Sources: Bellarmine to hire Andrew Whitley as next men’s lacrosse head coach

The Bellarmine Knights will hire Andrew Whitley as their next men’s lacrosse head coach, multiple sources tell College Crosse.

Whitley will take over for Jim Mitchell, who stepped down after one year as head coach in June.

Prior to Bellarmine, Whitley was the associate head coach of the Fairfield Stags for 10 seasons, beginning as a volunteer assistant before being promoted to a full-time role in 2013. He was in charge of working with the Stags’ goaltenders and faceoff specialists, as well as playing a part of the team’s recruiting and day-to-day operations of the program.

Whitley’s other Division I stop was with the Yale Bulldogs for three seasons coaching goaltenders. Previously, Whitley was an assistant at Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut and was Wesleyan’s defensive coordinator from 1997 until 2000.

Whitley also has experience on the international stage as an assistant coach for the Puerto Rican Men’s National Team at the FIL World Championships in Netanya last summer. Puerto Rico finished eighth in the tournament.

Whitley began his playing career at Alfred University before transferring to Franklin & Marshall. While with the Diplomats, Whitley was a two-time All-Centennial Conference goaltender and helped lead the team to an NCAA Tournament berth in 1995.

Whitley has a tough challenge ahead of him, one of them is Riley Seay putting his name in the transfer portal. Multiple sources have mentioned that the school’s scholarship package distribution was not in good shape due to mismanagement from previous coaching staffs. The search was also pushed back a little due to the school’s Division I announcement joining the Atlantic Sun. However, Bellarmine had 25 players on the SoCon Honor Roll last year.

A look at Whitley’s Twitter account shows that recently followed at least 20 different Bellarmine related accounts, including the Atlantic Sun.

A source also mentioned assistant coaches Steve Soriano and Kyle Bernlohr have been offered roles to stay on with Whitley.

With Bellarmine filling their vacancy, only the Hampton Pirates are without a head coach.