Stony Brook head coach Joe Spallina and the Stony Brook Women’s Lacrosse team have announced the hirings of Kim Hillier and Trish Bonagura for the upcoming 2017 season to the positions of associate head coach and assistant coach, respectively.
The reboot of Spallina’s coaching staff comes after former associate head coach Caitlin Defliese — the architect of the vaunted Seawolves defense — was hired as assistant coach at Syracuse University in early September and former assistant coach Frankie Caridi was hired as the associate head coach of Adelphi University last month.
Hillier previously worked on Spallina’s staff at Stony Brook in 2012, before she worked as an assistant coach at Boston University for the last four seasons. As a player at Hofstra, Hillier was a two-time All-American attacker, ranking third in program history with 215 career points.
“She is a great coach that brings unparalleled energy and fire every day,” Spallina said of Hillier in a news release. “She was instrumental in recruiting our current senior class and is a relentless worker that is a proven winner on and off the field.”
Bonagura comes to the Stony Brook coaching staff having been the head coach at Whittier College, a Division-III school in southern California, for the last three seasons.
In her playing career, Bonagura was twice the national points-per-game leader at the Division-II level, playing for LIU Post.
“She had a storied playing career and has had great experience as a head coach,” Spallina said. “To be able to add someone like Trish to our staff is so important to where our team is positioned.”
The pair will be assistants to Spallina following the departure of Defliese, who was on the Stony Brook staff for four seasons, during which the Seawolves had a combined 69-13 record and won four consecutive America East championships. During that span, Stony Brook had the top defense in the nation in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and the second best defense in the nation in 2016.
During her one season coaching at Stony Brook, Caridi worked closely on the development of now-sophomore goalkeeper Anna Tesoriero. Caridi, who was the Inside Lacrosse and Lacrosse Magazine Goalkeeper of the Year for Stony Brook in 2014, aided Tesoriero en route to a .500 save percentage and 6.07 goals against average in her freshman campaign.
