UVA Lacrosse: Cassese hires Vermont head coach Chris Feifs to staff

The new UVA Lacrosse coach on the men’s side, Kevin Cassese, made a splash hire for his staff, luring Chris Feifs, the head coach at Vermont, to be his associate head coach and defensive coordinator.

The move was announced by UVA Athletics on Monday.

I’ll be interested to find out what they’re paying Feifs – he was making $210,000 in base salary at Vermont, according to the uvm.edu website.

I’ve got a fresh FOIA request in for a copy of the employment agreement for Feifs with the folks at UVA.

Still waiting for a response from the UVA FOIA office on what they’re paying Cassese; I’m due a response on Thursday.

I know what we were paying Lars Tiffany, who was sacked as the head coach at Virginia last month after 10 years and two national titles – Tiffany was due to get $377,206.40 in the final year of that deal, which was to end on June 20.

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ICYMI

• UVA Lacrosse: Up-and-down season for ‘Hoos ends with upset loss
• 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

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Back to Feifs, who left a good job as a head coach for a good job as an assistant: he was 78-59 in 10 seasons at Vermont, with two NCAA Tournament appearances, in 2021 and 2022.

A 2007 Maryland alum, Feifs started his coaching career with a two-year stint at VMI before serving as the defensive coordinator and faceoff coach at North Carolina from 2009-2016.

“Thank you to Coach Kevin Cassese and Director of Athletics Carla Williams for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Feifs said, in a statement provided to us in the UVA Athletics news release.

“To be a part of the University of Virginia men’s lacrosse program is truly an honor, and representing the proud tradition of UVA Lacrosse is a responsibility I do not take lightly. I am thrilled to meet the team and Cavalier community and look forward to giving my all to the tradition of excellence in Charlottesville,” Feifs said.

Had to be tough for Feifs to leave the lacrosse program at Vermont, where he is the all-time winningest coach, and he was busy preparing for the 2026 season – announcing two staff promotions on May 20.

I can’t believe Vermont would be paying a lacrosse coach $210,000 a year.

I’m sure the Vermont Athletics folks can’t believe $210,000 a year isn’t enough to keep their all-time winningest lacrosse coach from leaving to be an assistant somewhere else.

“To all my players and alumni who have come through this program, thank you for all you’ve given to the Catamount family,” Feifs said in a statement on the UVM Athletics website. “It has been a privilege to work with you and to be a part of your lives while wearing the Green and Gold and beyond. To my coaches and support staff, you’ve carried me for 10 years and allowed me to live my dream every day. To Jeff Schulman and the UVM administration, thank you for taking a chance on a young assistant eager to be part of this proud athletic department where winning is important but character is the priority.

“I will look back at the past 10 years as the single greatest growth period of my life, and I owe it all to Catamount Country and the great state of Vermont. This place will always be my second home. Thank you!” Feifs said.