The Colorado Mesa University Men’s Lacrosse team recently gained two new coaches for the season. Jake Padilla and Austin Divitcos are both from Rutgers University and are bringing flair and experience to the already successful CMU program.
Padilla, the new offensive coordinator, was the volunteer assistant coach for the past two years at Rutgers, primarily working with face-offs and goalies.
“[Padilla] did have some Division III experience coaching offensive, as well as coaching defense, and high school experience before going to Rutgers.” Head Coach Vince Smith said. “So bringing him in was an easy transition to handover the offensive ring, to somebody who wanted to add to their resume but then also somebody who really wanted to get back into coaching offensive after working with special teams for the past couple of years.”
Padilla, during his two years at Rutgers, helped the Scarlet Knight to a 19-10 record with two Big Ten Tournament appearances. Rutgers’ goalie Max Edelmann, whom Padilla primarily coached, received All-Big Ten Second Team honors in 2017.
Divitcos is from Rutgers as well and he just finished his playing career there and is now is a graduate assistant for CMU. Divitcos’ role will be working with face-offs and goalies and will also be taking an interest with the defense as he played defensive midfield in college.
“Having both guys here really did allow me to focus on other parts of the field, that I haven’t really been focusing on in the past,” Smith said. “Places like defense, face-off, goalie. I have been mostly on offense, the past couple of years. These two guys enabled me to kind of step back and really oversight and manage the team, more so than coach it.”
The two new coaches have done a lot of coaching this first week, for the team’s fall ball season. Primarily it has been Smith who does the majority of the coaching for the Mavericks. Therefore, with the new additions to the coaching staff, Smith will have a chance to take a step back and focus more on what needs immediate coaching.
“That’s part of the game plan, is to allow them to take some more of the roles,” Smith said. “Big change for me, having been so hands-on in the past.”
The team’s first fall ball game will be Oct. 12, against Brigham Young University.
