FOUNDING THE PROGRAM

The St. Charles lacrosse program owes its beginnings to a confluence of events that came together at the right time.  In the early 1990’s, St. Charles guidance counselor Ted Hummer was looking for an additional spring sport to accommodate student athletes who didn't play baseball.  After a couple of years of talking about starting a lacrosse program at St. Charles, Hummer made an announcement in the fall of 1992 inviting any student interested in forming a club lacrosse team to meet after school. Ted was surprised when nearly 100 boys showed up.

Encouraged by the amount of interest, Ted tracked down Worthington High School head coach, Chris Gallagher, at his auto repair shop to discuss the situation at St. Charles. As it happened, John Galipault, the former Worthington head coach, was in the shop that day. Hummer talked with both men and though no plans were made, he did come away with good advice.  The following week, Hummer was stunned when Gallagher called to inform him that Galipault had died unexpectedly.  In John's memory, Gallagher and John's wife, Pam, created the John Galipault Memorial Fund with $3,500 to be used for start-up lacrosse programs, and Gallagher identified St. Charles as the first program to make use of the Memorial Fund.  The money came with no strings attached other than furthering the sport in Ohio and, as a gentlemen’s agreement, repay the funds if and when the St. Charles program became solvent. Through the hard work of St. Charles parents, the money was repaid the very first year.

Kyle Andrews, a former goalie at Upper Arlington and Ohio State, also became affiliated with the St. Charles program through Galipault.  The two had been friends since Andrews’ playing days, and through their mutual love of lacrosse and flying, they maintained their friendship throughout Andrews’ travels as a Harrier pilot in the Marine Corps.  During their most recent visit, Galipault urged Andrews to coach somewhere when he moved back to Columbus.  Two months later, Andrews took Galipault’s comments to heart, immediately contacting coaches in the area, including Chris Gallagher, who informed him of a new team forming at St. Charles.  Andrews met with head coach Rob Loscalzo and the two hit it off immediately, coaching together for the first two years of the program.

HISTORY OF HEAD COACHES

Coach Rob Loscalzo  (1993 - 1994)

The first St. Charles team in 1993 fielded almost 20 players who knew little to nothing about the sport.  Reflecting on those early practices, Loscalzo said, “We were awful.”  Nevertheless, that first season was memorable, as they beat Worthington under the lights at home (no matter that the team found out later that they had beaten what was to become Worthington’s JV team.)  St. Charles ended the season 2-6 and lost in the first round of the tournament to Walsh Jesuit by one goal as the clock expired.  For the second season, Jeff Horton was brught in as an additional assistant coach.

Coach Anthony DeLucia  (1995)

Following the second season, Coach Loscalzo stepped down.  The program then hired their 2nd head coach, Anthony DeLucia.  The Cardinals finished 4-6 and finshed as State Runner-Up in the Division 3 State Tournament.  However, after 1 season under Coach DeLucia, the program was again looking for a head coach, and subsequently hired Eric Pozniak, a former Ohio State player who played his high school ball in Michigan.

Coach Eric Pozniak  (1996 - 1997)

“Poz” coached for two seasons, during which the program made great strides, again finishing as State Runner-Up in the Division 3 State Tournament.  In 1997, the program moved up to Division 2.  As the program grew under Pozniak, the program sought an additional assistant coach.  Through his affiliation with Ohio State, Andrews was introduced to an OSU senior lacrosse player named Andrew “Skip” Baxter, who subsequently joined the staff.

Coach Phil Truiett  (1998)

After the 1997 season, Coach Pozniak was transferred to New York, and Phil Truiett became head coach for the 1998 season. Due to the demands of starting his own business in 1998, Coach Andrews left the program, only to return again in 1999.  To date, the 1998 season is the only season in which Coach Andrews did not coach the Cardinals.  After one year Truiett went on to coach for Wagner College’s inaugural season, so he handed over the leadership of the Cardinals to Coach Baxter.  Upon his return in 1999, Andrews was able to bring with him another experienced assistant coach, former Buckeye player Charlie Kellar. 

Coach Andrew Baxter  (1999 - 2002)

Baxter served as head coach of the Cardinals for four years (1999-2002), gaining the St. Charles Lacrosse team recognition and respect with 34 All-Ohio selections and three Ohio Final Four appearances. Baxter was named Ohio Division II Coach of the Year in 2001 and finished his career with St. Charles with a compilation of 49 wins and 16 losses. For the 2001 season, the Cardinals began playing their home games at Bexley High School.  Up to this point, the team had been playing home games on various side fields at St. Charles and Nelson Park.  Additionally, during the winter of 2001-2002, St. Charles started competing annually in the off-season indoor lacrosse league, sponsored by the Columbus Lacrosse Club and Chris Gallagher, who had retired from coaching Thomas Worthington High School. 

Coach Baxter went on to be an assistant lacrosse coach for Division I Mercyhurst College and later became the first head lacrosse coach of Rollins College.  Graduating seniors from his timeframe went on to play varsity lacrosse at Syracuse, Wittenberg and St. Vincent.

Coach Steve Dusseau (2003 - 2004)

2003 brought another head coach, Steve Dusseau, an Upper Arlington graduate who was also a former Georgetown University All-American and professional lacrosse player for the Boston Cannons.  Also added to the staff was former Cardinals star Andrew Kebe (’00) to lead the JV team.  Coach Dusseau’s first campaign was a memorable one as the Cardinal varsity squad finished the regular season undefeated for the first time in team history.  An unfortunate loss in the second round of the playoffs to semi-finalist Cincinnati Mariemont ended the dream season prematurely.

The 2004 team numbered 68 players, plus additions to the coaching staff including Charles “Trey” Porter (’93) and Cole Bryant (’01).  The team had an up and down year with a regular season record of 5-8, and lost in the first round of the playoffs to Westerville South.  Graduating seniors from this timeframe went on to play varsity lacrosse at Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wooster and  Colorado College.  Additionally, Eric O’Brien (’03) went on to play professionally for Major League Lacrosse.

Coach Billy Taylor  (2005 - 2011)

For 2005, with Coach Dusseau working on getting into Medical School, former Westerville South coach Billy Taylor was hired as St. Charles’ 7th head coach.  Also joining the staff were Aaron Hagerdorn, Pat Fuller, and recent Cardinal graduate Matt Teetor (’03).

Since the program had improved greatly in Division 2 over the years, both in terms of wins and All-Ohio selections, in 2006 the program was moved up to Division 1 by the Ohio High School Lacrosse Association (OHSLA).  Despite consistently playing much better competition, the program continued to improve throughout Coach Taylor’s time at St. Charles. The team beat a number of traditional Division 1 powers, and in 2007 Coach Taylor was named Division 1 Coach of the Year.  2008 brought an artificial turf surface to Walt Plank Stadium, ensuring the Cardinals would finally play at home instead of at Bexley High School, where they had played their home games for the previous 7 seasons.  Numerous assistant coaches joined the staff through Coach Taylor’s time, including Mike Fox in 2006; Mark Berndt (’97) and Brian Geckeler (’00) in 2007; Andy Burke, Al Turadian and Patrick Donlon in 2010; as well as Aaron Taylor, Andy Riederer (’95) and T.J. Duffy in 2011.

There were several significant milestones during Coach Taylor’s tenure that increased exposure to the program, including annual participation in summer team camps, the founding of the bi-annual Cardinal Invitational Tournament in 2007, the program’s first trip to play in Baltimore in 2008, becoming the first team in central Ohio to host a Baltimore-area team in 2009 and participating in the inaugural Midwest Catholic Championship held at the University of Notre Dame in 2011. 

In 7 years under Coach Taylor, the program produced 4 Division 1 All-Ohio selections and 1 Academic All-American.  Graduating seniors from his timeframe have gone on to play varsity lacrosse at the U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis), U.S. Military Academy (West Point), Wooster, Kings, Wittenberg, St. Vincent, Lehigh, Kenyon, Denison, Bellarmine, Adrian & Lynchburg.

Coach Mark Berndt  (2012 - 2017)

After taking over for the end of the 2011 season, Coach Berndt's first full season as Head Coach was 2012.  There were several significant milestones during Coach Berndt’s tenure that increased the exposure of the program.  Coach Berndt started the annual Cardinal Lacrosse Youth Camp, built a relationship with the Ohio Machine of the MLL by hosting the Machine's pre-season training camp at St. Charles, and fostered a partnership with the Central Ohio Youth Lacrosse League (COYLL) by hosting an annual youth Play Day at St. Charles.  He expanded the team's annual participation in summer team camps to include Notre Dame/Michigan/OSU, turned the Cardinal Invitational Tournament into a 4-Region-of-Ohio event for Catholic schools (which St. Charles won in 2016), and expanded the team's spring break travels to Lexington, KY; East Lansing, MI; and Charlotte, NC.  2014 brought the new West Campus facility, providing a state of the art weight room and turf practice facility for the lacrosse team.  Additionally, a lacrosse-specific wall for wallball training was added to the West Campus facility in 2017.  In 2017, the program celebrated its 25th season by honoring Coach Kyle Andrews with an alumni-sponsored endowment to fund a scholarship to St. Charles school in Kyle's name.

Coach Berndt brought a number of alumni back to the coaching staff over the years.  New additions to the staff in 2012 the staff were Pat Finneran ('07), Brian White ('95), David Haas and Geoff Smith.  In addition, Matt Teetor ('03) rejoined after a 2-year hiatus. For the 2013 season, Jason "Fuzzy" Lardiere ('08) joined the staff, in 2014 Al Turadian and Ethan McKinley ('07) joined the staff, and in 2015 Jack Cullian ('09) joined as well.  The staff added Ben Kelley ('09) in 2016 and Ryan Finneran ('12) in 2017. Graduating seniors from Coach Berndt's tenure went on to play varsity lacrosse at Capital University, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Illinois Wesleyan University, University of Massachusetts (UMass) and Centre College.

Coach Patrick Harnett  (2018 - 2019)

Coach Harnett led the St. Charles Preparatory School Cardinal’s for two seasons in 2018 and 2019. As head coach at St. Charles Prep, Harnett posted a record of 22 wins and 18 loses advancing his Cardinals from a knockout in the first round of the 2018 OHSAA State Tournament to a birth into the 2019 OHSAA State Tournament final round of 16 one year later. Under Coach Harnett’s leadership, the 2019 St. Charles Cardinals finished 12-9 overall including overtime losses to perrenial powerhouse programs Archbishop Moeller and Dublin Jerome, and a 3-6 loss to Upper Arlington in the state tournament final round of 16 to conclude the program’s best post season result at division one.