Blue Devil Girls’ Lax Staff Reorganized for New Season

The Huntington High School varsity girls’ lacrosse team will have a new sideline look next season. Blue Devil head coach Katie Reilly stepped down after the season for personal reasons after leading the team to an 18-3 record and Suffolk and Long Island championships.

Huntington School Board members voted unanimously earlier this week to appoint the new look staff, which features co-head coaches Megan Marinelli and Christopher Taylor and assistant coach Lauren Blackburn. Chiara Maimone will return as JV head coach with Sabrina Emmerich joining the program as JV assistant. Hildi Stanford has been appointed as Finley Middle School’s head coach with Greg Dieterich as the assistant.

Marinelli is a player favorite after serving as a Huntington varsity girls’ basketball volunteer coach last winter when the Blue Devils advanced to the county final four playoff round.

Marinelli served last spring as the Smithtown West varsity girls’ lacrosse team’s assistant coach, helping guide that squad to the Suffolk Class B title and a close loss to Garden City in the Long Island finals.

Marinelli played scholastically at Northport and later at Georgetown University. Taylor and Blackburn have both been assistant coaches at Huntington for several years and both played integral roles in last spring’s championship run.

Lauren Schwalje will be the team’s volunteer assistant coach. She was an Under Armour All-American at St. Anthony’s High School before playing alongside Marinelli at Georgetown and finishing her career with a pandemic related fifth year at Stony Brook.

“I’d like to thank Katie Reilly for all of the hard work and effort she devoted to developing the program and for leading up to county and Long Island championships,” Director of Athletics Jim Hoops said. “She has helped reestablish the Blue Devil girls’ lacrosse brand as one of excellence and we are all grateful to her. At the same time, I’d like to welcome Meg Marinelli to the Blue Devil family. We are very fortunate to have her in our ranks.”