St. Laurent Steps Down as Redwoods HC; Spallina Named GM

The Premier Lacrosse League announced Tuesday night that longtime California Redwoods head coach Nat St. Laurent is stepping down. No successor was named. But shortly after, the league also announced that Joe Spallina will be the team’s general manager.

St. Laurent has been the Redwoods’ head coach since the league’s inception. He went 22-21 over 43 games and 4-5 in the postseason. St. Laurent led the Redwoods to the PLL championship game in 2019, the PLL’s inaugural season, but the Woods lost to the Maryland Whipsnakes.

Spallina’s hiring marks his return to professional men’s lacrosse. He was the head coach and general manager of Major League Lacrosse’s New York Lizards, winning a title in 2015 and MLL Coach of the Year honors in 2012.

The head coach of the Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team since 2012, Spallina is the winningest coach in program history and has led the Seawolves to 11 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and 10 conference championships (America East and CAA).

Spallina will not step down as Stony Brook head coach.

Spallina is now the second GM in the PLL to not have head coaching duties. This follows the trend started last month when Spencer Ford was named the GM of the Carolina Chaos, with Roy Colsey as the team’s head coach.

The Redwoods’ roster is one of the more malleable in the PLL as things stand now. Free agency has been open since March 3, and the team has already seen Rob Pannell (Whipsnakes) and Garrett Epple (Cannons) depart and Chris Gray, Eddy Glazener and John Sexton retire.