New SCH boys lacrosse head coach Brian Dougherty.

by Tom Utescher

Recently hired as the new head boys' lacrosse coach at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, former collegiate, professional and national team standout Brian Dougherty will only be adding about five minutes to his daily commute.

Dougherty is coming to SCH from Chestnut Hill College, where he has headed the Griffins' NCAA Division II program since the 2010-11 academic year. Prior to his tenure at CHC, Dougherty was an assistant coach at Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania, and he is currently the defensive coordinator for the Long Island Lizards of the Major Lacrosse League (MLL).

A goaltender as a player, Dougherty was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2012. He spent his high school career playing in the Inter-Ac League for Episcopal Academy ('92), where his father, Dan, was a highly successful and widely respected basketball coach.

Brian went on to play for the University of Maryland, helping the Terrapins reach the NCAA championship game during his junior season (1995), when Dougherty received the Lt. Raymond Enners Award as the outstanding player in the nation. Both that year and in his senior season in 1996, he was a First-Team All-American and, as the nation’s top goalkeeper, was a two-time winner of the Ensign C. Markland Kelly Jr. Award.

Dougherty then became a member of United States teams that won the Federation of International Lacrosse world championship in 1998 and 2010. Also in 2010, he was named goalie for the 2001-2010 All-Decade Team chosen by the MLL, where he played with several different pro franchises, including the Philadelphia Barrage.

Dougherty currently resides in Lafayette Hill with his wife Megan and their two children, Mia and Connor.

"I had a great time at Chestnut Hill College," Dougherty said. "I have an eight-year-old going into third grade and a five-year-old going into Kindergarten, and it was time for me to kind of move on and find a home for them. Springside Chestnut Hill is a great school and they had a great opportunity. It gives me a chance to get back to the Inter-Ac League and back to my roots."

Dougherty will succeed Mike DelGrande, who arrived at the old Chestnut Hill Academy in the fall of 2009 to assume the roles of varsity lacrosse head coach and also Director of Athletics. When he started, the lacrosse program was only five years old and was still making the transition from what was essentially a club team to a full-fledged interscholastic sport.

Under DelGrande, the Blue Devils improved to the point where they began to take on a full home-away schedule in the Inter-Ac League, one of the premier high school leagues in the country. A milestone in the history of the program was reached on April 18, 2013, when SCH defeated visiting Germantown Academy, 7-2, to notch its first Inter-Ac victory. At the same time, the team was beginning to send some of its athletes on to play collegiate lacrosse in NCAA Division I.

"I watched three or four of their games this year," Dougherty said, "and Mike has done an amazing job of taking the program to the next level. They're returning some good players, and it's going to be fun.

"It'll be different for me coming from college, because in college you're coaching guys who you've brought in to play lacrosse," he continued. "At the high school level at a fairly small school, most of those kids are also going to be playing other sports, and lacrosse is not going to be the main sport for all of them. I grew up in that league, and over the years I think I've developed a way of doing things that will work in a lot of different situations."

Able to offer athletic scholarships at NCAA Division II Chestnut Hill, Dougherty attracted talent from as far away as British Columbia in Canada. Because the conference in which the most of the college's teams compete won't make men's lacrosse an official sport until 2018, the Griffins under Dougherty played in the East Coast Conference, mostly against larger schools with a much longer history in the game.

CHC finished 6-2 in the ECC this spring, reaching the tournament semifinals and meriting five all-conference team selections, including ECC Goalie of the Year Thomas McDermott from Ridley, Pa.

In relative terms, Dougherty knows that the competition will probably be even tougher as he pilots Springside Chestnut Hill through the Inter-Ac schedule.

"No doubt, it's one of the toughest leagues in the country," he stated. "The programs are all strong, and they've got great coaches."

In addition to guiding players in games and practices, he thinks his college experience will help them off the field, as well.

"I can help kids and their parents with the recruiting process; when to start working on it, what the coaches are looking for, and things like that," he said. "I can tell them the tournaments that will get you a lot of exposure, and good ways to put together a recruiting film."

Outside of school settings, Dougherty has worked with everyone from beginners in the Conshohocken Bulldogs club organization to serious college prospects at the Net Nation goalie school. This summer, he will probably invite some current SCH players to assist him at some of the camps he coaches.

Asked about the staff he plans to build at Springside Chestnut Hill, Dougherty responded, "We'll let the dust settle a bit before those decisions are made; we'll see who Chestnut Hill College hires, for one thing. That's something I'll be working on later in the summer."