St. Mary's Lax Book

Ken Winegrad 1977 - 1979

I was invited to speak at the St. Mary’s Lacrosse Tournament Banquet in 1974. At that time, I was teaching and coaching at a private school in Connecticut. I told Daffy (after another tough loss in the tournament) that I would come back to be his assistant and that we would win the tournament. After another two years of tough losses as an Assistant Coach, I took over when Daffy retired as Head Coach after the 1976 season. It was a great honor to come back and work with Daffy. He taught me along with all the other players he coached outstanding life values in addition to sharing his great lacrosse wisdom. I felt a great responsibility replacing a legendary coach and man, and tried to do my best to honor his legacy. I believe the records of my three years as Head Coach were 8-7, 12-3, and 13-1. I was fortunate to have Rennie Smith as my Assistant Coach my first two years. Rennie had many years of coaching experience at the University of Maryland and helped me tremendously. His son, Andy, became an outstanding player for us and eventually for North Carolina. In my final year, Jim Moorhead served as my Assistant Coach and brought his excellent lacrosse background to the program. I had known Jim from our days as undergrads at Hopkins, and together we brought many of the Hopkins philosophies to the program. My final year, in 1979, we had an outstanding team that featured several players who would play Division I lacrosse including Chris Coughlin, Mike Burnett, Ray Crosby, and Andy Smith. The team finally broke the “Tournament Curse” and beat Boys’ Latin to win the tournament for the first time in 10 years. Our only loss was a 6-5 heartbreaker to Loyola, but St. Mary’s would be ranked #1 in Baltimore at the end of the season. I believe that this season provided the final push for us to join the MSA (now MIAA) since we proved we could compete with the top private schools in Baltimore. I left St. Mary’s to pursue a graduate degree and college coaching career at the University of Delaware, but I will never forget the five years that I spent as a coach at my alma mater and the many fine players that I had the pleasure of coaching. – Ken Winegrad ‘69

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