With his deep raspy voice and intimidating physical stature, it's easy to imagine Virginia lacrosse coach Dom Starsia as a tough and loud type from the Vince Lombardi or Leo Durocher mold who inspires his players with fire and brimstone locker room speeches.
In truth, Starsia's style is the antithesis of those of these legendary coaches. He manages to stay cool and keep things in perspective while still maintaining a level of success comparable to the legendary Green Bay Packers football coach and Brooklyn Dodger skipper.
"Some coaches can make their kids do things they don't want to do better than I can," Starsia said. "I think of myself as leading these guys to water and at that point it's up to them to decide how deep that ship is going to be. My job every year is to improve the blueprint of it all."
Starsia's latest edition of this blueprint proved to be a successful one. His Virginia squad avenged it's only two losses of the regular season by defeating Maryland and Johns Hopkins in the semifinals and finals of the NCAA tournament to give Starsia the championship that had often eluded him and his team during his tenure.
"We've had some wonderful seasons where we haven't won the championship," Starsia said. "We lost twice in overtime in the championship game before finally winning in 1999. To have a season like that judged as less successful simply because we didn't win that faceoff and get that first overtime goal in there is unfair, but I accept the fact that we live in a world in which we keep score and in the end you're expected to win."
In Starsia's second year as Virginia's coach in 1994, the Cavaliers fell to Princeton in overtime of the title game, 9-8. Two years later, Virginia lost to the Tigers again in the championship game, this time by a 13-12 score. In 1997, the Cavaliers followed an impressive 11-2 campaign where the squad averaged a school record 18.2 goals per game with a disappointing 10-9 quarterfinal loss to Maryland in the NCAA tournament.
The title in 1999 finally removed the monkey from his back and secured his place among the top coaches in the NCAA, but possibly more impressive than winning the championship is Starsia's ability to consistently bring talented players to Virginia each year and keep the Cavaliers part of the nation's elite teams throughout the 90's.
"He has a great ability to maintain a high level of enthusiasm every day," assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "He always has this positive core of energy that the team feeds off of."
This core remains strong even after over 20 years of coaching behind him. Starsia began his head coaching career at his alma mater, Brown, in 1983. Two years later, he led the team to an Ivy League championship and an NCAA tournament appearance. The Bears were able to reach the NCAA quarterfinals in Starsia's three final years as coach from 1990-92.
In 1993, Starsia succeeded Jim Adams at Virginia. Adams coached at the university for 15 years and still hold the school record with 137 wins. Starsia is quickly approaching this milestone, currently standing 13 wins short.
It seems inevitable the Starsia will pass Adams in the record book, quite possibly before the end of next season. But with 21 years under his belt as a head coach, will he stay long enough to win 200 or even 250 games leading the Cavaliers?
Starsia can't help but laugh when he is asked the question. After considering the possibility, however, he says his coaching career will probably not be ending anytime soon.
"I still love what I do," Starsia said. "In fact, I think I love coaching more that I did when I was younger, and that's not just the delirium of winning the championship. As long as the hunger to improve and willingness to change is there, I'll keep going."
After all, Starsia is in it for more than just winning championships. To him, the phrase "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" couldn't be further from his core philosophy. It seems that the secret to Starsia's success is caring about more than simply the result on the scoreboard at the end of night.
"Some coaches feel their way is the only way," Starsia said. "Others believe strictly in X's and O's. I wouldn't put myself in wither of those categories. I see my job as a coach as helping these young guys make good decisions."
When the final whistle blew on May 26 giving Starsia and the Cavaliers the national championship, Durocher probably rolled over in his grave. Starsia proved that nice guys can finish first.
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