Virginia has confirmed the departure of longtime men’s lacrosse coach Dom Starsia via a press release.
“Dom Starsia is a Hall of Fame coach and I want to thank him for all he has done for Virginia men’s lacrosse, UVA athletics, the University of Virginia, and the Charlottesville community,” said Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage in a press release. “In addition to winning 73 percent of his games at UVa with multiple ACC and NCAA championships, Dom was committed to the development of student-athletes as his teams were cited for their sportsmanship and academic achievements. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have worked with and learned from Dom.
“These decisions are not easy and Dom and I have had a number of substantive conversations over the last several weeks regarding the future of the program.”
Said Starsia: “When our season ended, Craig informed me of his decision to make a coaching change. I wanted to take this moment to thank everyone who has been so gracious to me and my family during our time in Charlottesville. While blessed to have been part of some great teams, this experience has always been about the people and the relationships. I want to thank the players and their families who have been such an important part of my life. I would also like to thank all the coaches and staff who have propped me up over a lot of years, and especially to Marc Van Arsdale, who was here when I arrived 24 years ago. What a joy it has been to coach with my son Joe these past three years! I am very proud of all that we have accomplished here at the University of Virginia.”
Starsia’s contract was set to expire in January 2017, with Virginia still owing him approximately $400,000.
“In our search for the next head coach, we will be looking for a dynamic leader who clearly articulates a plan to build upon the tradition Dom and his staff created over the last two and a half decades and who can position our men’s lacrosse program to compete annually for ACC and NCAA championships while also achieving success academically,” Littlepage said.
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Carlson Milikin didn’t know if he wanted to play football or lacrosse in college. An injury helped make that decision for him.
Michael Howard didn’t know if he was a Virginia-caliber prospect in lacrosse. Dom Starsia decided he was.
Now, both Richmonders will likely play their final match at U.Va. on Sunday against No. 13 Duke. That decision similarly may not entirely be their own.
Milikin, born in Texas but raised in Richmond, excelled at football and lacrosse at Woodberry Forest School, to the point he went into his senior year unsure if he’d play football at Stanford or lacrosse at U.Va.
Milikin had drawn interest from a number of major football programs, most of whom told him he’d need a strong senior season to earn a scholarship offer. Instead, he suffered a hamstring injury and didn’t play football his last year in high school.
What would Milikin have chosen, if both options were on the table?
“It would have been a really tough choice,” Milikin said. “I didn’t have to make that decision. … And I had an awesome backup plan.”
Starsia, Virginia’s coach, made a number of recruiting trips an hour north to see Milikin, including some in football season, but said he rarely saw Milikin play because of the injuries.
But he saw plenty when he watched him play lacrosse.
“I saw somebody that I thought had as good of defensive instincts as anyone I had seen in a long time,” Starsia said.
Milikin had fashioned himself more of an offensive player, but when practice began his first year at U.Va., and he had a short stick in his hand, he knew the coaches had other plans.
Milikin was just excited to play. And then came the hamstring injuries, again — one over Christmas break and one in practice the week leading up to the first game. He missed one game, then another. Eventually, Starsia decided the prudent move was to redshirt him.
Also redshirting that season in 2013 was another freshman from Richmond — Howard. And like Milikin, Howard went into his senior year of high school uncertain if he’d be playing at U.Va., but for a different reason.
Howard, whose father and sister attended U.Va., grew up wanting to play for Starsia.
“During the recruiting process, I never really thought that I’d be good enough or that my academics would allow me to come here,” Howard said. “It was kind of a dream come true.”
Starsia saw the athletic ability and potential in the 6-foot-5 Howard, who played his high school lacrosse at Collegiate School, where he also starred in soccer and basketball.
“I remember seeing a big kid that could really move his feet,” Starsia said. “Very raw, lacrosse-wise. Probably a much better soccer player in high school than he was a lacrosse player.”
Howard said he actually took a step back before making strides forward with his lacrosse game in college. He suffered a torn labrum his senior season in high school and had surgery that May. He arrived at U.Va. with “terrible” stick skills, and said a running joke among teammates debated whether he was the worst player on the team.
After his sophomore season at U.Va., Howard went back to Richmond to work a summer job. He spent his downtime playing wall ball, firing passes and shots against a brick wall near a basketball court on the lower campus at Collegiate. A couple hundred a day.
It paid off.
“I wasn’t certain we were going to get there,” Starsia said. “But Michael’s really worked at it, and he’s turned into one of the best long sticks in the country.”
Both players will be recognized Sunday as part of senior day festivities before the Duke match. But both, having redshirted, are eligible to play one more season for U.Va. (6-6, 0-3 ACC). Both would like to, but think it’s not likely.
Milikin, an economics major, said Virginia doesn’t offer a graduate program that will help further his career goals. He’s been accepted to a graduate program for management at Notre Dame. He could go there and, if the program is interested, play his final year for the Irish. He also has a job offer from the Jacksonville Jaguars, whom he interned with last summer.
Starsia noted that, unlike football and basketball players who are on full scholarship, coming back for a fifth year for a lacrosse player means paying some if not all of their tuition bill. To do that if the school doesn’t offer the graduate program an athlete is seeking can be a tough financial sell to families.
“We don’t have as many graduate programs available as some other schools do,” Starsia said. “In football and basketball, when they come back for a fifth year, they’re on a full scholarship. For their family it’s like, ‘Hey, go ahead and go back. Play football and get a master’s in something.’ But for our guys, they’re really paying for it.”
Those kind of family financial considerations could drive Howard away from his fifth year, as well. He was drafted by the Chesapeake Bayhawks in the seventh round of Major League Lacrosse’s college draft. Howard can graduate, take a job and play for the Bayhawks next year, or come back to U.Va. for one more season.
Those decisions will be made down the line. Sunday, with their team fighting for a spot in the NCAA tournament and aiming to end a seven-match losing streak against Duke, Milikin and Howard will take the field with a little extra emotion and a lot more family members in the stands.
“I don’t know if it’ll actually hit me in that moment that it’s my last game,” Milikin said. “You can’t really know.”
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The Cattaraugus Reservation and the University of Virginia are in many ways worlds apart, and not only because of the 400-plus miles that separate them. Less than 1 percent of UVA's student body is Native American.
For Zed Williams, a member of the Seneca Nation of Indians, the easier choice would have been Syracuse or Albany. Both of those schools have lacrosse programs in which Native Americans have played starring roles, most recently the wondrous Thompson brothers at Albany.
But Williams, whose close-knit family lives on the reservation, about 30 miles southwest of Buffalo, N.Y., decided to spend his college years far away from the Empire State. He bonded immediately with the men who lead the UVA men's program -- head coachDom Starsia and associate head coach Marc Van Arsdale -- after which the choice was clear to Williams.
"As soon as I met Coach Starsia and Coach Van, right away I knew," said Williams, who arrived at UVA in the summer of 2013.
Now a 6-2, 185-pound junior who's in his second season as a starter, Williams ranks among the nation's top midfielders. With 21 points (17 goals and four assists), he's the Cavaliers' fourth-leading scorer, and he's second in ground balls with 41.
In its final regular-season home game, Virginia (6-6 overall, 0-3 ACC) hosts No. 13 Duke (7-6, 1-2) at noon Sunday at Klöckner Stadium.
"It may take a little bit more sophisticated eye to appreciate the things Zed does on the field," Starsia said, "but he's one of the first guys that my peers talk about when they call, because they really admire all the things that he does for us on the field."
There were those in the Buffalo area, Williams said, who predicted he would struggle academically and socially at UVA, but he ignored them. Rob Genco, who coached Williams at Silver Creek High School and assisted him during the recruiting process, also heard criticism of Williams' decision.
"I received a bunch of phone calls from other coaches from different colleges that were recruiting him, kind of telling me that I screwed up and this kid's not going to make it [at UVA]," said Genco, who talks regularly with Williams.
"The past has shown that a lot of our Native American kids in general couldn't make it anywhere but certain colleges. I knew that wasn't true with Zed, and I pretty much told them, `I'm sorry you feel that way. He's a jersey to you, but I love the kid, and the decision wasn't made to see him fail.' "
Starsia, who has won four NCAA titles at UVA, loved what he saw in Williams as a person, and Williams' athletic ability was unquestioned. He also excelled in basketball and football at Silver Creek, but lacrosse was Williams' best sport. In five seasons on the varsity, he scored a national-record 729 points, on 444 goals and 285 assists.
"The success he had here on and off the field is unmeasurable and will never be duplicated," Genco said.
Even so, Starsia recalled, he had some concerns "early about whether or not this was going to be the right fit for Zed, whether or not he was going to be able to thrive here."
Those concerns proved to be unfounded.
"The way he's carried himself as an athlete and a student here has surpassed my expectations on so many different levels," Starsia said. "He's just a great kid, and it has been a joy for our program to have Zed in our community, and I think being at the University of Virginia has been good for him at the same time."
Williams, who lives with teammate Jeff Kratky, is majoring in drama at UVA. His passion is not acting, but rather behind-the-scenes work such as stage construction. Starsia has followed Williams' journey at Virginia with pride.
"I would tell you that I have never asked more of a young guy than what we've asked of Zed, in terms of study hall, tutors, mentors and commitment to the academic piece of this," Starsia said. "It was really important that that part of it begin to get some traction before I really worried a great deal about lacrosse. I always knew he could play the game, but I wanted to be sure we were being fair to him by asking him to be here academically and socially.
"He has, again, well-surpassed my expectations, and I would tell you that he's the magna cum laude of effort in my 40 years of coaching young men in similar situations."
To ease Williams' transition, Starsia asked one of the team's veterans, Ryan Tucker, to serve as a mentor in Charlottesville. When Williams arrived in 2013 for a summer transition program, Tucker was waiting to help him move into his dorm.
TAMPA — For the second time in his young career, Berkeley Prep baseball coach Richie Warren stared at his players during an afternoon practice, trying to come up with the right words in a time of grave disappointment.
Just the day before, in a 4-3 victory against Clearwater Central Catholic, star pitcher and outfielder Julian Bosnic suffered a season-ending ankle injury, one that promised to leave a gaping hole in the Bucs' lineup.
"It's hard to replace him. I don't think you replace Julian Bosnic," Warren said. "But I told the guys in the practice after, much like in the other situation, the goals don't change. And if they change, why are we here?"
That day, Warren, 34, went around to each player, asking each one if he still believed a state championship — Berkeley Prep's second in school history and first since 1976 — was still possible. All of them responded with a resolute "Yes."
Perhaps three years ago, winning it all after the loss of a star player might have seemed like an impossible feat to Warren, a 2000 Jesuit High alumnus who served as the head coach for the program — one of the most decorated in the Tampa Bay area — for eight seasons.
But if there's anything his final campaign with the Tigers taught him, it's the value of never giving up. So on that April morning, that's exactly what he tried to relay to his Bucs (19-7).
"Don't try and change anything that you're doing, but maybe try and look inside yourself and just see if there's one little thing you can do better," he told them. "I said, 'Inherently, if you know you can get better as an individual, we can get better as team. And that's how we're going to overcome this.' "
And that's something Warren knows from first-hand experience.
• • •
Even before his against-all-odds 2014 state title run at Jesuit, Warren knew a thing or two about getting to high school baseball's biggest stage. On May 18, 2000, Warren retired 15 consecutive batters during a state semifinal against Royal Palm Beach, eventually leading the Tigers to a 2-1 victory and state championship berth.
The next day, Jesuit defeated Bishop Kenny, then the No. 2 team in the nation, to take home its third state baseball title.
"He was a tremendously great young man, all the way through his four years of high school," said former Jesuit coach John Crumbley, now the head baseball coach at Steinbrenner. "It was kind of a fitting way for someone who was such an outstanding person to be able to get his team to the finals."
It was an improbable win for the Tigers, who had 13 losses that season, just four seniors and a .261 batting average.
Fourteen years later, Warren, coaching his alma mater, was faced with a scenario perhaps even more improbable.
In March 2013, immediately following a spring break road trip to Pensacola and New Orleans, nine Jesuit players — five of whom were Division I-A prospects — were suspended the remainder of the season for violating school policy.
"That day in March was probably one of the darkest days in my young life," Warren said. "It was something that I never thought I would have to experience."
With a depleted roster now full of JV call-ups, the Tigers were all but counted out. But borrowing from his experience on Jesuit's last state championship squad, Warren wouldn't let them play that way.
The Tigers won their first five games following the suspensions. And in the postseason, the Tigers kept winning, all the way to a 5-2 Class 5A state championship victory against Clay.
Five days later, Warren was announced as the next head baseball coach at Berkeley Prep.
"It was hard, because you felt like at that point, you were letting them down," Warren said of leaving his alma mater. "They put all this trust in you, and here you were telling them you were moving on, after they just gave you everything to win the most important game of their lives."
• • •
Warren admits that until his final season with the Tigers, he thought he'd stay at Jesuit forever. But two years later, as he sits in his office dressed from head to toe in Berkeley Prep blue, the second-year Bucs coach already feels at home.
"He's a man of integrity, and that's what we look for in all Berkeley students, all Berkeley faculty, all Berkeley coaches," athletic director Bobby Reinhart said. "He's just a fine man … and somebody I think kids really want to play for and want to work hard for and leave it on the field for."
That much is evident in the way the Bucs have played since Bosnic — who was hitting .500 with an 0.95 ERA — left the field for the last time this season.
Berkeley Prep won four straight games following the injury, and it lost close games to Class 6A Hillsborough and 8A Steinbrenner this week, it's final regular-season matchups before next week's district tournament begins.
"It broke all our hearts. He's not only probably our best player, but he's just a great friend to all of us," shortstop Spencer Myers said of Bosnic's absence. "But we've got to move on from it, and other guys have to step up."
After those dark days two years ago, Warren considers himself a new and improved coach. Warren doesn't take for granted his job of leading young men, he said, and he now pauses to appreciate the unique role he has, often sending handwritten notes to his players after strong performances on the field.
And these days, he doesn't overlook any possibility.
"Sometimes they might get overlooked because we don't carry the tradition as some other schools, but I think they're starting to make a name for themselves, which in turn, I think, will put Berkeley on the map locally," Warren said. "And maybe down the road.
"Who knows, right?"
Contact Kelly Parsons at kaparsons@tampabay.com. Follow @_kellyparsons.
