Vero Beach High School has hired a new boys’ lacrosse coach with club, high school and college experience.
Rick McCarthy has been coaching lacrosse at some level for several decades. His impressive resume lists him as a player at Yale and more recently an assistant coach at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, but doesn’t like to gloat about his accomplishments.
“I’ve been around lacrosse most of my life and my resume tells the story,” McCarthy said. “But I don’t want people to be impressed by a resume. I love the game of lacrosse and I want others to love it as much as I do.”
McCarthy, who’d had been with the Wesleyan Cardinals for 10 years, was honored in 2006 by the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA) as the Division III assistant coach of the year and was inducted in the Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2010. So why would a successful college lacrosse coach want to move to Vero Beach and coach high school?
“First I have a lot of family responsibilities in Vero Beach,” McCarthy said. “When I heard that a position was open at the high school I applied and spoke with Athletic Director Lenny Jankowski. Right away I was excited about the level of energy and commitment to the sport of lacrosse. I was also excited to take on the challenge of taking over a program.”
He added that spending more time with his wife and family and less time recruiting and traveling was appealing.
Jankowski said several factors contributed to the hiring of McCarthy. “I had conducted interviews with over 50 applicants,” Jankowski said. “Rick’s resume was impressive but it went beyond that. His connections with colleges and the recruiting process and his desire to get kids to the next level made him a good fit for our program.”
McCarthy’s philosophy for the upcoming season is simple: Hard work and dedication should translate into success, but success does not happen overnight. “From the film that I’ve seen there are a lot of great athletes in the lacrosse program,” McCarthy said. “The skills are here and the ability is here but players need to understand that just because you’re a senior that does not mean you’re automatically entitled to a starting spot. Players need to fight for their jobs every day. Championships do not happen instantaneously but are a result of hard work from players, coaches, and parents.”