Brewer spent 21 years with the Saxons before retiring but will maintain his position with VEL
Earl Brewer sat down with B.J. Koubaroulis in the PrepZone studio to discuss the Virginia Elite Lacrosse league, which competes around the standard high school season. (Video by Nick Plum for Synthesis/Koubaroulis LLC / The Washington Post)
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October 15, 2015, 6:50 p.m. — Earl Brewer spent 21 seasons at the helm of the Langley lacrosse program before announcing his retirement over the summer. He finished his legendary coaching career with 325 wins, the most all-time in the Virginia High School League (VHSL), and won four consecutive state titles with the Saxons from 2009-12. He was also the first lacrosse coach at Fairfax before taking over for Langley.
Brewer cites his son, Drew, as his primary reason for stepping down from Langley. Drew is a senior on the Chantilly lacrosse team and Brewer hopes to watch his final high school season. Perhaps providing an even greater spark in the decision to retire was the passing of Brewer’s own father to cancer last November, making him value his time with his son even more.
“I just realized how life can change so quickly and I just didn’t want to miss my son’s senior year,” Brewer said.
According to Brewer, he wanted to make his exit quietly. He made his decision prior to the 2015 spring season, but told nobody of his decision. He did not even inform his own coaching staff until just before the playoffs. The Saxons had a successful post-season run, reaching the state semifinals in a year in which they struggled early, before falling to his own son and Chantilly. It wasn’t until after the season that he informed his players.
“I went out on a high note,” Brewer said. “But once I made the decision it wasn’t hard, family always comes first.”
The long-time coach has been crucial in the development of lacrosse in Northern Virginia for more than 30 years, with one of his key contributions being the creation of the Virginia Elite Lacrosse (VEL) league four years ago. Although he will no longer be on the Saxons’ sideline, he will retain his post with VEL and will still have the opportunity to share his knowledge of the game.
“It really takes a lot of my time and that’s where I’m putting my energies lately,” Brewer said.
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The idea for the VEL (@VAEliteLacrosse) was originally brought to Brewer by the head lacrosse coach at Dominion, Pete Lenotti. Lenotti had previous experience running leagues, but had a vision for something better.
“He came to me and we talked about making a partnership,” Brewer said. “He’s my good friend and it’s been great, it’s been a collaboration between the two of us and we just wanted to make it a really good league.”
The VEL consists of a fall high school league as well as fall and summer travel teams, operating around the standard spring high school season. There are 50 Northern Virginia high schools represented, with four varsity and three junior varsity divisions.
The league is comprised of four travel teams, separated by graduation year and selected via tryouts. Although they compete in the fall, the summer session is the most valuable as they participate in big tournaments around the East coast. The travel team component of the VEL is just two years old.
“We saw a need and just wanted it to be a really good league,” Brewer said. “There’s been other leagues around that just haven’t done well and I think having two coaches in charge, understanding how a league should be run, it’s been great.”
Brewer and Lenotti learned from the mistakes that other companies made in attempting to form competitive leagues, and have created a successful product.
Unlike other leagues in the region, they decided to charge a more reasonable fee for participation in the travel teams. However, one of the aspects of the VEL that makes Brewer especially proud is the eagerness to scholarship players into the league that still can’t afford participation.
“One of our goals was, if a kid wants to play but there was a financial problem where they couldn’t pay the fee to be in the league, we weren’t going to let that stand in the way,” Brewer said.
Another top priority for Brewer was to provide the athletes with as much exposure to college coaches as possible. With the financial issue out of the way for the travel team and a summer full of big tournaments, there is ample opportunity to provide the prospects with publicity.
“The thing that’s best about lacrosse is sometimes it will open the door to a college that a kid might not have gotten in to,” Brewer said.
Brewer’s former athletes from Langley have gone on to play at renowned academic institutions, including Yale, Penn and Navy, which they might not have otherwise been able to attend. This makes him especially satisfied as a coach.
Despite the heavy workload of running the league, Brewer enjoys having his own company and getting to be the boss. With this being his only endeavor going forward, Brewer will have his springs free to see Drew conclude his prep career and perhaps play at the collegiate level next year and beyond.
After coaching against his own son the past three years and even facing off against each other in the playoffs last season, Brewer will be happy to be in the stands for the games rather than on the opposing sideline.
That doesn’t mean he won’t miss being in charge of the Saxons program and the relationships he developed at the school.
“What I’m going to miss the most is just being around the guys,” Brewer said. “There’s nothing better than getting ready for a big game, preparing your kids, being in the locker room, being on the sideline when you win a big game and joining in that celebration.”
The peculiarity of not being on the sideline may not be realized for Brewer until the spring rolls in, but for now he is content to spend more time with his family and is excited with the positive direction of the VEL after just four years.
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