Let the debate begin:
10 Years of Excellence: VSN’s Team of the Decade
https://varsitysportsnetwork.com/10-years-of-excellence-vsns-girls-lacrosse-coach-of-the-decade/No. 1 Goalie: Megan Taylor, 2015, Glenelg High School
No. 2 Goalie: Caroline Federico, 2013, Maryvale Prep
No. 1 Defender: Sarah Cooper, 2018, Notre Dame Prep
No. 2 Defender: Sami Chenoweth, 2016, Manchester Valley
No. 3 Defender: Liz Bannantine, 2012, McDonogh School
No. 1 Midfielder: Taylor Cummings, 2012, McDonogh School
No. 2 Midfielder: Zoe Stukenberg, 2013, Marriotts Ridge High School
No. 3 Midfielder: Lizzie Colson, 2016 Manchester Valley
No. 4 Midfielder: Andie Aldave, 2017, McDonogh School
No. 5 Midfielder: Francesca Whitehurst, 2015, Roland Park Country School
No. 1 Draw Control Specialist: Maddie Jenner, 2018, McDonogh School
No. 1 Attacker: Megan Whittle, 2014, McDonogh School
No. 2 Attacker: Caroline Steele, 2015, Severn School
No. 3 Attacker: Hannah Mardiney, 2018, Notre Dame Prep
Coach of the Decade
CHRIS ROBINSON, MCDONOGH SCHOOL
by Katherine Dunn
The Baltimore area boasts a history of outstanding girls lacrosse coaches, but when it comes to winning, none can match Chris Robinson.
VSN’s Girls Lacrosse Coach of the Decade, Robinson guided McDonogh to a perfect record, seven IAAM A Conference championships and seven national No. 1 rankings between 2011 and 2017. Before he left the program to coach in Florida, the Eagles’ national record 198-game winning streak had reached 177 games. They broke the old record of 103 in 2014.
Chris Robinson has won 410 games as a girls lacrosse high school head coach, including a national record 198 straight during his illustrious tenure at McDonogh School.
During Robinson’s 13 years as head coach, McDonogh went 255-10, a winning percentage of 96.2, with 10 IAAM championships and eight national No. 1 rankings. He was VSN’s 2013 Coach of the Year, USA Today’s 2016 and 2017 All-USA Coach of the Year and a two-time Baltimore Sun All-Metro Coach of the Year.
“I always tell people he just knew how to win…” said former Eagle Andie Aldave, VSN’s No. 4 Midfielder of the Decade.“There was just something about Chris where his energy and his intentions were like, ‘We’re just going to win no matter what the circumstances are,’ and I think having him on our sidelines, we knew that going into every game. Obviously, we played different teams and some were better than others, but either way, he always found a way to win. He knew who should be on the field, he knew what play to call. It wasn’t perfect, but he just always had Plan A, Plan B to Z for certain circumstances and that’s why we were always so prepared.”
Taylor Cummings, the best player in Eagles history and their current coach, said it was all in the details.
“We did so many game scenarios and game situations that he really focused on the little details which in turn built his lacrosse players’ IQ and helped us become smarter and more intelligent players. We had a lot of really talented lacrosse players and he made us thinkers too,” said Cummings, VSN’s No. 1 Midfielder of the Decade who went on to win three Tewaaraton Awards at Maryland.
Robinson said a lot of factors went into building the dynasty in the hotbed of a sport that already boasted six winning streaks of 54 or more games, including two of 103 — Loch Raven (1982) and Mount Hebron (2007).
McDonogh drew much of the area’s top talent because of Robinson’s track record. He and his brother Scott Robinson run one of Maryland’s top club programs, M&D Lacrosse, and many of those players went to McDonogh. He also praised his assistants, especially his brother who coached the Eagles’ stifling defense.
“Beyond that, the kids bought into our unselfish style of play,” Chris Robinson said. “Even though we had a lot of star players — kids that went on to be Tewaaraton winners and college All-Americans and everything else — they realized that we were a better team if we had seven offensive threats on the field at once, seven defenders all in unison and I think that was a real key to our success. We were able to remain so unselfish despite having so much star power.”
Robinson also helped the Eagles deal with the mounting pressure brought on as the streak climbed toward the previous record, surpassed it and continued to balloon. The players always said they didn’t think about the streak, but some, after they graduated, admitted that it was hard to put out of their minds.
Megan Whittle, VSN’s No. 1 Attacker of the Decade, said Robinson helped the Eagles keep it in perspective.
“I think a strength of his was his ability to focus on one game at a time,” Whittle said. “We never talked about the streak. It was always, ‘Who are we playing next week? You can’t think about everything we’ve done. We can’t think about what’s coming next…’ And that’s why it worked. I wasn’t thinking about championships. I was thinking about who are we playing on a Wednesday afternoon.”
Before he arrived at McDonogh, Robinson had already established himself as a top-level girls lacrosse coach. In six years at Mount Hebron, the Vikings won five state championships and were ranked No. 1 in the country twice. At one point, they won 54 straight games.
He’s taken his Midas touch to Lake Highland Prep in Orlando where he guided the Highlanders to the 2019 Florida state championship and to the No. 4 ranking in the Under Armour/Inside Lacrosse Girls’ Top 25 in his first season, 2019. They were undefeated during the COVID-shortened 2020 season and reached the state final this past spring.
He also started a branch of M&D Lacrosse in Orlando and it has grown from 31 players to 200 in three years.
At McDonogh, Mount Hebron and Lake Highland combined, Robinson has a career record of 410-22-1, giving him a 94.7 career winning percentage.
One of the Highlanders’ three losses over the past three years came against St. Paul’s and coach Mary Gagnon, who was never able to beat Robinson’s McDonogh teams. Coming off the IAAM A Conference championship this spring, she plans to play the Highlanders again, perhaps next spring.
Although Scott Robinson is not coaching with his brother in Florida, Gagnon said a critical head-coaching move is hiring great assistant coaches. She said the Robinson brothers set the bar high for other coaches and Chris Robinson has kept it high, going 49-3 at Lake Highland Prep.
“They were so hard to go up against, so well prepared,” said Gagnon. “They scouted the other teams and knew the talent of the other teams. They made every other coach have to raise their game to beat them… When I went to St. Paul’s, I was like I’m going to have to be a good club coach, I’m going to have to put time and effort into getting players to come to St. Paul’s and I’m going to have to be prepared to play the best talent. The way they prepare, I’m going to have to prepare. They took coaching to a different level.”
