TOWSON, Md. - Shawn Nadelen had a lot to take in during his first year coaching men's lacrosse in Division I. Last season, he was the associate head coach, also in charge of the defense for the Tigers and he was gearing up for another season of playing outdoor professional lacrosse in Major League Lacrosse.
 
Then Nadelen's life changed on May 29 when he was hired to coach Towson's men's lacrosse team. At 32, he was set to become one of the youngest head coaches in Division I and he had to give up playing the game professionally. He had to jump right into hiring assistant coaches (defenive coordinator Dan Cocchi and offensive coordinator Anthony Gilardi), while dealing with administrative duties and recruiting.
 
Going into his second year of coaching the Tigers, after improving the teams win total by four games during his first season, Nadelen now knows what to expect.
 
"I'll have a better grasp and organization of being more efficient," said Nadelen. "I went all summer without having assistant coaches. I had to hammer down all the recruiting. It didn't afford me the time to be more organized.My two great assistants know what they need to do and we have great communication. Things will move a lot more fluidly next year in regards to a lot of things on and off the field with better understanding and with what is expected."
 
Towson's lacrosse team didn't just go through a coaching change, where the associate head coach was elevated to the head guy. The program underwent some changes in philosophy, especially on the offensive end, but also some off-the-field twinges which was felt with some key personnel not returning to the team in the spring. Towson spent the 2012 season being spent. In other words, Nadelen and his assistants weren't able to play with a full deck.
 
"For us as a staff, we had a lot of things happen in terms of team dynamics off the field," said Nadelen. "(We also had) injury issues, guys with broken hands, hamstrings, groins, shoulders and concussions. You could have put out the medical book and gone through every page and pointed out that this guy had this and this guy had that. The issue of not being able to have all of our players for practice and games led to our demise towards the end of the year."
 
After going 2-3 to start the season, which included losses to current NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed Loyola and No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins, Towson won five straight games and then lost five straight - the definition of streaky.
 
"We strung together a pretty good run," said Nadelen. "But within that run, we didn't have a complete game beyond that Delaware game. There were quarters where we were just awful, defensively and offensively. That was the common theme for our season, the inconsistency and lack of continuity on the defensive end, offensive end, facing-off and clearing. We did not have enough gas in the tank and our guys were breaking down. We just didn't have that extra boost button to overcome teams that were battling just as hard as us.
 
"It was a tale of two seasons. I was impressed during that time when we were winning games. When you win, everybody is excited and enjoying it. The grind of practice doesn't tend to wear you down as much. During the losing streak, our guys mentally and emotionally were getting beat down every week and couldn't provide that spark on the field to push through. But we never lost our competitive edge. We fought all the way through until the end in all of those games. That's something that we really worked on from Day One when our guys got back from the fall. We were lucky to be part of a few games that fighting until the bitter end got us a few wins."
 
One of the many success stories of 2012 was the play of sophomore midfielder Thomas DeNapoli. In 2011, he played in all 13 games as a freshman, starting five. He scored four goals on 11 shots. In 2012,  DeNapoli led all Towson scorers with 28 points, including 15 goals on 42 shots (36% shooting percentage). Like most players on offense down the stretch, DeNapoli struggled scoring.
 
"At our individual meetings, he knew that he did not play as aggressive the last few games as he had previously in the season," said Nadelen. "For him (to not be as aggressive) really takes away from our ability on offense. We rely on him so much and he's also a smart player. His shot numbers are low and maybe he's too selective.  He has to get a little more confidence and assurance to take more 12 to 14-yard shots when he has his hands free. He does a great job of getting underneath or getting around to the middle of the field to get some good shots off. He took that Hofstra game (10-9 double overtime victory) in his hands and willed us to that win. A player like that needs to be on every game for us. He needs to be productive for us and the team but to also draw attention away from others that might not be to able to generate the offense as much as Thomas can."
 
On the defensive end, Towson allowed 9.93 goals per game, which was credible considering they had to replace two very good short stick defensive middies in Peter Mezzanotte and Kevin Lalley, along with close defenseman Marc Ingerman.
 
"I'm happy for (junior goaltender) Andrew Wascavage," said Nadelen. "If he doesn't have big save totals, some of those games gets out of hands. For what we had on the defensive end, they did a good job playing within the system and abilities. We lost guys with great experience. (Sophomore midfielder) Jordan Fortmann was phenomenal this year and really showed what he was capable of. We had to play with more two-way middies early on and that might have hurt us down the stretch with guys like DeNapoli, Andrew Hodgson, Justin Mabus, and Carl Iacona wearing down because they had to play two ways in the first quarter of the season. The way Jordan stepped up, that was awesome to see. We are fortunate to get most of those guys back into the mix."
 
In part II of the conversation with Coach Nadelen, we'll analyze some of the recruits who will be suiting up in the fall, take a look at last year's schedule and the surprise of the 2012 team.

-TowsonTigers.com