By Chris Goldberg and from Press Release
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/1/19
Bill Leahy, the winningest boys’ lacrosse coach in Pennsylvania history with over 500 wins, has retired as La Salle College High boys’ lacrosse coach after 28 years and just three weeks after guiding the Explorers to their fifth state championship.
Leahy’s overall record is a glittering 512-115. His teams won three PIAA championships (2009, 2013, 2019) and two Keystone Cup championships (2004, 2008). La Salle reached a state final in 9 of the past 17 years and won 23 Catholic League championship under Leahy, who started the program from scratch in 1992.
According to statistics compiled by LaxRecords, Leahy was the 19th boys’ coach in the country to reach 500 wins when he achieved the milestone this year with a victory over rival St. Joseph’s Prep.
“Twenty-eight years was plenty,” Leahy told Phillylacrosse.com, who informed him 10 days ago that he was being named the website’s Co-Coach of the Year for 2019. “I could have never have asked for more blessings. My cup runneth over.
“This past year was a total blessing. I reached 500 wins and we won the state championship. My family – two teenagers and my beloved wife – have put up with it (being a head coach) for 25 years. They are happy.”
Leahy’s final game as La Salle coach resulted in a 7-5 win over Conestoga for the PIAA Class AAA championship at West Chester East. The Explorers won 14 of their last 15 games this year – including a memorable rally from a 6-goal fourth-period deficit in an 11-10 win (double overtime) over Garnet Valley in the semifinals.
Brother James Butler, FSC, the President of La Salle College High School, shared, “The opportunities to refer to a colleague as a ‘founder’ are rare in a school like La Salle with our more than 160 years of history. But that is what Bill Leahy has been.
“As a very young adult, he was called from Baltimore based on an idea Brother Rene Sterner had. Then Bill made that idea a program, made that program first sustainable, then respectable. As the years went on and programmatic and individual successes mounted up, that respectability became institutionalized. So now we are at the point, 28 years later, where La Salle lacrosse is a redoubtable institution, one with national prominence and a legion of alumni who experienced success at the collegiate level and beyond.
“After nearly three decades of nurturing that program, Bill Leahy leaves his successor a legacy of ambition, energy, vision, and most importantly faith—faith in the potential of the young men entrusted to his care and faith in the God whose providence made this whole process of growing a dream into an institution possible.”
During his tenure as head coach of the Explorers, Bill Leahy coached 290 All-Catholics including 13 League MVP’s, 94 All-State selections, 61 All-Americans, 24 Academic All-Americans, 5 Under Armour All-Americans, and 10 Major League Lacrosse (MLL/PLL) professionals. Graduates of his program have played in the finest Division I and Division III programs in the nation and the 2019 Division I National Tournament included several La Salle alums.
In 2017, Leahy was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame (Montgomery County Chapter). He has likewise been inducted into the US Lacrosse Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter Lacrosse Hall of Fame (2012) and Montgomery County Coaches Hall of Fame (2010). Recently, he was named the 2019 Phillylacrosse.com Co-Coach of the Year along with La Salle grad and Academy of the New Church coach Jack Forster.
Leahy was a standout player at both Calvert Hall College High School and Loyola College in Baltimore and played professionally for two years as a member of the Philadelphia Wings. He has twice been part of the USA U19 Men’s National Team (Assistant Manager/Coach in 2016 and Evaluator/Selection Committee Member in 2019).
Michael O’Toole, Principal of La Salle College High School, added, “Bill has been able to build a successful, competitive program in a manner that put his deep values into action. Faith, loyalty, character and class mark Bill’s words and actions in his teaching, his counseling and his coaching. We will continue to be benefit from his dedication to this program over many years and look forward to the next chapters in his professional life at La Salle.”
Leahy will continue to work in his current position as a guidance counselor at La Salle.