By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 12/23/11
Upper Dublin has recommended J.P. Banks to be its new head boys’ lacrosse coach.
Banks, expected to be formally appointed at the January board meeting, guided Hatboro-Horsham to the District 1 playoffs last year in his only season there. He also spent four years as an assistant at Central Bucks West and is a coach and director of the LB3 club program.
Banks played at Dartmouth and later was on two Final Four teams at Johns Hopkins. He was an All-American at famed Long Island high school program Ward Melville, which went undefeated and won state championships in two of his seasons there.
Banks met with his team this week and said he has high expectations. Upper Dublin went 12-7 and reached the District 1 tournament last year under former coach Jon Levine, who also guided the Cards to Suburban One American Conference titles from 2007-09.
“I am familiar with some of kids and I had the opportunity to talk to some of them the other night,” Banks said. “They have a great feeder program in CCLC (Crooked Crosse Lacrosse Club) and the high school has a such great academic reputation. I am looking to build a championship lacrosse program.”
Banks, who took a young Hatboro-Horsham team to the District 1 tourney last year, is know as a strong tactician and teacher.
“I want to work with the boys to increase their lacrosse IQ,” he said. “I want them to be able to understand the game and make good decisions, while understanding what is going on on the field.”
What type of offense does he run?
“I can do a little bit of both, depending on what is needed,” Banks said. “In an ideal world, I’d like to run and gun, but a coach’s job is to look at the tools the kids have and make decisions that are going to put the kids in the best position for success.”
Banks expects the Cards to challenge for a conference title with defending champion Plymouth Whitemarsh, and 2010 co-champs Wissahickon and Upper Merion.
“It’s an exciting challenge learning about the styles of some of the other teams,” he said. “It’s going to be a fight for the boys and we hope to be extremely competitive.”
