He can be annoying but I agree with Kessenich a lot. Good insight on Hopkins' direction, especially alignment with administration, which resonates with ND fans.
And I might walk some of my comments back a little. I met Petro a few times and found him to be a meathead but that was while playing club ball in DC/MD and watching his demeanor on the sideline. He sounds like a terrific guy to play for and a loyal friend and coach.
His 2 biggest supporters in the JHU administration Jerry Schnydman (retired) & Tom Calder(longtime AD) are gone.
The current JHU AD Dr. Baker and Petro weren't seeing eye to eye the past few years. Hopkins is a small academically superior private university playing lacrosse in the Big 10 with a bunch of large public state universities. It's not been a good fit for Hopkins.
Petro recruited well (he has top 5 classes for 2020 and 2021) but for the past several seasons what has been the team's weakness is overall team defense and goalie play. Ironic since Petro is one of the greatest D poles ever to play lacrosse. The last 6-7 years the biggest weakness of the Hopkins program has been team defense and erratic and uninspired goalie play.
Curious to see what direction Hopkins takes. Do they hire an alum of the program like Nadelen (Towson) Voelker (Drexel) Raymond (Hobart) or do they go after a big fish from outside the program like Andy Shay at Yale.
There is some tinfoil hat theories out there that Baker was specifically promoted to can Petro when Shanahan moved over to be overpaid in whatever she is doing now because she wouldn't do it.
With Schnydman retiring and TC being shuffled over to position that denoted his input on the AD wasn't wanted anymore. But, there have been a couple of things that have hurt the Hopkins Lax community. A couple of bigger boosters passed away including Bob Scott dying about 2-3 years ago have further eroded the Hopkins old timer's community. Scott was the last real connection to Hopkins tradition of the 50s-80s.
Daniels has brought in a lot of his connections from Penn and moved the entire university in a direction that isn't exactly backed by a lot of the everyday alumni. One of those goals is to get get Hopkins into the USNWR top 10 and stay there. There hasn't been any really statement as to why. But, so long has he can ring up Bloomberg to write a check every couple of years, he isn't going anywhere. It is a shame because when Daniels got the job the other candidate was the Dean of Engineering. He left soon afterwards to become the Provost of PSU. The other candidate was one of my civil engineering professors and a great guy and was very focused on sports as part of all well-rounded scholar.
Petro wasn't the most recent long term coach to leave. A number of long term coaches have "retired" since TC was no longer was the AD including swimming coach, basketball coach, field hockey, etc. The women's soccer coach was canned in December even after making the NCAA tournament. Many believe these changes were due to Daniels direction to de-emphasize athletics.
Saying all of that. Petro didn't do himself any favors by not making any real changes. His teams have looked lost on defense for the better part of a decade. He couldn't find a goalie to stop 1 out of 2 shots on goal in the last 6-7 years. He also refused to make changes on his staff. The same guys have been there since 2006. That is a long time in sports.
He also has no connection to Petro. Supposedly one of the reasons Nads or Raymond (though he has a pretty well known Skelton in his closet) weren’t hired was that it wouldn’t break the Hopkins lax fraternity that filled the Lacrosse center when ex-players would stop by.
As this Inside Lacrosse article excerpt says, he's been heavily connected to the team in recent years:
"UAlbany coach Scott Marr has the most recent Championship Weekend experience among Blue Jay alums, having taken the ‘Danes to the Final Four in 2018, and he was a popular choice among the current team. According to several sources, many Johns Hopkins players expressed interest in Marr becoming the head coach during a conference call with the administration. His son, Kyle, was among the Blue Jays' captains and leading scorers as a senior in 2019, with the elder Marr a fixture at Homewood Field whenever the Great Danes' schedule allowed for it."
While UA has been known for it's offense (hello, Thompsons!), they have picked up relatively stable goalie play. However, you think of Albany, you think of relentless attacking.
Stay tuned.
Whole article linked below.
that he was too close to Petro and wouldn't be a change the program needed. He spent a lot of time at Hopkins while his son was there.
a reprieve. I'm surprised it has been 20 years. The last 5 years haven't been great and that Final 4 in 2015 extended his tenure.
I think Hopkins lacrosse mirrors ND Football in a lot of ways. Scott = Rockne, Ciccarone = Ara and Zimmerman = Holtz *although Zimmerman's departure was far more controversial).
It's hard to say that Pietramala has underachieved at Hopkins but 2007 is getting farther away. I don't think he's a great representative of Hopkins. You think of all the coaching class acts in the lacrosse world - Danowski, Tiffany, Tillman, Twomey, Shay, Tierney - I wouldn't put Pietramala in that same class.
...according to the story in Inside Lacrosse. So, one could reason the COVID-19 situation gave a bit of cloud cover to not renewing his contract.
Really hard to replace a playing legend who had done a solid job for a number of years. However, the record recently just not corresponded to the talent that he/the school was still managing to bring into the fold.
My brother was a swimmer at Hopkins and knew several lacrosse players, who all said that that lax alum sentiment had gradually turned against keeping Petro.
There was thoughts by man fans that wanted him gone that the COVID out break saved him for this year because it would look bad for Hopkins looking to conduct a coaching search under the current conditions.
But, his contract did run at the end of the season so given the announcement about mutual parting ways is probably accurate. He was still doing a lot of social media until this weekend promoting the program. Hopkins probably wanted to give him a year extension as a way to give a year to right the ship, I’m guessing he asked for a longer extension knowing he had some leverage under the situation. Guess he didn’t.
Speaks to a number of the points in this thread....
It will be interesting to see where it goes. My only real disagreement is with saying Tierney is a coaching class act. IMHO, he one of the biggest whiners out there though his sideline schtick seems to be more of a force against the refs where Petro was split more between the refs and the players.
His reputation has certainly enhanced his arrogance and demeanor around referees.
Danowski and Starsia remain the gold standards as far as gentleman coaches. I hate Duke but would play for Danowski in a heartbeat.
...I've had the pleasure of running into him around Hofstra's stadium (I believe he's still keptShis house on Long Island) and have chatted briefly with him.
Approachable, straight-forward, good Long Island wit (I'm a native Long Islander).
Like you, Duke is a four-letter word by Danowski is a coach to be admired.
lacrosse.
Danowski was a perfect fit for Duke post-scandal. I have great respect for Corrigan and he knows the game well but I often think about Danowski's calm demeanor on the sidelines as part of the reason they have found a lot of success.
Not that he's stoic, but he pays attention to what he's got to be doing.
Another thing I like about him is that his teams get better as the season progresses. Finishes strong.
As for HOfstra, I agree. Great place to see a game, whether a high school championship or an NCAA playoff game. One of the best atmospheres I was ever in was the ND-Albany game that Matty C. won for the Irish. Tons of Albany fans, tons of Irish fan, tons of Matt C. fans (who gres up a long shot from there) and all of them huge lax fans. From the mid-third quarter on, the game was a rush.