Shellenberger Ready to Take on New Challenge

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Lars Tiffany had options after Kip Turner departed in late May. Tiffany, head men’s lacrosse coach at the University of Virginia, could have hired an assistant who, like Turner, specializes in working with goalkeepers.  Or Tiffany could have chosen someone with more expertise at the offensive end of the field.

“There’s always a push-pull, right?” Tiffany said. “As you pull one way on one side of the bed, someone else’s feet now are uncovered on the other side of the bed. It was a debate in my head, and the debate was immediately ended when we had the opportunity to bring Connor Shellenberger here. And so then it was one of those occurrences where you’re like, ‘OK, obviously this is an easy decision. We’ll just to have to figure out the other side later.’ ”

Shellenberger, who grew up in Charlottesville and starred at St. Anne’s-Belfield School, left UVA in 2024 as one of the most decorated players in program history. He’s the only Cavalier to have been named to the USILA All-America first team four times.

Now a two-time Premier Lacrosse League all-star attackman, Shellenberger ranks No. 1 in career assists (192) and career points (323) at Virginia, where he was a three-time finalist for the Tewaaraton Award.

Shellenberger, 24, joins a staff that includes Tiffany, associate head coach Kevin Cassese, and Logan Greco, who was a starting defenseman on the UVA team that in 2019 won the program’s sixth NCAA title and 21^st ACC championship.

“It’s certainly a joy,” Tiffany said of adding Shellenberger. “It feels like a win, especially after we didn’t win much this spring.”

Cassese, a former Duke great who had a long and successful tenure as Lehigh’s head coach, took over as UVA’s offensive coordinator in the summer of 2023 after Sean Kirwan left to run the program at Dartmouth. Shellenberger said the opportunity to work alongside Cassese “was a massive part of” his decision to return to his alma mater.

Shellenberger said he hasn’t forgotten how much Cassese “gave to me and our team my fifth year [in 2024]. Obviously as a coach, but also the amount of time he spent getting to know all of us. He was there for us at every step and literally gave it his all. There were so many different factors, and he was a constant that year. So having that relationship with him and being able to work with him and also learn from him was a huge part of it … I couldn’t be happier to get to work with him.”

The addition of Shellenberger “gives our offensive personnel and Kevin Cassese an absolute weapon,” Tiffany said. “Connor as a player was relentless in coming in to work with Sean Kirwan and then Kevin Cassese in studying film, reviewing his own play, watching other elite attackmen play, and really understanding opposing defenses. Now bringing him in to help Kevin coach the offense is so exciting for me, because there’s a lot to do with managing all the offensive personnel, their individual player development, and putting everyone into the proper schemes and balancing the playing time. It’s been asking a lot of one man to do all that, and so now I’m really excited about what this does for our team offense.”

Tiffany and Greco will be in charge of the Hoos’ defense. Tiffany said he’s leaning toward taking over for Turner as goalkeepers coach while continuing to oversee the defense. Cassese excelled as a faceoff specialist at Duke, and he’ll tutor the Cavaliers who play that position. That responsibility previous fell on Turner, the starting goalie on the undefeated Virginia team that won the NCAA championship in 2006.

After graduating from UVA, Greco served as a volunteer assistant at the University of Richmond before returning to Grounds in September 2022 in the same role. He  was elevated to assistant coach in July 2023 and has been running the Hoos’ man-down unit, with impressive results. Virginia ranked No. 1 nationally in that category in 2025.

“I’ve learned to trust Logan as a tremendous defensive developmental coach,” Tiffany said, “and his film study with the defensemen continues to grow in terms of number of hours every year. So I’m confident that he can be in charge of running the development of our defenders.”

Greco received little compensation when he joined the Cavaliers’ staff, but that never deterred him, Tiffany said. “And so he’s been doing the job for free or taking whatever shillings we could throw his way, and it really didn’t matter to him. He’s just so passionate about coaching. That man loves recruiting. He loves coaching.

“His final year at UVA, 2019, he and I were lifting partners, and he would ask me 20 questions per hour per lift about coaching, whether it was general, philosophical, or specific to individual players and recruits. That guy has wanted to be a coach for a long time and he’ll do it for whatever price is available.”

Shellenberger, who spent five years at UVA, didn’t initially see coaching in his future. “Whenever someone asked me if I was interested in coaching, I always said, ‘No,’ ” he recalled. “And I guess that’s one thing that kind of excites me about this. It’s something new and I’ll see if I enjoy it. Just working with the guys, I think, is the biggest thing.”

Some of his former teammates, including Payton Cormier and Xander Dickson, knew he was talking with Tiffany about coming back to Virginia, Shellenberger said, “but other than that there weren’t many guys that knew about it.”

About 20 of the players with whom Shellenberger played at UVA in 2023 and ’24 are still in the program, and “I feel like it’s a good balance of getting to meet new guys but also rebuilding those relationships that we already had,” he said. “I feel like just being in college for five years, there’s so many experiences that come with that. Obviously I can help the guys on the field, but also just give them somebody that is around their age and they can relate to and hopefully just be able to go to with literally anything in their life.”

Shellenberger, who stars for the New York Atlas, still lives in the Charlottesville area. He’s not the only PLL player who also coaches in a Division I program. Others include Maryland defensive coordinator Jesse Bernhardt, who plays for the Denver Outlaws, and Ajax Zappitello (Maryland Whipsnakes) and Matt Whitcher (Philadelphia Waterdogs), both of whom are assistants under Kirwan at Dartmouth.

The PLL regular season starts in late May, after the NCAA tournament wraps up, and its playoffs begin on Aug. 23. The PLL championship game is Sept. 14, so Shellenberger will miss few, if any, of the Cavaliers’ fall workouts.

Tiffany said he made it clear during their conversations about the vacant position at UVA that Shellenberger wouldn’t have to give up his PLL career, or the lacrosse business he runs.

“It’s amazing how few conflicts we actually have,” Tiffany said. “Now, if the PLL were to change their game schedule, we could have a problem. But right now, it really does lend itself well to being able to do both. And so during our deliberations, I was very grateful that Connor listed about 20 different weekends or blocks that he needed to be free, and it really did not seem that difficult, which was shocking. So we’re in a really good place there. It puts more of the onus of evaluation of recruits on Kevin, Logan and myself, but Kevin and Logan really enjoy recruiting. They love being on the road, and I like being out there a good amount too.”

Balancing his various PLL and UVA commitments might be “a little challenging the first couple weeks,” Shellenberger said. “Even this week, when you’re kind of getting acclimated, you just start thinking about [the Virginia program] more. As a coach you obviously want to do everything you can to put the guys in the best possible position to win and have the best experience possible. So you’re just constantly thinking about it, and obviously thinking about it takes away from thinking about the [next PLL] game. But Coach Tiffany’s been amazing with that. And he’s still allowed me to do this and run our business, and I couldn’t thank him enough for that.”

In 2021, Shellenberger played a leading role in Virginia’s run to the program’s seventh NCAA crown, earning Most Outstanding Players honors after totaling a program-record 24 points in the tournament. The Hoos returned to Championship Weekend in ’23 and ’24, but they failed to reach the NCAA tournament this year, in part because of their struggles on offense. Several talented players missed all or most of the season with injuries, and Virginia averaged only 11 goals per game, which ranked 44^th nationally.

Starting attackmen McCabe Millon, Truitt Sunderland and Ryan Colsey gained valuable experience this spring, combining for 84 goals and 57 assists. All three of them overlapped with Shellenberger at UVA and still have eligibility remaining, and players such as Sean Browne, Ryan Duenkel and Brendan Millon (McCabe’s younger brother) will add depth and talent at the offensive end.

“I think that’s one of the exciting things about doing this, honestly,” Shellenberger said. “There were a bunch of guys banged up last year, and you had a bunch of young guys stepping into roles that they might not have played before. The talent’s there. I think the ceiling is really high, so hopefully we can build off of last year and kind of learn from whatever didn’t go right and have a much different year [in 2026].”

UVA announced Shellenberger’s hiring last Monday. Since then, he said, he’s been called “Coach” in texts from former teammates and of the current Cavaliers.

“It’s weird,” Shellenberger said, laughing. “I’ll get used to it.”

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