John Tucker is a retired

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

professional

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

player, and former head coach of the Boston Cannons and

Atlanta Blaze The Atlanta Blaze were a professional men's field lacrosse team in Major League Lacrosse (MLL). The Blaze became the ninth team in MLL as an expansion team for the 2016 Major League Lacrosse season, 2016 season and played its home games at Atlanta ...

of the now defunct MLL. He was also the head coach of the Philadelphia Wings of the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

. He was elected into the

National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame The National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame was established on June 16, 2005. The National Lacrosse League's board of governors will vote in the Hall of Fame members based on the individual’s record, ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character ...

in 2010 and into the National Lacrosse Hall of Famee in 2016.

Playing career

Tucker began his lacrosse playing career in ninth grade, joining the junior league team at

Archbishop Curley High School Archbishop Curley High School is a Roman Catholic boys' high school in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore in the United States, within the City of Baltimore. It is affiliated with the Conventual Franciscan religious order. It is the broth ...

under Coach Joe D'Adamo. He was a freshman and sophomore on the team during the school's 1976 and 1977 championship seasons, and he graduated from Curley in 1979. As a collegiate player, Tucker was a member on a number of winning teams. He played on the undefeated

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Blue Jays team that won the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship in 1984. In international competition Tucker played for Team USA in winning three gold medals at the

World Lacrosse Championship The World Lacrosse Championship (WLC) is the international men's field lacrosse championship organized by World Lacrosse that occurs every four years. The WLC began before any international lacrosse organization had been formed. It started as a ...

s in 1986, 1990, 1994. Tucker captained the 1990 and 1994 teams. In addition, Tucker won two championships with the Philadelphia Wings of the

Major Indoor Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

in 1989 and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. Tucker played at the amateur level for the storied Maryland Lacrosse Club winning three USILA Club championships. He is enshrined in both the NLL and US Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Tucker was also an outstanding football player for the Blue Jays. In 1983 he was named to the all-state team and was all-Centennial Conference for his performance as a tight end. He holds the Centennial Conference record for both receptions and total yards in a season by a tight end.

Coaching career

As a coach, he has led a number of teams to championships, including a total of four

Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association The Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (M.I.A.A.) is a boys' sports conference for private high schools generally located in the Baltimore metropolitan area but extending to various other regions, including the state's mostly rural Easter ...

championships: three with the

Gilman School Gilman School is an all-boys independent school located in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. There are three school divisions: Lower School, grades pre-kindergarten through five; Middle School, grades six through eight; and Upp ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

and one with

Loyola Blakefield Loyola Blakefield is a private Catholic, college preparatory school run by the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus in Towson, Maryland and within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It was established in 1852 by the Jesuits as an all-boys school f ...

Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorpo ...

. In the

, Tucker coached the

Baltimore Thunder The Baltimore Thunder were a member of the National Lacrosse League from 1987 until 1999. They were based in Baltimore, Maryland, and won the first Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League (later the National Lacrosse League) championship in 1987. After th ...

from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. He also was the coach of the

Pittsburgh CrosseFire The Pittsburgh CrosseFire were a member of the National Lacrosse League during the 2000 NLL season. They were based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The franchise started out as the Baltimore Thunder before moving to Pittsburgh. After a single season ...

for their one year of existence in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. Tucker served as Head Coach of the Los Angeles Riptide of Major League Lacrosse from 2006 to 2008 compiling a 22-14 record. Following the 2007 MLL season he was awarded the

Major League Lacrosse Coach of the Year Award Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a professional men's field lacrosse league consisting of nine teams in the United States. Since the league's first season in 2001, the MLL gave several annual awards to players and coaches. Most Valuable Player ...

. With the folding of the Riptide, Tucker signed a two year deal to coach the Washington Bayhawks beginning in 2009. In October 2009, Tucker was an assistant coach with his original NLL team from the 1980s, the Wings

After a dismal 2010 campaign under head coach Dave Huntley, when the Wings had their worst ever record (5-11), the team fired the coaching staff, eventually hiring Tucker back as the head coach. In June 2011, Tucker stepped down to assume a scouting position within the Wings organization. In 2011, Tucker came full circle and accepted the head coach position of his alma mater,

. Assisting him on defense is his own former coach, Joe D'Adamo. He worked as an admissions at Concordia Prep in Towson, Maryland. He now serves as Director of Admissions at Saint James School in Hagerstown, Maryland and is also the head coach for the boys lacrosse team there. Tucker was named Head Coach of the Boston Cannons (MLL) in 2013 and was named, for a second time, Brine Coach of the Year in 2015. Following the end of the 2015 season on September 8th, it was announced that Tucker would not re-sign to coach the Boston Cannons for the 2016 season. Tucker instead opted to coach the expansion Atlanta Blaze. After a dismal 3-7 start the Blaze fired Tucker and associate head coach Dave Huntley assumed the head coaching job. Tucker is now the head coach of the varsity boys lacrosse team at St. James School, Maryland, Saint James School in

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States and the county seat of Washington County. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2020 census was 43,527, and the population of the Hagerstown metropolitan area (exten ...

, where he also works as the Director of Admissions & Enrollment Management.

Statistics

Major Indoor Lacrosse League career

* Philadelphia Wings stats only (may not be complete)

Notes and references

External links