By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 8/22/23
Brendan Dawson led his Haverford School team to the Inter-Ac League championship, two wins over Top 5 teams in the national rankings, and a share of the top spot in the final Phillylacrosse.com Rankings. Dan Ellis didn’t win any championships at Coatesville or claim victories over big-name teams, but he did take a third-year varsity program to its first District 1 tournament and a winning league record.
For that, Dawson and Ellis have been named the 2023 Phillylacrosse Boys’ Team Coaches of the Year.
Brendan Dawson, Haverford School
Haverford School senior midfielder and co-captain Colin Zeller says Brendan Dawson’s greatest asset as a coach is his ability to build team camaraderie.
“One of the biggest things that separates Coach Dawson is that he’s a super personal guy and is very connected with every single player on the team,” said Zeller. “Coach did a great job of bringing people together and doing things off the field that benefited us as a team.”
It all paid off for the Fords in 2023. Haverford ended a long drought of league championships by claiming its first Inter-Ac League crown since 2017 with a 10-0 mark. The Fords also earned wins – vs. St. Anthony’s (N.Y.) and Georgetown Prep (MD) – over teams that finished among the top 5 in the national rankings. Overall, Haverford School finished 17-3, was ranked among the top 15 teams in the national rankings. The Fords shared the No. 1 spot in the final Phillylacrosse.com Rankings.
“One thing that brought us together was the idea of playing your role on the team throughout the season,” said Zeller. “He brought up (former NBA player) Bill Cartwright and talked about how he played his singular role, but how it affected the (Chicago) Bulls championship team as a whole. All of us took that to heart and played with that mentality. We worked so well together.”
“Coach Dawson helps us adapt to different situations on the field,” added senior co-captain and midfielder Brendan Leary. “There were a lot of key moments in games when we were down, but were able to come back. Coach knew when to call a very timely timeout and he knew how to motivate us.”
The 16-15 win over St. Anthony’s was a highlight of the season. The Friars were ranked No. 1 in the country entering play in a much-anticipated contest. The game went back and forth, but the Fords’ resilience showed.
“We didn’t have much time to prepare, but Coach was always finding ways to get us better and prepared,” said Leary. “He always helps us adapt to different situations on the field.”
Unfortunately for Haverford School, the 2023 season ended with a loss when the Fords fell to Malvern Prep, 9-6, in the Inter-Ac Tournament finale. Many fans remember the final game as a bit of a season/league championship. The Fords were hoping to complete a sweep of the Friars. But the players refused to allow the loss to diminish what was achieved.
“Going 10-0 in the Inter-Ac and getting those wins over top-ranked teams made the season special,” said Leary. “We had many tough games in the second half of the Inter-Ac, and we had to come from behind against Penn Charter and EA. The consistency we saw from the sophomores and juniors and the trust in the seniors paid off.
“The camaraderie we began to develop in the off season stayed all year. Even after the loss to Malvern Prep, Coach Dawson found a way to be optimistic. As emotional as that final game was, coach brought the team together. Yes, it stunk to lose that game, but coach talked about how proud he was of the senior class and what we had built to create a new path for the underclassmen.”
Dan Ellis, Coatesville
Dan Ellis was hardly a household lacrosse name. In fact, he never coached the sport before getting named Coatesville’s first varsity coach in 2019. He came from football. He quarterbacked Downingtown High to a PIAA big-school championship in 1996 before playing four years at Virginia (two as a starter). He was head football coach at Springfield-Delco, West Chester East and Great Valley from 2008-2018 and his only lacrosse experience was assisting in youth lacrosse while his son, Owen, was growing up.
But in 2019, Coatesville finally elevated its club program to varsity status and Ellis accepted the challenge of serving as head coach for the 2020 season, when Owen was a freshman. Experience was not high, but the team had over 30 players and Coach Ellis was eager to get the program started.
Then COVID 19 wiped out the season just before the first scrimmage. Not a good omen for a new program. But that’s what makes it most impressive that after only three years, Coatesville – hardly considered a lacrosse hotbed – managed to finish 12-7 overall and over .500 at 7-5 in the Ches-Mont, closing the 2023 regular season with a memorable 13-12 win over Downingtown and qualifying for the District 1 tourney for the first time.
“I thought the one thing I stressed more than anything else was that we were never going to lose a game because we got outworked,” said Dan Ellis. “I always felt that, honestly, we were not the most skilled team, and not the deepest team, but if you were going to beat us you’d have to work to beat us.
“I felt if we had that work ethic we could build a good program. I thought our kids were very receptive to that message. As a good example, I wanted us to be relentless in terms of the ride, how we played defense. The kids responded very well and did an awesome job with effort.”
Coach Ellis did have help – he hired two experienced coaches in Steve Halko (offense) and Bruce Shallis (defense) to serve as the coordinators.
“I wanted experienced guys to run the offense and defense,” said Ellis, who stepped down after the season and will focus on coaching football. “I thought I could run a program. I knew a little about lacrosse, but I felt if we had good lacrosse guys in place, we’d be in good shape.”
Owen Ellis, who will play at Division II Seton Hill, said his father earned the respect of all the players.
“As his son, I was insanely proud of him,” said Owen Ellis. “It was really cool to have him here. We had good moments and bad moments, and he worked so hard every step of the way. He can coach, no matter what sport he coaches.
“he hired some great lacrosse minds and surrounded himself with great coaches. That way he could work on discipline and team chemistry.”
Owen Ellis said the hardest part of building the program for his dad was losing the COVID year in 2020.
“We had 30 players that year, but then COVID wiped out the season and that killed us. The next year we still had a lot of guys that had never played the sport,” Owen said. “He had to teach them from scratch, give them sticks and gloves and elbow pads. We were trying to keep ourselves afloat in 2021 – the JV team got COVID and in one 4-game span we had 12 players. I remember a game against Great Valley when we had one player on the sidelines.”
In 2021, Coatesville went 7-10 and the Raiders went 7-11 in 2022 with a tougher schedule, winning five league games. This past season brought higher expectations. Coatesville’s win over Downingtown West proved how far the program had come. In districts, the Raiders dropped a tough 7-6 decision to Pioneer Athletic Conference runner-up Perkiomen Valley.
“Beating Downingtown West was probably my greatest feeling ever,” said Owen Ellis. “We had played them tough over the past two years, but we couldn’t get over the hump.”
“In general, he kept us disciplined and made sure we kept our eye on the ball,” said senior All-League goalie Dax Shallis. “This 23 class was together for a while and it was cool to see it play out. Coach kept us accountable and made sure we honored the game of lacrosse.”
