TopLaxRecruits.com, Posted 5/1/19
Staff Report

John Nostrant, who built Haverford School into a national lacrosse power and is nearing 500 career wins, will take over as head coach at Baltimore power Gilman School next year, Gilman officials announced today.

Nostrant, in his 28th year as Fords coach, has 489 wins and two recent national championships (2011, 2015) in his illustrious resume. Nostrant notified his team this morning and will finish the season; currently Haverford is 14-3 and ranked among the top teams in the nation in all national polls (No. 1 by Phillylacrosse.com in the region).

Nostrant has won 14 Inter-Ac championships at Haverford. He was the Phillylacrosse.com Coach of the Year in both 2011 and 2015 and the National Interscholastic Lacrosse Coaches Association (NILCA) Co-Coach of the Year for the 2015 season. He was inducted into the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2011.

Nostrant had announced last summer that this would be his last season at Haverford. Brendan Dawson, the former coach at Haverford College, was named as his successor and is serving as a top assistant coach this year under Nostrant.

Nostrant will succeed Brooks Matthews, who announced in November that this season would be his last after 15 years as Greyhounds head coach. Matthews led Giloman to MIAA ‘A’ Conference titles in 2009 and 2011.
Nostrant also is known for co-founding the Checking for Cancer tournament and helping create the #10VE events to honor the memory of Kip Taviano.

The Letter sent out by Gilman School on his hiring:

Dear Gilman Community,

It is with great pleasure and excitement that we announce the appointment of Mr. John Nostrant as our next varsity lacrosse head coach, succeeding Mr. Brooks Matthews ’87. John will join the Gilman faculty this summer and will take the reins of the lacrosse program then. This announcement concludes a search that began this fall and kicked into high gear in the winter and spring. We would like to express our sincere thanks to all of the teachers, coaches, players, alumni, and parents involved in the process. Their input proved invaluable as we made our way through this important search.

John is currently the varsity lacrosse head coach at Haverford School, an independent boys’ school in Haverford, Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty and coaching staff at Haverford School and assumed the head coach position in 1991. In addition to his lacrosse duties, John was the director of athletics at Haverford for 22 years. Before Haverford, John served as the head lacrosse coach at St. Albans School in Washington, DC. He also served as an assistant coach for the USA U-19 world team, which won the gold medal in 2008. John began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Washington College. Additionally, John is the founder of John Nostrant Lacrosse Camps for youth boys and is the co-director of Mesa Lacrosse for girls and boys. John also organized the Checking for Cancer Lacrosse Tournament, which has raised money to support cancer research and families stricken by cancer.

John’s record of success is impressive. On the field, his teams have won more than 450 games and earned 13 Inter-Academic League (Inter-Ac) regular-season championships, four Inter-Ac tournament titles, and two state championships (2000 and 2005). Two of John’s Haverford teams (2011 and 2015) finished their seasons undefeated and ranked #1 nationally, and he was named National High School Coach of the Year in 2015. Along the way, John has coached 36 high school All-Americans. Beyond the records and accolades, John has won the hearts of his players and the respect of his peers and colleagues—a fact that stood out to us in the selection process. No stranger to boys’ education, he is committed to supporting Gilman’s mission to educate the whole boy in mind, body, and spirit, using lacrosse as a vehicle to that end.

A 1986 graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, John holds a Bachelor of Arts in History, where he was an All-American lacrosse player and team captain. In addition, John holds a Master’s in Education/Principal Certification from Cabrini University in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

Once our respective seasons are complete, John will arrange to visit Gilman so that he can start getting to know all of us better. In the meantime, please join us in congratulating John on this appointment. We look forward to welcoming him, his wife Gina, and their three children (Olivia, 22; John, 20; and Marcella, 18) to Gilman starting this summer.

Of course, there is plenty of lacrosse still to play this season, and we wish Brooks and the Greyhounds a terrific finish. Go Hounds!