4 days ago
St. Thomas Aquinas' Crowley and Stein are the Broward Lacrosse Coaches of the Year
At St. Thomas Aquinas this year, a familiar face led the boys' lacrosse team to yet another state championship and a new face helped the girls' lacrosse team stay among the top teams in Broward County.
Now, Terry Crowley and Kristina Stein the Miami Herald's Broward County Lacrosse Coaches of the Year.
Crowley is the Herald's Boys' Coach of the Year for the fifth straight season after hoisting his fourth state championship trophy with the Raiders. Crowley also led St. Thomas Aquinas to state titles in 2016, 2017 and 2022, and he also took the Raiders to the title game in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
In 2024, St. Thomas Aquinas went into the region playoffs with a losing record before making a run to the final four and that experience primed the Raiders for a return to championship form in 2025. St. Thomas Aquinas brought another trophy back to Fort Lauderdale by blowing out Ponte Vedra, 13-4, in the Class 2A title game May 10.
Along the way, the Raiders lost only one game to another Florida team—an overtime loss to Benjamin in April.
Stein is the Herald's Broward County Girls' Lacrosse Coach of the Year after sustaining the Raiders' status as one of the top teams in the county in her first year as coach. St. Thomas Aquinas reached the Region 4-2A championship, making a deeper run in the postseason than any other Broward team, and went undefeated against county rivals.
In the region playoffs, the Raiders won their first three games each by at least nine goals, only to narrowly fall 7-6 to Vero Beach in the 4-2A championship May 2.
Stein, who spent the last two seasons as the coach at Stoneman Douglas, was previously an assistant at St. Thomas Aquinas and is off to a good start in building on the Raiders' legacy of recent success that includes a state title in 2021 and a trip to the state championship in 2023.
