Eastlake’s lacrosse team will have a new face roaming the sidelines during the spring and it will be one fans of the professional game know well.

Chris O’Dougherty has been with the Washington Stealth since being taken with the 58th overall selection in the 2009 draft and comes to the Wolves from Bellevue, where he helped the Wolverines to a Division I title as an assistant in 2012. The 26-year-old New Jersey native also has state championship experience as a coach in his hometown of Kinneton, where he was on staff before heading to the Pacific Northwest.

“I just try to give them that energy and passion for the game,” O’Dougherty said of his coaching philosophy. “I feel like I’m ready.”

The Wolves were 6-9-0 last season and did not make the playoffs and are the second Sammamish team to bring in a professional player to lead the program. Eastside Catholic is coached by O’Dougherty’s Stealth teammate, forward Lewis Ratcliff.

While the decision to leave the Wolverines was not an easy one, especially after building a friendship with head coach John Baumann and many inside the program, O’Dougherty said the timing was right.

“I’d love to thank the Bellevue community,” he said. “It was not an easy decision, but I think it is an opportunity to continue to spread that passion for lacrosse.”

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