It’s summertime, but Andrew Stimmel never has been this busy.
That comes with the territory when accepting a new job, which the 2006 Franklin Regional graduate did June 14 when he became coach of the Marquette men’s lacrosse program after a highly successful three-year run as offensive coordinator at Yale.
So, in between dealing the logistics of moving life and family from New Haven, Conn., to Milwaukee, Stimmel is already dealing with the day-to-day operations of running a Division I program.
He’s more than ready for the task.
“Over the last year or two at Yale, I progressed to the point where I thought I was really ready to become a head coach,” Stimmel said. “One of the great things about coaching at Yale is you’re given some responsibilities that head coaches have. I was talking with alumni and dealing with other head-coaching issues. But the first week and a half on the (Marquette) job, and I’m finding out it’s a lot of everything else. But getting a chance to see behind that iron curtain at Yale, I’m ready.”
Since being hired, Stimmel has been in touch with returning players such as All-Big East first-teamer Nick Grill, gotten in contact with incoming recruits and constructed a coaching staff. There’s also his duties as assistant coach of the U.S. men’s Under-19 team at the 2020 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships.
“It’s been pretty crazy, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You try to embrace everything and do one thing at a time,” the 31-year-old Stimmel said.
Stimmel’s coaching abilities have been embraced since he became an unpaid undergrad assistant at Ohio State, where he played after a standout career at Franklin Regional. A defensive midfielder for the Buckeyes, Stimmel cut his coaching chops on that side of the ball for a year before taking the top job at Division III Grove City, where he spent two seasons and transformed a three-win team into one that finished 10-2 in his final season.
From there, Stimmel spent two years at Yale — the first as a volunteer assistant — before taking the defensive coordinator job at Marquette in 2016. The Eagles finished 11-5 that season, won the program’s only Big East championship and earned the No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“I started by earning zero bucks, working camps, doing lessons on the side to get some money. That’s how it is in a lot of sports,” Stimmel said. “If you don’t love this, it won’t work for you.”
Yale loved Stimmel’s work at Marquette, and he was offered the offensive coordinator job in 2017. Yale won the Ivy League championship that season, the NCAA title the next and finished this past season as NCAA runner-up. In the past two years, Yale scored 574 goals — the third-best total in NCAA history in a two-year span.
As his coaching profile grew, so did interest in Stimmel as a head coach.
When Joe Amplo, the only coach in program history, left to coach at Navy, Stimmel knew Marquette was the job for him. The feeling was mutual.
“Andrew is one of the rising stars in the lacrosse world, and we are thrilled to know that he will be leading the Marquette men’s lacrosse program,” Marquette vice president and athletic director Bill Scholl said. “He cares greatly about the student-athlete experience, believes deeply in Marquette and our values and he can flat out coach. He has been a winner at every stop along the way and we expect that to continue in Milwaukee. … Andrew has a track record of success with championship-caliber programs and experience coaching elite units on both sides of the field.”
Stimmel’s immediate goals are to implement his coaching style, have a winning season in 2020 and get Marquette back in the Big East Tournament.
From there, his vision expands.
“I see us getting back into NCAAs and making a run to get to that Final Four weekend,” Stimmel said. “People might think doing that in Milwaukee is too difficult, but I wouldn’t be here if I thought that.”
