2012 Coaching Staff

John Raba - Head Men's Lacrosse Coach

(860) 685-3917 - jraba@wesleyan.edu
Mailing Address - 161 Cross St., Middletown, CT  06459
Prospective Student-Athletes please click here

      Coming aboard the full-time Wesleyan staff in 1996 and now an adjunct professor in the physical education department as well as an assistant director of athletics, John enters his 16th season as head coach of men's lacrosse during 2012. John has a 173-80 record at Wesleyan, including an 18-3 mark in 2007, the best season ever at the college, and a 16-4 record in 2006 as the team advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament semi-finals both years. For his accomplishment in both 2006 and 2001, when the team went 17-3, John was named NESCAC and NEILA Division III Coach of the Year. John earned his fifth NEILA Coach of the Year award following a 15-4 season in 2009 as his Cardinals captured the NESCAC tournament title for the first time and qualified for the NCAAs for the fourth time in a five-year span. He was named co-Coach of the Year by the NEILA in 2005 after his squad posted a 13-6 overall mark, reached the NESCAC finals and received its first-ever bid to the NCAA Division III tournament, making it to the quarter-finals. Both his 2000 and 2001 squads reached the ECAC New England Division III title game. After posting a 14-4 mark and reaching the NESCAC Championship game in 2004, John got NEILA Coach of the Year laurels as well.
     His teams have won five outright Little Three crowns and shared five others over the last 12 years, all of them .500 or better seasons. John is in his second year of a three-year term on the USILA All-American Committee in 2011, having completed his first three-year term with the committee in 2009.  He also is a regional representative on the NCAA men's lacrosse advisory selection committee.
     In addition to coaching lacrosse, John assisted with the football team during the fall from 1996 through 2007, working on the defensive side of the ball each of those 12 seasons with eight seasons as defensive coordinator (1998-2005). He stepped down from that post in 2008, assuming the new position of recruiting coordinator for the athletics department.
     A 1993 graduate of the University of New Haven, John was an All-American lacrosse player for the Chargers as a grad student in 1994 after leading Division II in scoring as a senior in 1993. Also outstanding on the gridiron, John was a team captain, a two-time all-New England pick as a fullback and earned team MVP honors as well. John was honored by U.N.H. as its male athlete of the year in both 1991-92 and 1992-93.  He was inducted into the U.N.H. Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.
     Before coming to Wesleyan in 1996, John picked up lacrosse coaching experience as an assistant at New Haven (1993), Quinnipiac (1994) and with the New Haven Silver Bullets men's club team (1993-95). He also served as an assistant football coach at Brown during the 1995 season. John is a Long Island native and attended lacrosse powerhouse Farmingdale High School, graduating in 1989.

Will Parker - Assistant Coach

     Will Parker will be in his 14th season as a part-time staffer and has coached both boys and girls high-school lacrosse in Connecticut prior to his work at Wesleyan. He also was an assistant coach at his alma mater, Quinnipiac University, in 1998. A 1996 grad, Will earned all-league honors on defense for the Braves as a senior and was an all-New England choice at New Haven in 1994 before transferring to Quinnipiac. A veteran clinician as well, Will is a special education computer instructor at Foundation High School in Milford and is pursuing a master's degree at Southern Connecticut.  Will was an assistant coach during the NEISL East-West senior all-star game in June, 2005.

Rick McCarthy - Assistant Coach

      Serving as the head coach of the men's lacrosse team at Western Connecticut State U. for the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Rick McCarthy will be in his eighth year with the Cardinals having returned to Wesleyan as an assistant coach in 2006 after serving in that capacity during the 2003 campaign.  In December, 2006, Rick was honored by the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLCA) as the Division III assistant coach of the year and was inducted in the Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame in January, 2010.  Before 2003, Rick had been head coach of Eastern Connecticut State University's highly successful men's lacrosse team from its inception as a varsity team in 1996 through the 2002 season. In his seven seasons at ECSU, Rick posted a lofty 91-19 record and was a three-time conference coach of the year.  He led the Warriors to post season berths each of his last four seasons, including two ECAC New England Division III playoff berths in 1999 and 2000 and two straight NCAA Division III tournament at-large qualifications as champions of the Little East conference in 2001 and 2002.
     Rick began his lacrosse coaching career at Babson College in 1975. There he compiled a 34-13 mark in four years and took the Beavers to an NCAA Division II tournament appearance in 1979. He has been involved in coaching for 38 years since his graduation from Yale University in 1968, handling mostly lacrosse and ice hockey, but also basketball and football at various levels of activity throughout southern New England.
     Rick also served as co-coach of the North squad at the 2002 STX/USILA North-South Division III senior all-star game and had coached in the New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (NEILA) East-West senior all-star game in 1996.  He is a past-president of the NEILA (2002-03) and has been a member of the Division III men's lacrosse national poll committee, the weekly NEILA rating board, the ECAC Division III men's lacrosse advisory board and the USILA All-America advisory board.
     Rick established the varsity team at WCSU in 2004, going 3-8 his first year and improving to 11-5 in 2005, good enough for a spot in the ECAC New England Division III tournament.  Rick also has international coaching experience, having twice coached Connecticut-based teams during tournaments in Australia.
     Retiring from service to the State of Connecticut in 2005, Rick continues as a consultant to the admissions offices at both Eastern Connecticut and Mitchell College.

Steve Ziogas  - Assistant Coach

     A 2009 graduate of Brown University where he earned all-Ivy League honors as a linebacker, Steve Ziogas came aboard the football assistant coaching staff as a department intern during fall, 2010, and will be lending a hand on the lacrosse field this spring for a second season as well.  Steve led the Bears in tackles his senior year as Brown secured an Ivy title.  He received the 2008 Eugene Swift Award as the member of the team who best displays character, devotion, fairness and personal courage.
     Gaining a taste of college coaching as a recruiter and quality control advocate at Central Connecticut St. U. in 2009, Steve was part of the Blue Devils NEC Championship football squad.  Most recently, Steve was a player/coach for the Carinthian Black Lions in the Austrian Football League, seeing action at linebacker, defensive back and running back.  His coaching duties included defensive coordinator as the four American imports on the squad took care of all coaching responsibilities.
     A native of Bristol, Conn, Steve was an All-Conference and All-State football standout in high school.  He played in the Connecticut-Rhode Island Governor's Cup game in 2005 and received a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete award.  He also volunteered as a coach with his former high school during his college playing career.

Seth Jacoby - Assistant Coach 

     Seth Jacoby, who assisted with the secondary for Wesleyan during its 2011 football season, joins the Cardinal coaching staff for his first season as an assistant in lacrosse after spending more than a decade as an assistant coach at Glastonbury (Conn.) High School.  There, Seth served as offensive coordinator in 2008 and played an integral role in the Tomahawks perfect 13-0 season and class LL state title.  A 1986 graduate of Glastonbury High, Seth went onto attend Dartmouth where he lettered for two seasons as an outside linebacker.  Following his graduation from Dartmouth, Seth was a player/coach for the Marseille Phoceens football team in France.   Seth both played linebacker and coordinated the defense, and helped lead his team to the French National Division 2 Championship with a 15-0 record. 
     Seth will utilize his knowledge and techniques as a specialist with the football secondary to benefit the defensive middies on the lacrosse field this spring.