After concluding the 2025 season with a 7-9 record overall, including a 3-3 record — which was voided due to miscommunication between Sidwell and the MAC — in Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAC) play and advancing to the conference semifinals; the Sidwell boys’ lacrosse team was looking to compete for a MAC championship in Head Coach Jeremy Phelps’ second season in 2026. However, last November, Phelps was suspended by the MAC for the duration of the 2026 season due to a misunderstanding in MAC eligibility rules. After the suspension was announced, Phelps departed the Sidwell lacrosse program, an act in which the athletic department declined to comment on.
Phelps’ departure comes after a tumultuous few years in the boys’ lacrosse program. Midway through the 2024 season, Head Coach Christopher Cummings left the program. Additionally, in 2023, just days before the lacrosse season started, all five of the team’s seniors quit, citing the overwhelming time commitment.
Current players on the lacrosse team have mixed feelings about the head coaching changes in the lacrosse program and the outlook for the team’s future, as many believe that the changes in the lacrosse program were avoidable.
“These coaching changes display the missteps of Athletic administrators who failed to properly communicate with the [boys’ lacrosse] team and the coach regarding grave mistakes that were made last year,” said Junior AJ Valbrune.
Moreover, members of the team believe that Phelps’ departure severely hindered the progress that the program had made in the past year.
“[Phelps’ departure] really hurt the team morale and led to some players being discouraged to play this upcoming season,” junior Milo Kueffner said.
Junior Eli Soloman agreed with Kueffner and stated that he felt that Phelps’ departure was “a big step backwards” for the program.
Still, other players in the program are optimistic for what this season may hold. Junior Ardashes Hamparian believes that “regardless of our ups and downs in the past few years, the team will remain focused moving forward.”
Junior Brandon Washington agreed with Hamparian and went a step further by saying “I am happy about the team’s situation, and I think the coaching change will give us the chance to build a program how we would like for it to be with more direct control instead of leaving it up to a new coach.”
Washington’s comments are in line with many players who questioned Phelps for forcing his own culture and expectations into the program rather than leaving that up to the players, who are looking forward to building a new team culture this season.
As the team is looking forward to the 2026 season, Washington assured that Sidwell will have a boys’ lacrosse team and says the Athletic Department is “working really hard to find a coach for us” which he and the team “really appreciate”. Members of the lacrosse team say that Head Boys’ Soccer Coach Ibrahim Toure will coach the team if the Athletic Department cannot find a replacement from outside of the school before the season starts. Coach Ibra has served as an assistant coach for the lacrosse team for the past few seasons and is well liked within the program.
Regardless of the coaching situation, the boys’ lacrosse season is set to kick off the season on Mar. 10 with a game against Indian Creek High School with aspirations for a great season ahead of them.
