John Tillman To Stay As Maryland's Lacrosse Coach Despite Reported Interest From Navy
John Tillman was getting interest from Navy after taking the Maryland Terrapins to the national title game in his first year as head coach, but he is staying at Maryland.
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Nothing to worry about, Maryland lacrosse fans. Coach John Tillman is staying. The Terps' lacrosse coach will not pursue Navy's head coaching position, despite Navy's reported interest in hiring him, sources tell Christian Swezey of the Washington Post.
A prior report suggested that Navy would be interested in hiring Tillman, though they had not reached out to him yet. Tillman was a Navy assistant for 12 years prior to departing for Harvard in 2007, which explains Navy's interest. However, sources tell Swezey that Tillman isn't going anywhere, and nobody at Navy would comment publicly on its coaching search other than to say it was sill ongoing.
Tillman led Maryland to the championship game in the 2011 NCAA Lacrosse Tournament in his first season after taking over for Dave Cottle. He also led the Terps to the ACC title. Navy is looking for a new coach after former coach Richie Meade resigned in early May.
It was just about 12 months ago that John Tillman was hired as the head coach at the University of Maryland. In that time, he brought new life to the program, and took the Terps all the way to the National Title game, before falling to Virginia on Monday afternoon.
According to the Baltimore Sun, Navy is interesting in talking to Tillman about their head coaching position. But thay haven't reached out to him yet, and Tillman's focus is on his players right now.
"I have not been contacted by Navy. No communication," Tillman said in a text message Wednesday night. "I need to focus on my players and a group of disappointed young men who played their hearts out for their state, school, alums and teammates. I can't focus on anything else right now."
I don't blame Navy for being interested in Tillman. He is very young, and has to have built up a nice reputation in just his first season at Maryland. But it has to be a longshot for him to leave a big school like Maryland and go to Navy, especially so early in his career here.
I don't blame Navy for going for the big name hire, but I don't think it's going to happen. We'll be following this rumor (and I don't expect it to become any more than that) in this stream.
