Quiet Storm Lax Club Continues Big Run

BERLIN- Not so quietly, the Quiet Storm Lacrosse Club has continued a 14-year run of success on the summer tournament circuit this summer, collecting a handful of championships in major events while cementing itself as the Eastern Shore’s premiere program for advancing promising young players and opening pathways to success at the next level.

The Quiet Storm Lacrosse Club for 14 years has been preparing young players from all over the Eastern Shore including Berlin and Ocean City, for example, to excel as high school players and advance to the next level in college. The proof is in the pudding as Quiet Storm continues to collect more than its fair share of championships and top finishes in some of the premiere college showcase tournaments around the country including a couple of titles in the recent NOVA Shootout tournament for the 2019 and 2021 teams.

For Quiet Storm, the formula is simple but the dedication and commitment is not. The program features a highly decorated and highly motivated coaching staff featuring several former All-American players and national champions and former college coaches with their share of titles at every level. The coaching staff from top to bottom has deep connections in the lacrosse fraternity and has been highly successful in getting its young players in front of some of the top college coaches in the country.

The program began several years back as the Greene Turtle Lacrosse Club under the direction of Steve Pappas and Dave Cottle and found early success in fielding teams featuring some of the top young players on the Delmarva Peninsula. The early goals were twofold; develop young players through top level coaching, and allow those players to display their growing talents in front of college coaches and become recruitable athletes. The formula worked in those early years with several former club members excelled in high school and earned spots on college rosters.

With the early success came growth as the program continued to add more teams and even more high-profile coaches. In 2008, the club added to the coaching staff Matt McGinnis, a veteran college coach who had just come off a successful run at Denison University and returned to the shore as an Associate Athletic Director at Salisbury University. McGinnis later took over as the program’s director and the success on and off the field continued.

In 2013, McGinnis, now as the program’s director, added Ben Sandlin, an All-American and national champion defenseman at Salisbury, to the coaching staff. In 2013, the organization took on a new sponsor in Quiet Storm and Sandlin took over the reins as director with McGinnis focusing on coaching and recruiting. The team added several more coaches who were former All-American players and national players of the year at their positions and the program really took off.

Over the last four years, Quiet Storm has competed at the highest level in regional tournaments up and down the east coast and has returned home with more than its fair share of championship hardware. Perhaps more importantly, the club has helped dozens of young players develop into outstanding high school players and land spots on college rosters through the networking provided by its highly decorated coaching staff.

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.