In a girls lacrosse season with considerable coaching turnover among historically strong teams, Notre Dame Prep's Mac Ford and Severna Park's Kaitlyn Fuller step into the programs with the highest expectations.
Ford, a veteran assistant coach with the U.S. women's elite national team, and Fuller, an assistant and junior varsity coach for two years at Severna Park, follow coaches who built two of the area's most consistently successful programs over the past 25 years.
Ford takes over No. 4 Notre Dame Prep from Mary Bartel and Lisa Costello, whose Blazers have always been competitive in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference and won titles in 2001 and 2003. Fuller takes over for Carin Peterson, who guided the No. 12 Falcons to 12 state titles, including last season's Class 4A-3A crown.
Both coaches have strong connections to the programs they inherit. Ford's two daughters played for Bartel and Costello. Fuller, who played for the No. 12 Falcons, is Peterson's niece and continues a line of Petersons involved as coach or player that dates back to the origin of the program.
With the legacy of both programs comes the expectation to continue vying for championships.
The A Conference, which features five new coaches this spring, has six of the top eight teams in The Baltimore Sun's Top 15 with everyone chasing six-time defending champion and No. 1 McDonogh and its 112-game winning streak. Teams from Severna Park's Anne Arundel County league have won the past eight state Class 4A-3A titles and 19 since the state tournament began in 1990.
Even though Ford, 52, has never coached high school girls lacrosse, he has extensive experience with the women's game from coaching club to serving as assistant coach for the 2009 World Cup champion U.S. women's team and for the national elite team from 2006 to 2008.
Still, Ford agreed that the A Conference, regarded as the toughest conference in the country, presents a big challenge.
"It's pretty big," Ford said, "but I'm sort of a women's lacrosse junkie, watching since my girls were playing through college and then I enjoy going and watching women's high school lacrosse even more than the boys, and I had a couple of boys who went to St. Paul's. I've seen a lot of the programs and I've studied what they do and what they do well, so I have a really good feel for the league, for most of the teams, so I feel pretty good about who we are and I think we'll certainly be competitive."
While Ford, who was an All-American attackman at Gilman, the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year at North Carolina in 1985 and the Best Attackman after the U.S. won the 1990 World Cup, said he likes the women's game today more than the men's game because it reminds him of the game he played with more flow to it and without so much specialization.
However, after studying the top girls programs, including McDonogh, he's likely to bring a more aggressive style to the Blazers, especially with a deep team after 80 girls tried out.
For Fuller, following in Peterson's footsteps, the challenge is just as daunting. The Anne Arundel County league has three of the top public school programs in the state — Severna Park, No. 14 Broadneck and No. 15 South River, which also has new coach Caroline Cochran.
An All-County Falcons defender in 2006 who went on to play at Loyola, Fuller also feels up to the challenge.
"It's definitely big shoes to fill," she said, "but I'm pretty positive about the year. I've got a great group. I'm just excited to take it over and make it my own."
Fuller, 26, coached summer league lacrosse before taking the junior varsity coaching job at Severna Park. She said Peterson has given her great advice and may even do some scouting for her niece this spring, but Fuller will put her own spin on the program.
"I think we have a little bit different styles," Fuller said. "She was a little bit more on the aggressive end of things and I guess I'm a little bit more of a laid back kind of style. That's why we got along so well. She was like, 'This is what I want,' and I was like, 'That sounds great.' I think I'm more on the girls' level."
While Fuller is more defense-oriented than Peterson, who was an attacker as a player, she doesn't expect a whole lot of changes in the Falcons' style of play.
At one of the Falcons biggest rivals, South River, Cochran is the third coach in three years and she aims to bring stability back to the program that won its only state title in 2010. A teacher at Annapolis High School, Cochran assisted Sam Farrell last season and when Farrell left, she jumped at the chance to take over.
"My goal is to build a stable and long-lasting program with a coaching staff that plans on staying here a long time," said Cochran, who played at St. Mary's and at Florida. "I'm a teacher in the county and it was a dream to get this job. I know [South River administrators] were very upset when Sam moved, but I was very excited to take this job."
Having been an assistant coach last season, Cochran said she brings some stability, because she won't make many changes to the Seahawks' system.
Along with Notre Dame Prep in the A Conference, John Carroll, St. Paul's, St. Mary's and Garrison Forest have first-time coaches.
Abbey Swift, who played at Towson high school and UMBC, is the third coach in three years at John Carroll, which was the last team to win an A Conference title before McDonogh's run.
Kelly (Kasper) Carter, a Century graduate, All-American midfielder at Maryland and former national team player, takes over at St. Mary's, which won its only A Conference title in 2005.
Lindsay Lewis takes over another program looking for stability, Garrison Forest, which has had three coaches in four years. Lewis, who played at Glenelg, was an All-American at Boston University and played for the national team. She has seven years of experience as a Division I assistant coach.
At St. Paul's, Ali Jacobs, who played at Northwestern, is the Gators' sixth coach in eight years after spending a year as their assistant coach. They won the last of two championships in 2004.
Even though she's a Massachusetts native, Jacobs believes the A Conference is the best in the nation.
"I was sharing with my dad that I have 11 or 12 girls going D-I and he was like, 'Wow,' and I was like, 'Everyone else's roster looks exactly the same,'" Jacobs said. "You have to be focused on each game and not get ahead of yourself. There's no gimme games in this league. You have to prepare for everyone like it's McDonogh because everyone is at that level and that's what makes this league so much fun."
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