Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/27/09
Inside Lacrosse is reporting that Penn is considering current assistant Chris Wojcik, Towson coach Tony Seaman and Haverford College coach Mike Murphy as the top candidates for the school’s vacant head coaching position.
The position will be filled this week, according to the Inside Lacrosse report. The job has been open for two weeks since Brian Voelker left to take the job at Drexel.
Wojcik spent 2009 as an assistant to Voelker after being an assistant at Division III Bowdoin (2008) and Harvard (2002-07), his alma mater.
Seaman was the head coach at Penn from 1983-90, posting a record of 74-37. In his tenure at Penn, the Quakers won at least a share of the Ivy League title four times while making the NCAA Tournament four times.
In 1988, Seaman led Penn to the Final Four where his team fell to host Syracuse on a goal in the final three seconds. Seaman also took Towson to the Final Four in 2001. His daughter, Barb, played regularly as a reserve midfielder this year for Penn and will be a senior in 2010.
Tony Seaman also coached eight years at Johns Hopkins and has been head coach at Towson since 1999.
Murphy is a popular Philly coach who was an assistant at Penn in 2001 and 2002 and was a finalist for the Penn job when Voelker got the position. Murphy also has been credited for helping the drive to get lacrosse programs started in inner-city Philadelphia while also being a big supporter to the HEADstrong Foundation.
Murphy has been head coach at Haverford since 2003 and took the Black Squirrels to their first NCAA Tournament (Division III) in 2008 and also led the squad to the tourney in 2009. He is one win from becoming the school’s all-time winningest coach and also has been an assistant at Brown and Virginia.
Murphy’s record at Haverford is 64-41; the team was a combined 22-48 the five seasons before Murphy’s arrival.
