Grella inherited a team with just
13 players and started from scratch. The Panthers had always been star-driven, but he wanted them to function more as a team. Practice structure changed. There would be no more freelancing in front of the cage or unnecessary behind-the-back shots. Some pushed back and clung to the old ways. Others, who were brought in to fill out the cobbled- together roster, didn’t take practices seriously enough. Somehow, Adelphi won 16 games
that year. The Panthers started to see what a coach like Grella could offer.
“Grella will drive home to New
Jersey two hours late because he was there for you when you needed to talk to him,” Brown said. “Did I miss some of the old ways? Absolutely. But I thought he had the right ideas.” The biggest positive was that,
despite the lack of championships, everyone liked each other. Grella’s first recruiting classes were, in Crimi’s words, “a good group of girls.” The next season, Brown said, they had the heart but not the talent. This year, they had it all. It’s a happy ending for everyone.
Coach Rob Grella (left) inherited a team with just 13 players and started from scratch after Joe Spallina’s departure in 2011. Lucky for him, Devan Crimi (above) was one of the 13.
Shortly after
the 2011 title season, coach Joe Spallina left for Stony Brook, taking with him an all-star team of players and recruits who went on to turn
the moribund Division I program into a national contender. The Panthers wondered whether they’d even have a team. Despite this, Crimi, Williams and Brown were never going anywhere. “Adelphi was my home,” Williams
said. “There’s no part of me that wanted to leave this place or leave these girls behind. That’s my team. No matter what I was sticking with it.” Adelphi hired Rob Grella, a laid back
Long Island native who had torn up the Panthers’ record book as a player in the 1990s, to succeed Spallina. He brought some different ideas for the program, but he fit the biggest requirement. He was an Adelphi alum.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
The players who transferred to Stony Brook have reached two NCAA tournaments, and they all remained friends. “It definitely helped that we won,”
Williams said. “Now there really are no hard feelings. They’re in the clear... I’m just kidding. Maybe I would have messed with them a little bit. But I’m just joking.” In truth, the only other Long Island
team Adelphi concerned itself with was LIU Post, which had handed the Panthers three of their six losses during the Grella era. And of course, to get back on top, they needed to go through the Pioneers. Adelphi beat LIU Post 17-10 in the North Region final. Some parents called it “their mini-national championship.” The next day, Adelphi outlasted
Lock Haven. The game was not decided until those final moments. But the image of Crimi and Williams embracing on the field won’t be the last of the duo at Adelphi. They’ll both be back as graduate assistant coaches. After all that’s happened, it will take
more than graduation to get them to leave. LM
Meghan Toomey
FAMILY AFFAIR Salisbury repeat has
sisterly feel Somebody queue up “We Are Family.” It would be tough to whittle down the highlights
for a Salisbury championship video, but for background music, the Sister Sledge disco classic is an easy enough choice. The Sea Gulls rolled to a second straight NCAA
Division III women’s lacrosse title with a 9-6 victory May 25 over Trinity, thanks largely to a defense anchored by sisters Meghan and Allison Toomey. Goalie Ashton Wheatley, lured to Salisbury by her sister Allie, left a two-time champ. Brittany Baer, most outstanding player, is the outlier. Her brother played for Salisbury’s men’s team. The family affair will only continue. Katelin
Talbert, who scored a goal in the NCAA final, will be joined by her sister, Alissa, next season. “It’s kind of cool to watch,” Meghan Toomey
said. “Just like a domino effect. We keep on reloading the sister bond I guess.” Toomey gets protective of her sister on the
field. Or should she say sisters? At Salisbury, you don’t have to be blood to be family. “We’re like a big group of sisters,” Toomey said. “It’s a ‘Sister Act’ kind of thing.”
D-III TOP 5 FOR 2015
1. Salisbury The Gulls lose their
backbone, goalie Ashton Wheatley, but return All-American Bethany Baer and top scorer Shelby Nemecek.
2. Cortland
Erica Geremia could be D-III’s best player. Can she lead the Red Dragons (four straight NCAA semifinal exits) over the hump?
3. Trinity Coach Kate Livesay
left to be an assistant at her alma mater, Middlebury, but Trinity’s top three scorers — Martha Griffin, Caroline Hayes and Molly Cox — return.
4. Middlebury Middlebury has
reached two of the last three final fours and wants to provide a proper sendoff for Hall of Fame coach Missy Foote, who will retire after 2015. Top scorer Laurel Pascal is back. Livesay, Foote’s presumed successor, knows how to win.
5. Amherst
The Jeffs graduate just five seniors from a team that reached the NCAA semifinals, but it was an influential group. Rachel Passarelli and Meghan Mills will look to guide Amherst back through the NESCAC. — M.M.
July 2014 >> LACROSSE MAGAZINE 49 — M.M.
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