NSA lax has new boss

By Tris Wykes | Suffolk News-Herald

Published Friday, February 27, 2009

Photo by Tris Wykes

Ian Patrick

The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy boys lacrosse team has a new head coach, but only for this season.

Ian Patrick, a varsity assistant last year, has taken the job but will depart the institution after the current school year concludes. Patrick replaces longtime bench boss Trent Blythe, who has stepped back to coach the Saints’ junior varsity.

Patrick spent the 12 years prior to 2008 as the head boys lacrosse coach at Tabor Academy in Massachusetts, where he and his family will return in the fall. His Tabor teams were 89-83 overall and his players earned nine All-American honors and 56 all-region distinctions. Numerous Tabor graduates have moved on to college lacrosse and three have played in Major League Lacrosse.

Patrick was named Eastern New England coach of the year in 1996 and 2005 and is a 1988 graduate of Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., where he started on defense for four seasons, co-captained the Hawks as a junior and senior and was named the program’s most valuable player as a senior. He is an Upper School English teacher at NSA and will be assisted by J.P. Henry, a former high school player from Northern Virginia.

Blythe, a 1989 NSA graduate who played football and lacrosse for the Saints and played the latter for Hampden-Sydney College, coached his alma mater for 14 seasons, including 13 as head coach. He was honored as Tidewater Conference coach of the year three consecutive seasons from 2004-06. Blythe said he moved back to the junior varsity level in order to spend more time with his family.

“I figured it was time when my kids started calling me Mom,” Blythe said with a laugh before the Saints routed Grassfield in a Friday scrimmage. “This team has so much young talent and so it was hard to step away in that regard, but it’s comforting to know the program’s in good hands.”

Patrick becomes NSA’s fifth head boys lacrosse coach, following Beulant Erdim (1987-89), Neil Duffy (1990-94), Jake Vickery (1997) and Blythe (1995-96, 1998-2008). The Saints open their season March 17 by hosting St. Christopher’s.

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