Maineiax Coaching Staff
Maineiax takes great pride in giving you the best coaching possible. We have multiple college coaches, elite high school coaches and college players on staff to help you grow your game throughout the year. We are the premier club program in Maine ensuring that you or your daughter are receiving the top coaching in the state while meeting new friends and having a blast! Meet our coaches below.
PETER LASAGNA
DIRECTOR OF BOYS PROGRAMS
TRAVEL COACH & SKILLS PROGRAMS
Peter Lasagna is the head coach of men’s lacrosse at Bates College and enters his 18th year at the helm. He is a three-time NESCAC Coach of the Year award-winner and was named New England Coach of the Year in 2015. After leading his team to a 14-0 start in 2017 (including a perfect 10-0 mark in NESCAC), the Bobcats were ranked No. 1 in Division III for two weeks. Coach Lasagna has led Bates to seven appearances in the NESCAC Championships and two appearances in the NCAA Tournament. He was named the “Walter Alessi Man of the Year” by the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in 2017 and also earned NEILA’s Division III Co-Coach of the Year award. He has coached eight Bates players who were named USILA All-Americans and one player who currently plays for the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse.
Coach Lasagna graduated from Brown University where he spent 18 years of coaching before coming to Bates, including eight as head coach. At Brown, he led the Bears to three NCAA Division I championship tournaments, including an appearance in the national semifinals in 1994 and the quarterfinals in 1995. He was named Division I Coach of the Year by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in 1994 and by the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association in both 1994 and 1995.
In 2002, Coach Lasagna was inducted into the New England Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and in 2011 he was inducted into the Greater Rochester (N.Y.) Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Coach Lasagna is also a well-known voice in the collegiate lacrosse community, as he has also been the back-page columnist for the award-winning magazine Inside Lacrosse since 2001. (Archive of Peter Lasagna columns)
TJ BELL
SKILLS PROGRAMS
T.J. Bell is a 2000 graduate of Mt. Blue high school where he picked up the game of lacrosse his senior year as a defenseman. He was a four-year starter on the University of Southern Maine men’s lacrosse team as a midfielder and was named a three-year team captain.
Coach Bell began his coaching career at Gorham High School as an Assistant Coach in 2006-2027 and then as head coach from 2008-2011. While at Gorham, he was named Maine’s Assistant Coach of the year in 2007. As Head Coach, Coach Bell led the team to its highest regular season finish and first playoff victory in program history. Coach Bell’s then made the move to collegiate coaching and was a Defensive Coordinator at St. Joe’s in 2009 -2010. In only their third year competing in the NCAA in 2010, he helped them to their first 10-win season.
From 2012-2016, Coach Bell was an Assistant Coach at Bates College. 2015 was a breakout year for the Bobcats which included an upset victory over the defending National Champion, their first NCAA tournament bid and victory. Bates was nationally ranked throughout much of the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Coach Bell has also coached with numerous clubs and camps including Maine Premier Lacrosse, Maineiax, Lax Pros, Gamebreaker, Good to Great, Colby College and Reebok. Since 2018, Coach Bell has been the Assistant Coach at Greely High School. The Rangers reached their first State title game in 2018 and were back again in 2019. He lives in Cumberland with his wife Ronnie and son Theo.
ANDREW DEANE
TRAVEL COACH & SKILLS PROGRAMS
Andrew Deane enters his second year on the Bates men’s lacrosse coaching staff in 2019. Coach Deane was previously coaching at Western New England University where he served as a graduate assistant for three seasons, working with the goalkeepers, faceoff players, the man-down unit and defensive players. He helped coach WNE to a pair of Commonwealth Coast Conference titles and NCAA tourmanet appearances. Coach Deane was selected to coach in the 2018 NEILA East/West Senior All Star Game. He graduated in 2018 with a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership.
Before his time at WNE, Coach Deane was a University/Local Development Officer in Headingly, England for the English Lacrosse Association. He coached the Leeds Beckett University men’s lacrosse team and competed for the Leeds City Lacrosse Club, winning the NEMLA Prem 3 League and Tournament Championship. Coach Deane organized, introduced, and develop lacrosse curriculum in Physical Education settings at local schools for grades K-12.
Coach Deane was a four-year player and one-year volunteer assistant at Eastern Connecticut State University. He was part of two Little East Conference champion and NCAA tournament teams. He graduated with a B.S. Degree in Physical Education (K-12 Teaching Certification), as well as Minors in Health and Sport & Leisure Management.
TREVAR HAEFELE
SKILLS PROGRAMS
Trevar Haefele is currently the Bowdoin College men’s lacrosse assistant having joined the coaching staff in the summer of 2019. A native of Greene, Maine, Coach Haefele graduated from St. Dominic Regional, where he competed in soccer, hockey and lacrosse. He served as a lacrosse team captain, was named All-American by U.S. Lacrosse in 2010 and was a three-time all-conference selection.
Coach Haefele was a standout attackman at Division III powerhouse, Nazareth College and graduated in 2014. He netted 178 career goals and added 109 assists in his four years and was named to the Empire 8 all conference team twice. His 2011 and 2013 squads appeared in the NCAA tournament.
Following graduation, Coach Haefele joined the coaching staff at Bates for five seasons, where he was promoted to lead assistant and defensive coordinator in 2015. During that time, the Bobcats were ranked in the top 15 teams in Division III and appeared in the NCAA tournament. In 2018-19, Coach Haefele was an assistant coach at Division I Binghamton University.
RALPH NELSON
TRAVEL COACH & SKILLS PROGRAMS
Ralph Nelson is currently the Varsity Assistant and Head Middle School coach at the Waynflete School in Portland. He also is the Physical Education teacher at Waynflete. Coach Nelson spent the 2017-2019 seasons with the University of Southern Maine men’s lacrosse program, serving as the assistant coach focusing on the attackmen and offense. Prior to joining the USM coaching staff, he spent two seasons as the head Boys Lacrosse Coach at Saint Dominic Academy (Lewiston, Maine). From 2013-2015, Coach Nelson served as a varsity assistant and JV coach for Yarmouth High School (Yarmouth, Maine), as well as being an assistant lacrosse coach at St. Joseph’s College (Standish, Maine). He has coached high school club lacrosse with Team DIRIGO as well as True Lacrosse National and regional teams in Maryland, California, Delaware, and Utah.
A graduate of Cheverus High School (Portland, Maine), Coach Nelson graduated from the University of Maine in 2013 where he was a three-time captain of the men’s club lacrosse team and an all-conference attackman his junior and senior year. Coach Nelson is a physical education teacher at The Waynflete School in Portland and resides in Cumberland with his wife Megan.
ANDREW LEACH
TRAVEL COACH & SKILLS PROGRAMS
Andrew Leach has been coaching lacrosse in Maine for nearly two decades. He started his coaching career after at the University of New England as an Assistant Coach after playing for the Nor’easters in 2005. He has coached at all levels including high school, prep school, club, and collegiately. Through his work at Cheverus High School, Gould Academy, Bridgton Academy, and the UNE, Coach Leach has worked with student-athletes who have gone on to play in the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) and Major League Lacrosse (MLL) along with schools like Providence College, St. John’s University, University of Hartford, Monmouth University, UMass Lowell, Sacred Heart University, VMI, Manhattan College, and many more.
Coach Leach is currently an Assistant Director of Admissions at Cheverus High School in Portland. He also coaches the Girls Varsity Basketball team.
DAVE BERIAU
SKILLS COACH
Dave Beriau joins Maineiax with 10 years of college coaching and playing experience. Most recently, he was head coach at Saint Joseph’s College where he lead the program for 3 years. Prior to his time at SJC, he was an assistant coach at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth & Colby College. At the high school level, he has been an assistant coach at Falmouth Academy (MA) and Cheverus High School.
Coach Beriau is a 2009 graduate of Elmira College, where he played a variety of positions and tallied six goals and 19 assists with 83 ground balls in 52 contests. A team co-captain as a senior, he was the Soaring Eagles’ representative on the Empire 8 Conference Sportsman of the Year Team and was also the Elmira men’s lacrosse Teammate Award recipient in 2006.
In addition, Coach Beriau has coached with several club organizations, Cape Cod Lacrosse, Houlagans Lacrosse, IAS Lacrosse & Cocheco Youth Lacrosse in Dover, NH.
MIKE DIFUSCO
SKILLS & TRAVEL COACH
Mike DiFusco began his coaching career as an Assistant Coach at Portland High School in 2010. In 2013, he took over the helm as the Portland High School Head Boys’ Lacrosse Coach having led the Bulldogs for the last 9th seasons. In 2018, he was selected as The Portland Forecaster’s “Spring Coach of the Year”. Over the past two seasons, Coach Mike has led his team to 11-1 conference records and advanced to the Class A Regional Finals in each season.
Mike is 2002 graduate from Cape Elizabeth High School where he led the team to a state championship his senior year. Mike was a two-time High School All-American. In his senior year, he led the state in total points with 79 goals and 18 assists and was selected as the Maine Sunday Telegram’s Lacrosse Player of the Year.
Upon graduating from high school, Coach DiFusco attended Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, NY. He was a player on their first NJCAA National Championship team in 2006 that finished with an undefeated (18-0) record. Mike was selected to the NY Region III All-Conference Team that season. For the past 10 years, Coach Mike has worked on the Portland waterfront as the shipping manager for Lucky Catch Lobster.
ZACH WARNER
TRAVEL COACH & SKILLS PROGRAMS
Zach Warner is a New England native who grew up in Western Connecticut and attended Brookfield High School where he played all 4 years as a defensemen. He also played offseason lacrosse for the Connecticut Cardinals during the summer, fall and winter. The Cardinals, who played out of Wesleyan College, saw great success over 3 years and his team received an invite to the Club Lacrosse National Championships in Tampa, Florida two years in a row.
Coming out of high school, Zach was recruited by D2 and D3 schools but passed on those opportunities to attend the University of Vermont for an academic scholarship. At UVM, he joined the club team and over the next few years was able to help bring the club team into the NCLL as a serious contender in the America East, ultimately winning the division over UMass in 2014. Zach spent 3 years as a player, 1 year as a player/coach and 1 year as a coach during his time at Vermont.
MATTHEW BROOKS
TRAVEL COACH & SKILLS PROGRAMS
Matthew Brooks is a current Division 1 athlete on the Merrimack College Men’s Lacrosse team. He is a 2020 graduate of Bentley University where he studied finance, captained the men’s lacrosse team, and was voted to the All-New England, All-NE10 Conference, and NE10 All-Rookie teams. Matthew is a 2016 graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy where he played hockey and lacrosse, while earning the Phelps Scholar-Athlete award. He also attended Brunswick High School while being a four year varsity lacrosse player, and three year starter.
Matthew began his coaching career as a short-term assistant hockey coach at Brunswick High School, as well as a volunteer assistant lacrosse coach for the Roma Leones, in Rome, Italy. He will graduate from Merrimack College in May of 2021, and plans to begin a career in Commercial Real Estate, located in the Boston area.
JACKSON WILLIAMS
TRAVEL COACH & SKILLS PROGRAMS
Jackson Williams is a rising sophomore and a faceoff/midfielder on the Bates College Men’s Lacrosse team, where he studies economics and anthropology. He graduated from Greely High School in 2019 where he was a four-year letterman in football, hockey, and lacrosse, as well as a member of the Athletic Advisory Board. At Greely, Jackson captained the hockey and lacrosse teams his junior and senior year, as well as the football team his senior year. He led the hockey team to a state championship in 2019, and the lacrosse teams to the state championship game in 2018 and 2019.
In high school, Jackson was a decorate student-athlete and during his senior season was chosen as the Portland Forcaster’s Greely male winter and spring athlete of the year, a member of the Portland Press Herald’s All-State team and a Top 15 player to watch. On the field, Jackson was named an All-American (2019), 1st team all-conference (2018,2019), an underclassmen all-star (2018), and a senior all-star (2019). Jackson played club lacrosse for Team DIRIGO and the Maine Mussels.
Jackson spends his summers on Long Lake in Harrison, Maine scooping ice cream at the Long Lake Creamery.