Summarizing Virginia Athletics Coaching Staff Changes in 2023

The NCAA Division I Council voted in January to eliminate the voluntary coach designation and increased the limit for countable coaches in several sports. Those rule changes, combined with some other significant coaching staff developments, have made this one of the more eventful years for the Virginia athletics department, with several UVA sports teams experiencing notable coaching changes.

Here's a summary of the coaching staff changes that have taken place across the various Virginia Athletics teams this year.

By far the most meaningful coaching change occurred within the Virginia women's lacrosse program, as Julie Myers stepped down from her position as head coach after 28 years. Under her direction, the Cavaliers qualified for the NCAA Tournament every season except for the 2020 postseason that was canceled due to the pandemic. Myers became the first individual in women's lacrosse history to win a NCAA Division I national championship as both a player and a coach, winning the 1991 National Championship with Virginia as a player, winning the 1993 National Championship as an assistant coach, and winning the 2004 National Championship as the head coach of the Cavaliers.

With big shoes to fill, UVA athletics director Carla Williams hired Sonia LaMonica as the next head coach of the Virginia women's lacrosse program. LaMonica spent the last 14 seasons as the head coach at Towson, where she led the Tigers to seven NCAA Tournament appearances, won four CAA Tournament Championships, finished .500 or better in 12 of those 14 seasons, and was named the CAA Coach of the Year five times. LaMonica's husband, Michael LaMonica, who was also a member of the Towson coaching staff, will join Sonia's staff as an assistant at Virginia. Additionally, LaMonica added Kerrigan Miller and Caylee Waters as assistant coaches. Miller, who played lacrosse at USC and UNC before helping the Tar Heels win the national championship in 2022 as a graduate assistant, spent the 2023 season with LaMonica at Towson. Waters, who was also on the staff at her alma mater UNC when the Tar Heels won the 2022 National Championship, spent the 2023 season as a volunteer assistant at Army West Point.

The only other head coaching news for the Virginia Athletics department in 2023 was related to the UVA softball team, as head coach Joanna Hardin signed a three-year contract extension which will keep her under contract through the 2026 season. Hardin has been the head coach of the Virginia softball program for the last seven seasons and the Cavaliers went 30-22 this past season, the first time they have reached the 30-win threshold since 2010. Although Hardin was extended for three more years, her coaching staff experienced some changes. Associate head coach Mike Roberts was hired as the associate head coach at Wisconsin and assistant coach Jake Sidwell was hired as the assistant coach at Jacksonville. To replace those departures, Hardin hired Jeff Tylka and Jamie Allred. Tylka becomes UVA's associate head coach and will be in charge of the hitters after spending the last three seasons at Penn State, while Allred will coach Virginia's pitching staff after spending the last five seasons at North Texas.

At the end of the 2023 Virginia football season, offensive line coach Garett Tujague left to take the same job at NC State and while associate head coach and wide receivers coach Marques Hagans was hired as the wide receivers coach at Penn State. Tony Elliott hired former Stanford offensive line coach Terry Heffernan to replace Tujague and promoted senior offensive analyst Adam Mims to the position of wide receivers coach to replace Hagans.

The Virginia men's basketball coaching staff experienced some significant shifting as well. Assistant coach Kyle Getter, who spent the last five seasons on Tony Bennett's staff at UVA, was hired as the associate head coach at Notre Dame, joining new head coach Micah Shrewsberry's staff in South Bend. To replace Getter, Virginia brought back a familiar face in Ron Sanchez, who spent the last five seasons as the head coach at Charlotte. Sanchez spent 12 seasons on Bennett's staff prior to taking the head coaching job at Charlotte, including three seasons at Washington State and then the first nine seasons of Bennett's tenure at UVA. Now, Sanchez joins Jason Williford as the team's two associate head coach. With the NCAA permitting two additional assistant coaches, Bennett made the move to promote Johnny Carpenter and Isaiah Wilkins. Carpenter has been on the staff at UVA for eight seasons, including the last five as the team's director of player personnel, while Wilkins, who helped Virginia win 113 games, two ACC regular season titles, and an ACC Tournament Championship during his player career from 2015-2018, has been a graduate assistant at UVA for the last two seasons. Bennett also added Chase Coleman to his staff as a graduate assistant just a few months after the former walk-on and Virginia native concluded his four-year playing career at UVA.

While preparing for her second season leading the Virginia women's basketball program, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton made changes to her staff. Coach Mox named Justin Westbrook as the team's strength and conditioning coach. Westbrook had been working as an assistant for UVA men's basketball strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtis since 2018. Janko Popovic was also promoted to assistant coach/video coordinator. He was added to the staff in 2022 as the team's video coordinator and was an assistant coach for the Serbian national team at the Women's EuroBasket Champions this summer.

Lars Tiffany had a key vacancy to fill on his UVA men's lacrosse coaching staff this summer as Sean Kirwan, considered one of the best offensive minds in the sport, was hired as the head coach of the Dartmouth men's lacrosse program after spending the last seven years as Virginia's offensive coordinator. In order to replace Kirwan, Tiffany managed to lure an active Division I head coach away from his post as Kevin Cassese was hired as UVA's associate head coach and offensive coordinator after spending the last 16 seasons as the head coach at Lehigh. Cassese departed Lehigh as the program's all-time winningest head coach with 136 victories and led the Mountain Hawks to three Patriot League Tournament Championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances.

After winning back-to-back national championships, the UVA men's tennis team lost associate head coach Scott Brown, who was hired as the head coach at his alma mater Vanderbilt. To replace Brown, who was the ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2022, head coach Andres Pedroso named Brian Rasmussen assistant coach. Rasmussen was a volunteer assistant at Virginia for three seasons before being hired as the senior high-performance coach at Boars Head Sports Club. Never far from the UVA men's tennis program, Rasmussen now officially rejoins the Cavalier coaching staff as assistant coach. Pedroso also promoted Trent Huey, who was a two-time All-American and four-time All-ACC selection as a player at Virginia, from volunteer assistant to full-time assistant coach.

UVA women's tennis hired Carolos Benatzky as a full-time assistant this summer. Benatzky, who served as volunteer assistant for the Virginia men's tennis team in 2017 and also spent two years as the USTA Men's National Coach for USTA Player Development, joins head coach Sara O'Leary and associate head coach Gina Suarez-Malaguti.

Fresh off of capturing a third-straight NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving national title, Todd DeSorbo made some changes to his UVA swim & dive coaching staff, adding Joe Bonk and John Carroll as assistant coaches. Bonk spent the last four seasons coaching the Wilton Wahoo National Team, while Carroll spent the last three seasons at UNC-Wilmington, leading the Seahawks to their first CAA Championships combined title since 2006.

In the UVA men's soccer program, George Gelnovatch promoted Adam Perron to associate head coach and Jermaine Birriel to assistant coach. Perron previously served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Cavaliers, while Birriel has been the program's director of operations for the last two seasons. Perron joins Matt Chulis as the team's second associate head coach.

The UVA women's golf program lost associate head coach Marissa Majors, who is stepping away from coaching to focus on her family. Head coach Ria Scott hired Annie Collom as an assistant coach to replace Majors. Collom spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Denver and was a standout golf player at Richmond from 2015-2019.

The Virginia rowing program, which won its 13th straight ACC title in 2023, lost assistant coach Marten Martensson, who departed after just one season with the Cavaliers to take an assistant coaching job at UCF. Head coach Kevin Sauer has not made any new additions to his staff, which still includes associate head coach Kelsie Chaudoin and assistant coach Annie Thompson.

Finally, Shannon Wells made a couple of coaching changes entering her third season leading the Virginia volleyball program. Wells promoted Trevor Kennan to assistant coach and added Shai Bloom as volunteer technical coordinator. Kennan served as a volunteer assistant coach at UVA last season and will be in charge of Virginia's defensive specialists and liberos and serve-receive formations. Bloom comes to Virginia after spending the 2022 season as an assistant coach at Dominican University in Illinois and will maintain UVA's data analytics and compile scouting reports.

See more Virginia sports news and content: Virginia Cavaliers on Sports Illustrated

To stay up to date on all Virginia Cavaliers sports news, follow CavaliersNow on social media:

Facebook: @CavaliersNow
Twitter: @CavaliersNowFN