MKA Turns To A 'Lax Lifer'
To Be 'Interim' Head Coach

MONTCLAIR- There is no doubt that Montclair Kimberley Academy has found an experienced coach to fill a void when it turned to a former 16-year Cougars assistant coach who is certainly very familiar with the school’s lacrosse program to serve as the team’s ‘interim’ head coach for the 2026 season.

Sabino Rodano, who has a terrific lacrosse pedigree having played for the late, great coach Doug Alsofrom, and later coached from 2007-2021 for the legendary Paul Edwards and then in 2022 on Dave Giarrusso’s staff after Edwards retired, will guide the Cougar laxmen this spring as the promising team returns some solid talent from a 12-8 squad which also finished 6-3 in the Bianchi Division last spring.

The coaching vacancy occurred when Giarrusso, who had guided MKA for the past five seasons, decided in February to accept the opportunity to coach at Verona High School in the town where he resides with wife Suzanne, who is a former Hillbillies head girls lacrosse coach and an MKA assistant coach, and their three lacrosse-playing sons, including Trevor who is a junior on this season's Verona lax squad.

“I am thrilled to be back coaching at MKA where it all began for me and to work with a great group of young men that we have on this year’s team,” said Rodano, a 1987 MKA graduate who was on the Cougars’ 1986 Garden State League Tournament championship squad. “We’re excited about what’s ahead, and we feel that we have all the essentials here to have a solid season!”

The 57-year-old Rodano, who was MKA’s offensive coordinator during his time working with Edwards, was named as the non-public schools’ Assistant Coach of the Year in 2018. He was part of the staff for the Cougars’ 2012 NJSIAA Non-Public B state championship squad which defeated Pingry in the final at Somerville.

He has had extensive club coaching experience with both Riot Lacrosse and Tri-State, and also previously coached the DePaul High School lacrosse squad in 2005 and 2006 as that program was still getting off the ground in just its third and fourth varsity seasons.

Coming back to MKA now after a 4-year hiatus from high school coaching is like a dream come true for the former Cougar laxmen and longtime North Jersey lax coach.   

“MKA lacrosse has a great history with terrific coaches and some great players through the years, many of whom went on to success in college lacrosse,” said Rodano. “It’s a great school to have been a part of for so many years and to now return to help guide the 2026 team.”

Helping to lead the way for the 2026 Cougar laxmen are the senior tri-captains in 4-year starting goalie Simon Hardiman (headed to play club lacrosse at Boston College), attackman Charlie Wolff (Oberlin College), midfielder Thomas Meeker (Williams), who both plan to play at the next level, and defenseman Benji Safirstein, who is planning to study architecture at Cornell University.

Among the other top returnees include junior attackman Damian Polanskyj (35 goals spring) and junior long-stick middie and face-off man Kiran Hailey.

Returning to the MKA lacrosse coaching staff this spring is ex-Cougar football and lacrosse star Ethan Fusco, who will serve as defensive coordinator, while Rodano will once again take up his familiar role as offensive coordinator. Also joining the staff are two more former area standout laxmen in Chris Kenrick (Montclair High and Ithaca College) and Zach Kirsch (MKA and Salve Regina).

Kenrick, who works in MKA's development office, also coached youth lacrosse in Montclair for more than two decades.

MKA is scheduled to open the new season on Tuesday, March 31 at Livingston to begin Bianchi Division action, a highly-competitive loop that also includes a strong Glen Ridge team, West Essex, Columbia, Madison, New Providence and St. Peter’s Prep.  

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Giarrusso, who also previously coached the highly-successful Seton Hall Prep lacrosse team, inherits a Verona squad which was 11-7 last spring and 5-1 in the Kimber Division.

The Hillbillies will be led by their senior co-captains in goalie Joe Houck and middie-attackman Charlie Wacha (24 goals, 13 assists, 44 ground balls).

Also set to return are seniors Sean Donohue (29 goals, 27 assists) and Ryan Cavallo (25 and 9) and junior Drew Kruszinis (35 and 19).

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The former Hillbillies coach Sam Coe is in his new role as the head lacrosse coach at Newark Academy.

He had guided the Hillbillies the past four seasons including last spring’s solid 11-7 campaign and second-place in the Kimber Division behind Cranford following a 10-9 mark (4-2 in the Klank Division) in 2024.

The 40-year-old Verona resident began his ascension in his favorite sport in the lacrosse hotbed of Baltimore, Maryland where he was a standout defenseman for the highly-regarded program at the McDonough School prior to a fine college career at Cornell University before then graduating from Brooklyn Law School.

A practicing public defender in Rockland County, N.Y., he comes from a lacrosse-oriented household since his wife, former West Essex standout Sarah Miller Coe, is the head field hockey coach at Verona.

NOTES- Rodano was a long-stick middie when he played for coach Bill Lawson at Lafayette College…Rodano once coached in Riot Lacrosse along with West Essex head man Justin Schwindel…Rodano and wife Tammy are big dog lovers (they currently have 4 in their Dumont home) and Sabino works as a dog trainer for Behavior Plus in Caldwell and River Edge…MKA has scrimmages scheduled this week at Lenape Valley on Tuesday (March 24) and at Demarest on Thursday (March 26)…MKA and Verona meet 2 p.m., Saturday, April 4, at Van Brunt Field.