Korrie Brings Title Experience to Saints

Sat. January 28, 2012 at 1:00 a.m. | By Polk Preps Staff

By BILL KEMP

Ledger Media Group

all saints boys lacrosse

WINTER HAVEN | Though Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown was a two-time All-American lacrosse player at Syracuse University, he never a tasted a national championship during his collegiate career.

But two-time All-American lacrosse attackman Tom Korrie did.

He was a member of Syracuse's first NCAA lacrosse national championship team in 1983. The Orange has won 10 NCAA lacrosse titles in the modern era, the most of any school.

Now almost 30 years later, Korrie looks to guide All Saints' Academy into the championship annals after being named the new boys lacrosse head coach and assistant athletic director this month.

"We will certainly be more offensive minded," Korrie said, who played in four NCAA Division I Final Fours. "We'll look at the team and see what we have to work with, and (then) see if we can play that run-and-gun style that we did at Syracuse.

"That is something that has to be developed and it may take time. I certainly like the fast-paced game."

Korrie brings 24 years of coaching experience to ASA, including six years at the collegiate level. His coaching career commenced right out of college as an assistant at Cornell when the Big Red lost the 1988 national title game to a handful of his ex-teammates at Syracuse.

After his Cornell grooming, he spent the next 13 years coaching high school lacrosse in Upstate New York and Virginia, including nine years at Cicero-North Syracuse High School, where his teams won two National Division championships. He also was named the 1996 National Division Coach of the Year.

Korrie returned to the college game in 2001, coaching one year at Marymount University in Arlington, Va., and three years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Eventually, Korrie chose coaching high school lacrosse, but this time in Florida, winning district and metro titles while posting 40 wins at Timber Creek High School over a three-year period. He also produced four prep All-Americans and was named the 2007 U.S. Lacrosse Central Florida Coach of the Year and the 2009 U.S. Lacrosse Central Florida Man of the Year.

"After five years of being a college coach I felt it was a better fit for me to be at the high school level," Korrie said. "I like to teach, instruct and work with the younger kids. With college you're on the road recruiting and dealing with a lot of different issues."

After Orange County Public School budget cuts forced Korrie out of a teaching position, he began a startup program at Windermere Prep for 2 ½ years before leaving last month to take the ASA position.

"Here at All Saints' the quality is here, with some good athletes, but the quantity is not there," Korrie said. "I will not have 85 kids come out for the team like at Timber Creek. We'll have 25 and not have to make any cuts.

"We'll have to be more strategic on how we approach things, and we won't run any teams off the field. We will have to be technically sound."