Skaneateles native Dan Chemotti has gone from reaching the peak of college lacrosse to getting an opportunity to build his own program.
Chemotti, 33, was hired on Oct. 29 to coach the men’s lacrosse program at the University of Richmond in Virginia, who will enter the varsity ranks in 2014 after one more season of club play.
He said that going to Richmond is a good fit, given the school’s proximity to many different areas, especially Virginia and Maryland, where there’s lots of lacrosse talent to find and recruit.
For the last five years, Chemotti has served as an assistant at Loyola University in Baltimore, which won its first-ever NCAA championship last May when it beat Maryland 9-3 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
During his tenure at Loyola, Chemotti, as offensive coordinator, helped the Greyhounds make four NCAA tournament appearances, including the 2012 title run that saw Loyola average better than 12 goals per game en route to an 18-1 record.
With Chemotti’s guidance, Loyola placed 12 players on All-American teams in those five years, with 30 of them gaining All-League (East Coast Athletic Conference) selections.
A Duke University graduate (where he helped the Blue Devils win a pair of ACC titles), Chemotti went right into coaching, serving two years at Dartmouth and two years at St. John’s before making his way to Loyola. He also played professional lacrosse for teams in Rochester, Baltimore and New Jersey.
Chemotti, who was born in Syracuse, attended high school at West Genesee, earning Central New York Player of the Year honors in 1998. He is the latest in a long line of players tutored by Hall of Fame coach Mike Messere that have moved on to the college coaching ranks, including Syracuse’s John Desko and Le Moyne’s Dan Sheehan.
