From the podcast: Fairfield’s Andrew Baxter on the right fit

Andrew Baxter is preparing for his fourth season as Fairfield University's head coach. (Shelley Burger)

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli were joined by Fairfield University head coach Andrew Baxter.

After nearly two decades as a top assistant coach, including a stint as the defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Yale, where he won an NCAA championship in 2018, Baxter was hired in 2019 to oversee a Fairfield program that was coming off a third straight losing season.

In 2022, he guided the Stags to a 7-7 record – the most wins the team had produced in a season since 2016 – that included victories over Providence, Hofstra and UMass.

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Kyle Devitte: You’re a defensive guy. You’re known for defense and your ability to recruit. What is the biggest difference between coaching at Yale in the Ivy League and coaching in the CAA at Fairfield?

Andrew Baxter: The biggest thing is just knowing where you’re recruiting to and finding your niche of where you’re going to have a legitimate shot (at getting a player), and just being as efficient as possible. At Yale the academics speak for itself. The place recruits itself academically and you’re going to draw from some of the higher high schools and prep schools.

Outside of the Ivy League, you have to find your niche and find players who would be a good fit for your style, one, but most importantly for the school, because you want guys to get the most out of their experience. That’s been the biggest sell for me here at Fairfield, just selling the experience as a student-athlete because it’s just an incredible spot.

Jack Piatelli: In terms of becoming a head coach, is there anything that you’ve learned or didn’t expect?

AB: Totally. I remember being an assistant and being out at practice at all the places I was. I’d be out there early and wondering where the head coach was, if he was going to show up for practice or not, and out he would stroll five minutes or a minute before practice and I’d be like, “What are these guys doing?”

Now I’m that guy. I roll into practice five minutes before or a minute before, because I just didn’t realize how many people rely on you or need you for decisions or meetings. You’ve got a lot more irons in the fire, if you will. That’s been the biggest difference and the biggest adjustment I’ve had to make.

KD: You’re going into the 2023 season and more than half your team was underclassmen last year, and 17 were freshmen. How do you expect guys to respond to their new responsibilities?

AB: We had a little bit of a sample this fall and we’re becoming more of a player-led team. The seniors are the only class on the roster that I didn’t recruit. We have eight of those guys now, seniors, who are doing a great job. They’re leading by example and have really bought into the mission and vision and principles we talked about before, and are showing guys what it’s like to be a Fairfield lacrosse player.

Overall, we’re a young group. We return our starting attack, which we’re pretty excited about, and everyone on defense outside of (goalie) James (Corasaniti). Then in the midfield we’re a little green right now but we feel we have guys who can step up. We brought in a couple transfers we feel that can help us and some younger guys…. We’re excited about the overall energy of the team. It’s been a good fall.

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