawks – and was a five-time all-league selection. He also played in the initial season of Major League Lacrosse for the Bridgeport Barrage.
Carmean led Amherst to a 7-7 finish in 2010, and leaves the Lord Jeffs having compiled an overall record of 82-76.
Amherst conducted a national search to replace Carmean, and ultimately settled on Jon Thompson, the men’s coach at league rival Colby College. Thompson played his collegiate lacrosse at Brown University in Providence, and started his coaching craeer there while also playing for the Boston Cannons in 2004.
After a year at Springfield College, Thomspon went back to Brown for three seasons, before being given the Colby job in 2008.
Wojcik takes over at Harvard
Chris Wojcik, a former two-sport captain at Harvard, has returned to his alma mater as the school’s new men’s lacrosse coach. Wojcik – an All-American in both lacrosse and soccer during his playing career with the Crimson – spent the last two years as the offensive coordinator at Penn; prior to that, Wojcik held the same post at Bowdoin College in 2008 and at Harvard from 2005-2007, part of a five-year stint as an assistant in Cambridge under former Harvard coach Scott Anderson.
Wojcik replaces John Tillman, who left Cambridge in June to take the top job at the University of Maryland.
Copelan gets new contract at Fairfield
Fairfield University men’s lacrosse coach Andy Copelan signed a new contract to coach the Stags through the 2015 season. Terms were not disclosed. … Amherst, Mass., native Ryan Martin was named the new head coach at Oswego State in upstate New York. He spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach at Nazareth College.
Team New Englandupended
Despite being the only team to go unbeaten in pool play and posting an easy win in the quarterfinals of the 2010 adidas National Lacrosse Classic, Team New England dropped an 8-7 overtime decision to Washington, D.C. to bow out of the national tournament in its penultimate game. Team Maryland went on to defeat Washington to claim the crown.
Team New England included 25 players from throughout the region, with 14 from Massachusetts, five from Rhode Island, two from New Hampshire, two from Ontario, Canada, and one each from Maine and New Jersey.
James Loughlin from Hanover, Mass., and Samuel Davis from Pittsfield, Mass., both participated in the tournament all-star game.
