Reese interviewed for a work advertising existence insurance policy, “and I didn’t even know what lifestyle insurance policy was,” she says now, appreciating the fortuitous selection that quickly emerged. Reese’s mentor, Cindy Timchal, wished her to keep at Maryland as section of the coaching team. Reese had worked lacrosse summer time camps at Maryland and excelled as a player. She just hadn’t recognized faculty coaching could be a vocation.
In hindsight, Timchal primed Reese and other foreseeable future coaches for their job mainly because she “instilled this enjoy of the game for us, and we just beloved being together,” Reese stated. “We loved staying about the activity.”
So Reese never still left. She labored with Timchal for 5 seasons, then was Denver’s head coach for a few. Maryland brought Reese back again to Faculty Park to guide the system in 2007, and due to the fact then she has orchestrated just one of the most successful operates in the sport’s history.
Timchal’s coaching tree extends prominently via the business, with six of her previous Maryland gamers serving as head coaches in the 29-group NCAA tournament industry. Reese prospects the 2nd-seeded Terrapins (17-1) as they seek out the school’s 15th NCAA title, and a few other seeded teams are coached by Maryland graduates. Reese’s group gained a to start with-round bye and will fulfill Duke, coached by former Terp Kerstin Kimel, or in-point out rival Johns Hopkins in the next spherical Sunday.
Reese and her fellow Terps-turned-coaches hold introducing branches to the Timchal tree. Maryland alumna Kelly Amonte Hiller, who led Northwestern to 7 national titles throughout an 8-calendar year stretch from 2005 to 2012, has four of her previous Wildcats coaching groups in this year’s event. Virginia is the only other faculty that has a number of previous players leading programs on this stage — Jenny Levy of prime-seeded North Carolina and Julie Myers at her alma mater.
“Either we make the task seriously look glamorous as coaches or it is that these gamers are loving their working experience and they want to give it back again to other scholar-athletes,” reported Jen Adams, a former Terp who’s now the mentor of sixth-seeded Loyola (Md.). “That’s what would make me so very pleased. And we learned that at the University of Maryland. That is bred into all of us.”
Adams, the Terps’ all-time chief in points, played her freshman year in 1998, when Reese was a senior. Reese and Adams received the countrywide title each individual yr they played for Maryland, with Adams’s senior period capping a 7-calendar year run of dominance. Adams, whose preliminary aspirations incorporated turning out to be a sports agent or operating in business authentic estate, served as an undergraduate mentor as she completed her diploma. Via that experience, she recognized, “Okay, you are likely to skip this as well a lot.” So she stayed in the sport, way too, ultimately doing the job beneath Reese at Denver and Maryland.
Reese’s affect permeates the activity as her players go on to come to be Division I assistants and large faculty coaches. Mindy Jones, a 2009 Maryland graduate who qualified prospects St. Mary’s High in Annapolis, finds herself executing “this two-hand aggressive clap” that reminds her of Reese. Kathy Rudkin at Severn doesn’t intellect if methods are limited as prolonged as her team accomplishes what it desires — the same mind-set Reese has. Taylor Cummings, a a few-time Tewaaraton Award winner, explained she repeats a popular “Cathy-ism” to her players at McDonogh: “Expect nothing at all. Be completely ready for almost everything.”
“You just witness firsthand the effect that a fantastic coach can have on you,” Cummings mentioned of Reese and longtime assistants Lauri Kenis and Caitlyn Phipps. “Those 3 have been our mentors, our mothers, our close friends, our coaches, our biggest advocates and also the persons who pushed us more challenging than any person.”
The faculty coaches who played for Timchal do not have identical programs. Each individual has additional her own flair, Reese said, and their groups are also formed by assistants, who might occur from various backgrounds. But quite a few of these Maryland alumnae have attained related heights.
Amonte Hiller has gained 7 nationwide titles at Northwestern, the No. 4 seed this yr. Reese’s teams have been to the Final 4 11 moments because she took about in 2007. The Terps have won 5 national championships given that then when Reese has compiled an astonishing 300-33 document. Acacia Walker-Weinstein of Boston College or university, seeded 3rd this 12 months, broke by very last period with a national title right after three straight runner-up finishes. All 3 teams could get to the Ultimate Four later on this thirty day period.
The championship practical experience acquired at Maryland assists make previous players promising coaching candidates. Alex Kahoe played beneath Timchal at Maryland, and as the head mentor at Saint Joseph’s she claimed she required to carry a similar style of “relaxed depth.” Kahoe has an all-Terps personnel, with recent graduates Caroline Steele and Julia Braig as assistants.
In Kahoe’s eighth season, Saint Joseph’s just received its first Atlantic 10 title in program history. Now the Hawks are in the NCAA tournament for the initial time.
Kahoe, a two-time NCAA goalkeeper of the calendar year, established out to establish her plan with a “championship mentality, where by we will need to work difficult and have entertaining whilst we’re performing it,” she mentioned, leaning on what led to achievements when she was a participant in Higher education Park.
That philosophy — emphasized by Timchal, who now coaches at Navy — is what previous players credit rating when outlining why they loved their time at Maryland. Some of the latest graduates issue especially to Reese.
“We attempt in each way that we can to emulate her and pass the torch,” explained Rudkin, a transfer from Syracuse who performed only the 2018 year at Maryland. Nonetheless, she calls Reese her major coaching purpose model. “You don’t have to have four several years with her to know how wonderful she is.”
It is a little bit emotional for Reese to hear players make that direct tie — that she produced them want to mentor. But 1 of her primary targets, she stated, is for her players to appreciate their college or university yrs, just as she did. So when they want to give others a equivalent expertise, “that helps make me definitely proud,” Reese mentioned.
Every single yr, far more gamers go by the plan, usually winning titles alongside the way. Aurora Cordingley, a transfer from Johns Hopkins, is in Faculty Park for her ultimate time and qualified prospects the Terps’ assault. With a master’s degree in company and administration, she predicted to land a desk occupation. This time prompted her to reconsider. She’s not prepared to leave the activity, so she’s wanting at roles as an assistant coach or a director of functions.
When questioned what sparked that choice, she talked about how a great deal enjoyable she has experienced this yr and added, “Cathy sort of influenced me.”