Coaches

Coach Gray is originally from Harford County Maryland where lacrosse is a way of life.  Coach Gray attended John Carroll High School in Bel Air Maryland and played for Coach Boo Smith who was a Schmeisser Award winner at Virginia.  At John Carroll, he was a 3-year starter at midfield and won a MIAA “B” conference championship.  Coach Gray attended Gettysburg College and played short stick defensive midfield for the legendary coach, Hank Janczyk.  A car accident, and several surgeries, hindered Coach Gray’s college playing career but not his knowledge of the game.  He continues to spread his love of the game by also coaching club lacrosse for Team Ten and teaching the box lacrosse game to young players in Central PA.  Coach Gray lives in Hershey with his wife Sarah, daughter Evy and 3 sons that play for Lower Dauphin, Will (HS), Tucker (U14) and Farren (U12).

Coach Meredith works at Milton Hershey School as a Behavioral Support Specialist. She has  been around the sport of lacrosse since she was 8 years old. Her father, Larry Thomas, started the lacrosse program at Lower Dauphin and coached high school boys for 10 years. Coach Meredith started off playing men's lacrosse until a women's program was started at Lower Dauphin.  She also played collegiate lacrosse at Kutztown University and then returned to LD as an assistant and then a head coach for the women's program. She was selected as Central Penn women's coach of the year during her time as head coach at LD.  She has a step-son on 14u and another step-son on 12u, as well as a 5 year old daughter (who is often seen being her "assistant").  Coach Meredith shares that she is really excited for this season!

Coach McConnell, originally from Altoona, PA is also a veteran of the Army National Guard. He has coached almost every sport/activity that his kids have been involved in - including t-ball, soccer, baseball, softball, basketball, flag football, mountain biking, and lacrosse! Unfortunately, lacrosse was not available where Coach grew up, but he played many other sports. Coach McConnell and his wife Jen, have five children - Hannah, Emma, Ben, Jake, and Sarah. He coaches to share his love of sports with all players and to be able to spend additional time with his kids. He wants the boys to learn to work together as a team - no one player is ever able to win a game by themselves. Additionally, all kids can and should learn that they control their attitude, effort and the way they treat others. Coach McConnell loves getting to coach each of his kids and being able to see them and their teammates improve from the beginning of the season to the end! 

14U Ian Baker

Coach Nate Buchanan: We start every game and every quarter with a score of 0-0! If we get knocked down, we get back up. If we are winning, we play like we’re not. This is the mindset I want all of our players to adopt and maintain. Always play like the score is 0-0!

I love the sport of lacrosse. It has a rich history and is the oldest sport in North America. Native American Tribes would play the game for days and a single game could span many miles of terrain.

Lacrosse was introduced to me by a family friend when I was a freshman in high school. Starting out behind the proverbial 8-ball and behind my teammates skill level, I would spend hours practicing on my own after my school work was done. This practice involved me, my stick, a lacrosse ball and a brick church wall. The bricks made a perfect bounceback because when the ball hit against the various angles of the mortar, it would come off at different angles and speeds.

I soon caught up and surpassed my high school teammates and was named captain of the varsity team. From there, I attended many D1 summer camps including Georgetown, Navy and Maryland. After going through a recruiting process with my parents as my biggest advocates, I decided to stay close to home and play at Marymount University.

Marymount offered me the opportunity to play right away and receive a great education within a metropolitan area that offered many opportunities. Little did I know that I would meet my wife there (a PA girl), have four beautiful children and years later, plant our roots in Central PA.

As much as I love lacrosse, I try every day and every quarter of life to base my choices on the following priorities, in order; Faith, Family, Work/School, Friends, Lacrosse/Sports and everything else. At times, these priorities become unbalanced but this is the beautiful challenge of life shared by all of us.

Coach Buehner, originally from Minersville, PA, has coached several years of youth baseball and basketball before coming to lacrosse. Coach Buehner began coaching lacrosse last year and under the supervision and leadership of Nate Buchanan, he was introduced to and taught the basics of lacrosse. He has enjoyed every moment on the lacrosse field.

Coach Buehner, who has played many different sports (youth soccer, baseball, basketball, wrestling, baseball) lives in Hummelstown with his wife, Jen, and their sons, Clayton and Gavin.

Coach Buehner loves being able to help and teach players of all ages. He enjoys seeing them develop and grow as not only individuals, but also as a TEAM.  He shared his favorite memory with us: “My favorite Lacrosse coaching moment was the final game of the season last year - LD vs CD East. We had lost to CD East 2 times earlier in the year. This time, our team was ready, they learned from their previous games and played extremely well. The game was tied forcing overtime, we then won on an amazing turnover fast break goal!!! The team stormed the field running and jumping. The boys were determined, and emotions of that game were amazing.”