Nowell named new Huntingdon men’s lacrosse head coach

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Huntingdon College President J. Cameron West and Director of Athletics Eric Levanda announced the hiring of Ryan Nowell on Monday as the new head men's lacrosse coach.

Nowell comes to Huntingdon after three seasons as an assistant coach at the Division III level.

"I am excited to welcome Coach Nowell to Huntingdon," West said. "Our men's lacrosse team has brought great acclaim to Huntingdon the last two seasons, winning back-to-back regular season conference championships and securing a bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2018.  I look forward to the continued success of these student-athletes in and out of the classroom under Coach Nowell's leadership."  

A 2015 graduate of Marywood University, Nowell spent one season as an assistant at his alma mater before joining the Moravian College staff for the past two seasons. He has also coached at the club and high school levels.

"Not that it was lacking, but Ryan will bring positive energy to the program," Levanda said. "I like the fact that he's from a different part of the country and that he welcomed the prospect of moving far from home to coach and mentor students in life and in the sport that he loves. He's hungry for the opportunity to lead our program and I am looking forward to working with him to maintain our recent success."

Nowell takes over a Huntingdon program that is coming off of two straight appearances in the USA South Athletic Conference Tournament championship game. In the inaugural season of USA South competition in 2018, the Hawks won the conference title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

"I'm extremely excited and humbled to be selected as the next men's lacrosse coach at Huntingdon College," Nowell said. "I would like to thank President West, Eric Levanda and the entire search committee for believing in me to be the right candidate for the job. I'd also like to thank Dave Carty, who has been an unbelievable mentor to me at Moravian, as well as my family for supporting me during my journey to becoming a head coach.

"I am excited to start working with the guys and continuing the success the Huntingdon program has achieved in the USA South. My goals for this program are to continue to build upon the success and tradition that has been established and to help these young men continue to develop as leaders in the community."

During his time at Moravian, Nowell served as defensive coordinator for Carty, the 2019 Landmark Conference Coach of the Year. Nowell helped mentor three first-team all-conference selections and two second-team all-conference players.

Nowell began his collegiate coaching career at Marywood during the 2017 season. During that season, the Pacers advanced to the Colonial States Athletic Conference championship game before falling to Cabrini University. Nowell helped develop two second-team all-conference performers and three honorable mention all-conference selections.

As a club coach, Nowell has coached in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California and was an assistant coach for Piedmont High School in Oakland, Calif., in 2016.

Nowell earned his bachelor's degree in athletic training from Marywood, where he was a four-year starter at long stick midfield for the Pacers. He earned all-conference recognition each season, earning honorable mention honors as a freshman and sophomore, first-team honors as a junior and second-team honors as a senior.

He was Marywood's Defensive MVP as a junior and was an honorable mention preseason All-American as a senior. At the time of his graduation, he was tied for first in career games started for the Pacers, ranked third in Marywood history for ground balls and second in caused turnovers.