Interesting twist in the story of the new associate head coach and defensive coordinator at UVA Lacrosse, Chris Feifs.
Remember me telling you that Feifs was making $210,000 in base salary at Vermont, according to the uvm.edu website?
Per his appointment letter, obtained through a FOIA request, Feifs will get $175,000 in base salary on his one-year deal to join the staff of Kevin Cassese at UVA.
Which means, wow, Feifs left Vermont, where he is the all-time winningest lacrosse coach, for less money, and only one year guaranteed.
ICYMI
- UVA Lacrosse: Lars Tiffany is out as head coach, and no one knows why, for sure
- UVA Lacrosse: Williams stays in-house, names Kevin Cassese head coach
- Lars Tiffany says he signed the extension: UVA Lacrosse is a total mess now
- UVA Lacrosse: Cassese hires Vermont head coach Chris Feifs to staff
- UVA Lacrosse: Kevin Cassese signs for a lot less than Lars Tiffany was getting
We learned this on Monday, after learning last week that Cassese will get $285,000 a year in salary and supplemental compensation, per the terms of an offer sheet that he signed on May 26.
Cassese’s predecessor, Lars Tiffany, who won two national championships in his 10 years at Virginia, was due to get $377,206 in the final year of the five-year extension that he signed in 2021.
I’d say, good on Carla Williams, the athletics director, for getting not only a head coach on the cheap, but also a top-notch head coach to be an assistant, also on the cheap.
Good will be even better if this works, and UVA gets past the first round of the NCAA Tournament next spring.
One other update on the FOIA front involving UVA Lacrosse: I reported on Friday that the FOIA office had gotten back to me with a note that made me think I was about to get a copy of the three-year contract extension that was offered to Tiffany in July 2025, which Tiffany’s camp says he signed on March 24, 2026.
ICYMI
The word back from the FOIA folks on Friday was:
“We continue to process your request and are awaiting a response from the departmental records custodian. We respectfully request additional time to respond to, on or before June 24, 2026.”
The word today:
“The University of Virginia has no records responsive to your request.”
Bummer.