Dec. 20, 2007

from press releases

BURLINGAME, Calif. -- The San Francisco Dragons of Major League Lacrosse announced Thursday that Tom Slate has been hired as the team's head coach for the 2008 season.

Slate has served as assistant coach for the Philadelphia Barrage since 2005 and helped lead the Barrage to consecutive MLL championships in 2006 and 2007.

Slate is also the head coach at Downingtown East (Pa.) High School, where he has been since 2004. His 2007 team won the Pennsylvania State Championship. In doing so, Slate became the first person in to win a state title as both a player (Springfield High School '92) and coach in Pennsylvania history.

Prior to coaching at Downingtown East, Slate served as assistant coach at Radnor (Pa.) High School, helping to take Radnor to the state semifinals and finals in consecutive years.

Slate graduated from West Chester University with a degree in health and physical education with an emphasis in fitness. He was a first-team All American at Essex (Md.) Community College before that, and was a first-team high school All-American at Springfield HS.

Slate played for seven years with the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League, where he helped the team win two NLL championships in 1998 and 2001. He then played for the MLL's Baltimore Bayhawks for one season. He is the owner of Lacrosse Evolution in Downingtown, Pa., where he lives with his wife Stacy and daughter Rylee and son Lucas.

"We are extremely fortunate to have a person of Tom's background and experience joining our organization," said Dragons executive vice president and general manager Doug Locker. "Tom brings a great deal of experience and enthusiasm, and we could not be happier having him as our head coach."

"I'm privileged and excited to be selected as head coach of the San Francisco Dragons, and am eager to get started," Slate said. "I have set goals in my mind for the team, and those goals are high. We have a lot of work to do and I'm excited to get the Dragons into the elite teams in Major League Lacrosse."