Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: This CT coach driving for NCAA lacrosse championship three-peat, and more

Casey, too, has a multisport background, playing football, basketball and lacrosse during his high school and collegiate career. At Taft School in Watertown, he coached football and girls basketball as well as lacrosse. So like his father, Casey coaches people, as much as he coaches a sport’s X’s and O’s.

“So I’ve coached a lot of sports, and the idea of coaching people is something I put a lot of value in,” he said. “I’ve been in different locker rooms, and I try to incorporate different drills and philosophies and strategies into what we do in lacrosse.”

D’Annolfo took over the successful program from Mike Daly at his alma mater in 2017 and has led the Jumbos to every NCAA Tournament played since. In 2023, Tufts was unbeaten until losing the NCAA final to Salisbury. In ’24, after losing in the NESCAC tournament, Tufts went on to win the national championship, beating RIT in Philadelphia. Last season, the Jumbos ran the table, completing their perfect season with a 25-7 victory over Dickinson at nearby Gillette Stadium.

“The first time, there was a lot of relief, honestly,” D’Annolfo said. “You know that what you’re doing is right. For me, the one thing is understand that because we are a spring sport, as soon as the championship happens, the guys go home. When we’re on the journey, we really try to relish the time together because when it’s over, it’s over.”

D’Annolfo identifies skilled players with maybe one trait separating them from the top Division I programs, “maybe a step too slow, or two inches too short or they are a late bloomer,” he said. “But they have an academic interest maybe some of those schools can’t fulfill.”

With its academic reputation, Tufts appeals to students from far and wide to it’s Medford, Mass., campus. The current roster has players from 20 different states, with a few from Connecticut. D’Annolfo got one, freshman Jules Capone, from his alma mater, Conard. The Jumbo’s starting goalie, Jack Old, prepped at Taft. The Jumbos have outscored their opponents, 266-142, as Jack Regnery (43 goals, 31 assists) and Brooks Hauser (46 and 14) lead the offense.

Tufts plays a free-wheeling style of lacrosse, behind-the-back slinging, for example, when that’s the most effective way to shoot or pass the ball, and high-energy on the sidelines.

“Our identity, we want to play fast, play hard and make people see that we’re having a lot of fun when we play,” D’Annolfo said. “Whether it’s the sideline celebrations that have gone viral or the flair that we play with, it’s a unique style and a pretty unique brand. The way we train is a little bit different, the guys have a lot of freedom to use moves that might be considered flashy, but we practice them so much, they’re not. It’s a flair for the dramatic, we play at a pretty intense tempo.”

With the World Cup approaching, this year’s final had to be moved from Foxborough to Charlottesville, Va.

D’Annolfo, his wife Sarah and their three children are settled near Tufts’ campus, and coaching D-III clearly agrees with him.

“It’s the most pure form of college athletics,” he said. “It’s not semi-pro. Kids come here, we put up a Venn diagram, with academics, location and competitiveness and we feel like we’re the only school across all divisions that can be in the center of that Venn diagram. We really do preach that balance of academics, athletics and social life.”

More for your Sunday Read:

Euro awards for former Huskies

Former UConn women’s basketball standout Dorka Juhasz, who sat out the last WNBA season, was the EuroLeague MVP, after averaging 12 points, shooting 52 percent from the floor, with eight rebounds, 1.3 assists and one steal per game for Galatasaray Cagdas Faktoring, which is based in Istanbul, and reached the Euro finals. At 26, she is the youngest player to win the award.

She is expected to rejoin the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx this year. Another former Husky, Gabby Williams, was EuroLeague’s Defensive Player of the Year for the third time. She played for Fenerbahce Opet, also based in Turkey, and will be playing for Golden State in The W this season.

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Sunday short takes

*Last December, former UHart baseball player Jackson Olson, now a viral sensation with the Savannah Bananas, posted a “boyfriend application” on TikTok. This week, Olson, a New Milford native, and Maggie Sajak of Wheel of Fortune fame, shared a photo of themselves at Disney World with the caption “applications closed.” … So are they “_N A R_LAT_ONSH_P?” … Buy a couple of vowels and solve the puzzle.

*Hartford Athletic keeper Antony Siaha is leading the USL in saves with 26 in seven matches.

*The UConn softball team won 11 in a row, and 14 of the last 16 games since March 27 to get back to .500 at 24-24. The Huskies are in the thick of the Big East race at 13-4 after beating Creighton on Friday for coach Laura Valentino’s 200th career win. No sophomore jinx for shortstop Cat Petteys, the Big East Freshman of the Year in 2025. After getting three doubles and four RBI vs. Creighton, she’s hitting .386 with 17 homers and 51 RBI in 48 games.

*Not surprising, CCSU men’s basketball is losing its top players in the transfer portal. Darin Smith Jr., 6 feet 7, the NEC Player of the Year, left New Britain for Rutgers, a few months after scoring 21 points in the Blue Devils shocking upset of the Scarlet Knights. “He fits the competitive mindset we’re building here,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. Point guard Jay Rogers left Central for Penn State.

*How did ballcaps with upside-down lettering become a thing? See ’em everywhere. Maybe the Mets should wear them in games as a distress signal. … At least the losing streak ended at 12 and their fans in Connecticut can avoid the interminable Whitestone Bridge backup and get to selected games at Citi Field by boat from Stamford starting this weekend, via Seastreak Ferries. A Mets game and a three-hour tour … what could go wrong?

*Jeff Hamilton, Yale’s all-time scoring leader, is coming back to Ingalls Rink. Hamilton, who graduated in 2001 and played 10 years in the NHL with Chicago, Toronto and Carolina, has been developing amateur talent as co-owner of the Connecticut Junior Rangers.

*Some huge news for UConn men’s hockey this week, as top-line stars Joey Muldowney and Jake Richard delayed their pro careers another season and committed to return next year. They will be captains, along with Mike Murtagh. In the portal, Huskies coach Mike Cavanaugh got rising sophomore Jeremy Loranger, an NHL draft pick (Columbus) who had seven goals, 12 assists at Omaha as a freshman.

*At UConn last year, Caleb Shpur, a grad student from Litchfield County, led all Division I centerfielders in defensive runs saved (19.66). In over 241 collegiate games at D-III Endicott and UConn, he posted a .432 on-base percentage, stealing 136 bases with an 86.7 success rate. Though Shpur, 24, was undrafted and out of pro baseball, the Tigers, eyeballed those metrics, and signed him to a minor-league deal this week.

*The Doc Boisoneau Northern Connecticut Chapter of the National Football Foundation is honoring 21 football scholar-athletes, and officials TJ Calabrese and Bruce Brenia, at its banquet on May 17 at AquaTurf in Southington at noon. They will also honor the life of longtime coach Jude Kelly, who died in February, namesake of the NFF’s Coach of the Year award. For tickets and information, contact chapter president Tim Feshler at tfeshler@avon.k12.ct.us

*The UHart vs. Western Connecticut baseball game at Dunkin’ Park Friday morning was played to a crowd of more than 5,000, which has to be the biggest crowd for a Division III baseball game this year, with help from the weather and kids attending the Yard Goats’ Baseball in Education program. “What better way to have college baseball players get a big ballpark experience?” Goats president Tim Restall said. The Hawks actually practiced with crowd noise to prepare, but WesCon won, 7-6.

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Last word

There was once a fan at Wrigley Field who rode Cubs All-Star Ron Santo unmercifully day after day and it was having an effect. Manager Leo Durocher, as he related the story in his memoirs, arranged to speak with the fan privately and asked what he had against Santo. Nothing, the fan said. He loved Santo and the Cubs, wanted everyone to do well. “Then leave Santo alone,” Durocher urged. … I’m reminded of this story frequently in covering college athletics in the social media age. Sure, folks want players to come to their school, thrive at their school, stay at their school, then show their so-called “passion” by posting hateful things every time a shot is missed. The families usually keep the receipts, so maybe one should think before hitting that post button.