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Jon Urbana
 *click here for story*
Jon Urbana '01
VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY
  EAST HIGH CLASS OF 2001
  SELECTED 2004
  NCAA ALL AMERICAN
  & TEAM CAPTAIN
 Jon Urbana became the fourth Wildcat in
  Villanova history to earn All-American honors.
 2004:
Team Captain, earned  All American honors,
ALL-CAA First Team honors

2003:
Played in 12 games, starting all 12 Earned All-CAA Second Team honors as a defender
Dished an assist vs. Lafayette
Corralled 35 ground balls.

2002:
Voted rookie of the year.
Started in ten games
Tallied 31 groundballs.

DENVER EAST HIGH SCHOOL: Played three years of
varsity lacrosse for head coach
Jon Barocas. Three-time All-Conference selection
Voted to the All-State
Team as a senior
Elected team captain
for the 2000 season.

PERSONAL:
Majored in Economics
Son of Michael and Lea Urbana
Has a younger brother, Jamie 

                  

Robur, Honor, Fraternitas
Ave Angele!
Junior goaltender Chris Shopneck and
the men's lacrosse team remained unbeaten
after defeating the U.S. Merchant Marine
Academy, 9-6, on Saturday afternoon at
Washburn Field.
More>

Hild Scores Four Goals
as Diplomats Down Wesley
10-3 in Men's Lacrosse
*View Story*


CONGRATULATIONS TO
East Alumni
KIP MALO & JON URBANA
DRAFTED BY THE
DENVER OUTLAWS
MAJOR LEAGUE PRO TEAM

Congratulations to
Jon Urbana '01
Christian Cook '94
For receiving invitations to try
out for the USA World Team
and to Christian Cook for being
chosen to the USA World Team

Kip Malo '01
1985 Undefeated Champions

Christian Cook '94
1994 High School All American
3 National Championships '95, '97, '98
All Decade Princeton Team
1998  First team NCAA All American
1998  NCAA Defensive Player of the Year
2002  MLL Defensive Player of the Year
 
My Transition Into Coaching

I have to admit that now that I am spending more time coaching and less time playing - I have a new found respect for both my high school and college coaches. My high school coach, Jon Barocas, turned a dismal public high school program (with no funds, no field, no locker-room) into a perennial powerhouse in the Colorado high school lacrosse scene. He instilled discipline in his players AND a championship feeling in EVERY team he has coached. He has won 7 State Titles and coached almost 20 high school All-Americans.

I remember how difficult it was as a freshman and how glad and appreciative I was of his style when I showed up at Princeton my freshman year. I had already worked VERY hard in high school and was as prepared as I could be for the rigors of Coach Tierney's style.
Coach Tierney and Jon Barocas have both turned programs around - just at different levels. Tierney also instilled discipline and a sense of team unity to a horrendous program on the verge of extinction. He took a program from 1-12 to 5 national championships in 7 years (I was fortunate enough to enjoy 3 of them).
Now that I am coaching at the high school level, I have tried (actually, it is a constant process) to coach the way I was coached and teach the lessons I was taught. It is difficult. Those two coaches have so much knowledge and experience - the depth of which is astounding. Personally, I learned a great deal, but am finding that it just scratches the surface of what is possible.

While they were able to nimbly respond and react to all situations possible with players, parents, games, officials, etc. I still need time to think about my reaction, how it will affect the team and its chemistry and so many other factors. There is no substitute for experience and these coaches not only have the knowledge, but the experience to do great things, make great teams and create great players.

I am trying and hopefully succeeding in some areas, but I know I will make mistakes. I am sure I will yell too loud at times and not loud enough at others. I know I will criticize when I should be praising and vice versa. I am trying. I am trying to take the lessons I learned and create a tangible example in my high school team. I am striving for perfection. I am striving for that unattainable goal that both Bill Tierney and Jon Barocas made me believe was possible.
















 

 


 

 
 




















    


April 5, 2005

BALTIMORE, MD -- Sophomore attackman Jake Byrne (Potomac, MD/Landon) scored a career-high five goals and added two assists and senior midfielder Joe Malo (Denver, CO/Denver) scored a career-high four goals to lead the top-ranked Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team to a 19-6 win over 14th-ranked Albany Tuesday afternoon. The win improves the Blue Jays' record to 7-0, while the Great Danes had a three-game winning streak snapped and slip to 5-3. The Blue Jays also tied a school record with their 31st consecutive home victory and set up a Friday night showdown with second-ranked Duke.

The Blue Jays wasted little time putting the game away as they sprinted to a 7-1 lead after the first quarter and carried a 12-2 lead into halftime. Malo and freshman Paul Rabil (Gaithersburg, MD/DeMatha) scored back-to-back goals just 42 seconds apart in the first four minutes of the game before Albany's Merrick Thomson (Stoney Creek, Ontario/Albany Academy) tied the game with the first of his three goals just 40 seconds after Rabil's tally.

Hopkins answered Thomson's goal with six consecutive goals to put the game away. Byrne scored three times and added an assist in the 6-0 run, which was capped by sophomore Jamison Koesterer's (Cazenovia, NY/Cazenovia) goal just 17 seconds into the second quarter. Albany's Luke Daquino (Farmingville, NY/Sachem) temporarily slowed the Blue Jays' momentum with a goal 39 seconds after Koesterer's, but freshman Kevin Huntley (Towson, MD/Calvert Hall) ignited a 10-0 run with a goal just 14 seconds later and the Blue Jays were on their way to their highest goal output since the 2003 NCAA Semifinals against Syracuse (19-8).

Sophomore Jake Byrne had career highs of five goals and seven points in the win over Albany.

Byrne, Malo and Rabil all scored in the final nine minutes of the second quarter to account for the 12-2 margin at the half and Huntley and Byrne scored in the first three minutes of the third quarter. Goals by Greg Peyser (Lloyd Harbor, NY/Cold Spring Harbor), Michael Doneger (Hewlett, NY/Lynbrook) and Malo pushed the lead to 17-2 at the end of the third quarter before the Danes closed with four of the final six goals of the game to account for the final scoring. Thomson and Frank Resetarits (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) both scored twice in the fourth quarter for Albany with Resetarits assisting on both of Thomson's goals to complete a six-point game.

Byrne's five goals easily surpassed his previous career high of three, which came in a 9-6 season-opening victory over Princeton. The seven points were also a career high. Malo entered the game with one career goal, but finished with the four to help lead a balanced attack that saw 10 different Blue Jays score goals and 11 different players register at least one point. Senior Kyle Harrison (Baltimore, MD/Friends) scored one goal and added a career-high five assists, while Rabil added two goals and two assists to tie his personal best of four points. In all 14 of the Blue Jays' 19 goals were assisted.

Sophomore goalie Jesse Schwartzman (Owings Mills, MD/Pikesville) made nine saves and allowed four goals before giving way to freshman Graydon Locey (Horseheads, NY/Corning East) with just over nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Schwartzman and the Johns Hopkins defense have now held six of seven opponents to seven goals or less on the year. The Blue Jays outshot the Danes, 43-29 and won 17-of-26 faceoffs, including 11-of-15 in the first half. In addition to his six points Harrison won 4-of-4 faceoffs, grabbed five ground balls and topped the 100 career point mark in the victory as he now has 66 goals and 38 assists for 104 points. The six-point effort ties his career high.

Resetarits had a hand in all six Albany goals as he scored twice and added four assists, while Thomson was the beneficiary of three of his assists and added a helper himself to finish with four points. Senior goalie Kevin Rae (Yorktown Heights, NY/Yorktown) played the entire game for Albany and had 13 saves to his credit, while the Danes held a 37-34 ground ball advantage after controlling 14-of-17 in the fourth quarter.

The 31-game home winning streak matches the school record originally set from April 24, 1982 through May 19, 1985. The streak is also tied for the second-longest home winning streak in Division I since 1971, when the NCAA began tracking such records.

The matchup Friday night against the second-ranked Blue Devils will be the Blue Jays' second in four games against a team ranked number two in the nation as Hopkins knocked off then second-ranked Virginia, 9-7 on March 26. It will also be the fourth time in the last 24 games dating back to the final game of the 2003 season that a top-ranked Hopkins team will play the number two team.

#14 Albany (5-3) 1-1-0-4/6

#1 Johns Hopkins (7-0) 7-5-5-2/19

Goals: A: Thomson-3, Resetarits-2, Daquino. J: Byrne-5, Malo-4, Rabil-2, Huntley-2, Harrison, Koesterer, G. Peyser, Benson, Doneger, Stanwick. Assists: A: Resetarits-4, Martocchia, Thomson. J: Harrison-5, Byrne-2, Koesterer-2, Rabil-2, Benson, LeSueur, G. Peyser. Saves: A: Rae-13. J: Schwarztman-9, Locey-2, Maimone-Medwcik-0. EMO: A: 1-for-5. J: 3-for-4. Attendance: 550.

Stenmark Earns Honorable
Mention All-Ivy Accolades

May 12, 2004

CAMBRIDGE, MA - The Ivy League has announced that senior defenseman Spencer Stenmark (Denver, CO) and senior goalie Jake McKenna (Darien, CT) have been chosen as honorable mention All-Ivy League selections, as voted by the league's seven head men's lacrosse coaches.

For Stenmark, the distinction marks his first selection as an All-Ivy player. McKenna, meanwhile, earns All-Ivy honors for the fourth time after he earned second-team accolades in 2002 and honorable mention in 2001 and 2003.

Stenmark started 12 games as a close defenseman for Harvard, and he led the Crimson longsticks wtih 27 ground balls this season. He finished his career as a four-year starter and was an honorable mention All-New England pick in 2002.

McKenna started all 13 games in goal for the Crimson and finished the year with a .561 save percentage and an 8.28 goals-against average. He also had a team-high 49 ground balls.

Harvard finished the 2004 season at 7-6 overall and 2-4 in the Ivy League.


Editor's Note: Lacrosse is unique among sports in that players and coaches grow into family...a lacrosse community. No other sport enjoys the bounty of better players and coaches helping others learn to play like "The Creator's Game".

Most MBA students don't come out of their study groups even for Mother's Day. Christian Cook balances his MBA studies with a regular weekend schedule of traveling, often cross country, to teach lacrosse

Christian is right about one thing and perhaps this speaks to the boom in lacrosse. The quality of lacrosse athletes is there across the USA. Its getting coaching to these players that is the rub.

I know the high school coaches in NC are always eager to see Cook's defensive schemes on paper.

They see something I don't. Unfortunately for me I just don't get it on paper...but I know it when I see it on the field.

I am fortunate to be returning from another wonderful clinic in Scottsdale, AZ. I first traveled to this area this past fall to coach at an outstanding clinic run by Rich McAbee. I came back to help a high school team (Chaparral) install a new defense. I have to admit that traveling around the country to coach clinics gives me a wonderful sense of how the game is spreading and its potential. Young players are striving to be great players and great students in order to prepare themselves to be successful at the next step. What is wonderful about lacrosse is that kids strive to attend schools like Princeton (I am clearly biased) and Harvard and Cornell TO PLAY LACROSSE. They aren’t being offered sums of money and they aren’t going to be treated like royalty – but they are going to play lacrosse at the highest level and learn from some of the best professors in the world.

This desire to work hard and become well-rounded individuals is not only apparent in areas off the beaten path. In fact, there are some programs with a great deal of potential all over the country. I recently spoke at a dinner for the T.C. Williams program (yes, we all remember the movie “Remember the Titans”) – that gained varsity status just last year for its fledgling lacrosse program. The school has very little money, the players have very little experience, the program is just beginning – BUT – rarely have I seen a group of more dedicated players, parents, and coaches. This program will be one to watch in the near future – the athletes available to this program are OUTSTANDING.


This commentary is a good opportunity for me to follow up on a topic that is important to me – coaching. While it is clear from my travels that players in areas like Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, California can compete athletically with anybody in the country – they are still lacking the complexity of the game. Fortunately there are some coaches who truly inspire these kids and can give them the coaching they need to take the next step - Chaparral is lucky enough to have several coaches who have experience playing lacrosse at a very high level and are dedicated to the sports and its expansion (sometimes I don’t think the kids know how lucky they truly are).

The sport needs good coaches, not good players who then coach, but good coaches. I don’t know what creates a good coach, that is a subject that could spark a great debate, but I do know one when I see them. I feel like the following quote is true, not only for leadership, but for coaching.
“Great leaders are not made, they are born.”
True or False? I don’t know.

But I do know that I have played for two great coaches - I was blessed. We need more great coaches for the kids. We need coaches like Jon Barocas, Bill Tierney, Mark Flood, Chris Deutsch, Chris Roberts, Mike Allan and others.