Good Counsel Hires New Boys Lacrosse Coach
Dane Smith, head boys lacrosse coach at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, has been hired to the same position at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School.
“I am beyond excited to welcome Dane to our Falcon family,” Good Counsel Athletic Director Steve Howes said. “He exemplifies what we want in our coaches. He is dedicated to building a program culture that produces enduring relationships, which is a hallmark of Good Counsel and the Xaverian tradition.”
Smith will remain St. Andrew’s coach in 2022 while an interim coaching staff directs Good Counsel. His first season leading the Falcons in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference will be 2023.
“I’m eager for the opportunity to build an elite culture focused on relationships, character and player development,” Smith said. He also tweeted the news.
Smith has built one of the area’s top lacrosse programs at St. Andrew’s in Potomac, Md. In 2019, he led the 16-3 Lions to the finest campaign in school history. Highlights included a school-record 12-game winning streak and the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships. St. Andrew’s was unbeaten in league play.
Chase Noah that year produced 56 goals and 54 assists and became the school’s first boys lacrosse player to be named first-team All-Met. Tony Diallo was named honorable mention and won the District of Columbia Bob Scott Award from USA Lacrosse for going “above and beyond in service to his team, school and community.”
Of the team’s six seniors in 2019, four earned NCAA Division I lacrosse scholarships.
“Dane is a proven winner who understands creating excellence on the field and in each facet of the student-athlete’s life,” Howes said. “He shares our desire to work toward establishing a program of national prominence while embracing the school’s mission of academic, spiritual and character development.”
In 2017, Smith guided the Lions to a record of 12-6. Alex Smith, now a starting defensive midfielder at Maryland, earned second-team All-Met honors. The next season, St. Andrew’s finished 12-5 and won its first of three straight MAC regular-season championships.
Smith became the Lions head coach in 2015, taking over a program that had just finished 4-10. In his second year, he led the program to its first winning season in 14 years. His six-year record is 65-34. (No season in 2020.)
“I’m grateful for my time at St. Andrew’s and all the community has done for me,” he said. “I feel it has prepared me well for the challenge of coaching at Good Counsel and competing in the WCAC.”
Prior to leading the Lions, Smith was an assistant coach for two years (2013-14) at his alma mater, Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pa. He helped the 2013 Colonials rank eighth nationally in man-down defense and lead Division I in caused turnovers. A few of the players he coached went on to play professionally. He joined Robert Morris after a brief stint coaching at Division III Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
Smith began his coaching career in 2012 as an assistant at Mt. Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh. The Blue Devils won 16 games and advanced to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state semifinals. He worked primarily with the defense and coached three players who earned All-American honors.
Smith was a three-year starting attackman at Hilliard Davidson High School in Columbus, Ohio, before graduating in 2007. He went to Robert Morris as a preferred walk-on, earned a scholarship as a sophomore and became a two-time captain. In 2010, he helped the Colonials to a then-school-record 10 wins. The next year, the squad made its first-ever postseason appearance.
As a defensive midfielder, Smith recorded 16 career caused turnovers and 44 ground balls. He closed his time at RMU by playing in 46 consecutive games. He was twice named to the Northeast Conference Academic Honor Roll.
Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Robert Morris in 2011. Three years later, he added a master’s in instructional leadership.
In the summer and fall, Smith coaches for Next Level Lacrosse. He is head of the U.S. Lacrosse Potomac Chapter and owns Players First Lacrosse Camps & Clinics. He works as St. Andrew’s associate director of upper school admissions. He will begin working full time at Good Counsel in the 2022-23 school year.
Smith was born in Columbus and raised there by his parents, Dane and Judy. His wife, Andrea, is a former Colonial volleyball player. They live in Rockville, Md., with their daughter Emma and son C.J.
