Hogan resigns as M. Lax coach after one season

Just months after the Penn men's lacrosse team had time to revel in the program's climb toward Ivy League respectability, Matt Hogan resigned from his one year stead as head coach.

The orchestrator of the Penn lacrosse program's first winning season, and most wins since 1989 (9-4, 3-3), Hogan declared his resignation to the University on Aug. 5, attributing the decision to family reasons.

"The lack of time I was spending at home was really the biggest issue," Hogan said. "Some of that may be attributed to the job change, and there is an argument that had I waited two or three years to establish the program, rather than rebuild a program in the first year, that I would have had more time with my family."

Hogan leaves the program quite happy with his accomplishments and does not rule out coaching on the collegiate level in the future. In the coming year, he will serve as the assistant principal at a private high school in Maryland, where he will also coach the school's lacrosse team.

"This is more than just a job change, this is a life change," Hogan said. "The comraderie, friendship and work ethic of the guys was really the most rewarding part of [being the head coach]. I'm going to really miss the guys."

Following Hogan's announcement, the Penn athletic department began a nationwide search for a replacement, emerging just one week later with Brian Voelker as the 24th head coach of the Penn lacrosse program.

Voelker enters the Penn athletics community after most recently serving as the head coach and assistant general manager of Major League Lacrosse's Baltimore Bayhawks during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

"The biggest difference between coaching in the pro and college games is that you're not with the guys every day [in the pros]," Voelker said. "I really missed the comraderie and effecting young men's lives -- and that's why I wanted to come back [to the college game]."

While coaching the Bayhawks to supremacy during the summer months -- the team reached the championship game in 2001 -- Voelker was very much involved in the college lacrosse scene as well. Voelker served as the defensive coordinator for his alma mater, Johns Hopkins, from 1997-2001.

There, Voelker was an integral part of the recruiting process. Because of this experience, the new head coach feels that the only real adjustment he will have to make in this department will be a psychological one.

"The biggest difference this year is just that everyone is going to be pointing to me," Voelker said. "The recruits are now both a representation of both the University of Pennsylvania and me.

"The daily part of recruiting is not going to be much different -- it's just going to be an attitude."

Like Hogan, who was the defensive coordinator at Navy before making his way to Franklin Field, Voelker also arrives to the Quakers stomping grounds after mentoring the defensive unit at a national power. But while Voelker will seek to compound on last year's defensive success -- the Quakers had an 84.1 percent efficiency in man-down situations -- he may do so in different ways than were done last year.

"Our goal is to be a great team and to improve both on offense and defense," Voelker said. "But at the same time, this is a new team and we will do some things differently this year."

In addition to his experience as an assistant for Johns Hopkins, Voelker returns to Ivy League competition after being an assistant under Princeton coaching legend Bill Tierney, where he was part of the coaching staff that led the Tigers to the 1992 National Championship -- which coincidentally was played at Franklin Field.

Tierney -- who recently was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame -- has continued to have an influential effect on Penn's new head coach, and remains a person that he looks up to, even a decade after his most direct contact.

Coaching has not been Voelker's only lacrosse experience over the past decade -- the Quakers new head man also starred in Major League Lacrosse this past summer for the the Boston Cannons. There he was selected to the 2002 MLL all-star team.

In 1998, Voelker also helped to lead the Philadelphia Wings to the National Lacrosse League championship.

While his playing future remains up in the air, Voelker is leaving that door open, and will make a decision at a later point in the year.

"I'm leaning towards [playing], but I just don't know yet," Voelker said.

Just one year removed from finishing with its best season in over a decade, expectations abound for the Penn lacrosse program, as a first year coach once again takes over the program's reigns.

"The alumni really came together last year," Hogan said. "And I think that they would be the first to tell you that there really is a change in approach and attitude after the year, because of what was accomplished."

In an eerily similar situation to last year -- respected defensive coordinator enters his first year as head coach -- should Voelker guide the Quakers to improve again this year, they would be legitimately vying with the upper strata of the most competitive lacrosse conference in the country.

And that may be the expectation.

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