In 1966, Rob Bordley graduated from the Landon School in Bethesda, Md., where he had spent the past 10 years, starting with third grade. A talented athlete, he moved on to Princeton, where he played football as well as a sport he had never seen or heard of before arriving on the New Jersey college campus, lacrosse.
Four years later, he was back on familiar ground at Landon, joining the faculty as a history teacher and coach, and laying the foundation for what would become one of the nation’s best high school lacrosse programs for the next four decades.
“I was shocked when (founder and headmaster) Mr. (Paul) Banfield offered me a contract,” Bordley said. “In my final meeting with him, he asked me why he should hire me. I don’t remember exactly what I said beyond it wouldn’t cost him much money.”
Whatever that initial investment may have been, it’s safe to say that Landon got a heck of a bargain. Over the past 50 years, there’s perhaps nobody that has become more closely identified with the school and positively impacted more student’s lives than Bordley.
“I went to school here, went away to college for four years, then the rest of my life has been here,” Bordley said. “It’s been a great experience.”
After serving as the assistant lacrosse coach for his first five years, Bordley took over as head coach in 1975. Over the next 44 years, he presided over a program that consistently combined excellence on the field with scholarly achievement in the classroom, and more importantly, instilled players with character development for college and life beyond.
“We had good players, we tried to make them a better person,” Bordley said. “That was the most important thing.”
In recognition of his efforts, Bordley earned the lacrosse community’s highest honor in 2020, selection to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. He now stands, officially, among the all-time best, with a record that provides testimony to that inclusion.
Bordley retired following the 2018 season with a career record of 655-123 and a career winning percentage of 84 percent. He is one of just five coaches to surpass the 600-win milestone.
During his tenure, Bordley led Landon to 32 league championships, including four undefeated seasons. His teams were ranked number one in the Washington Metropolitan area 19 times and finished as USA Lacrosse Magazine’s No. 1 team in the nation four times.
Bordley produced 47 high school All-Americans and had 59 players named to the All-Metro first team. He also had 39 players who would go on to become collegiate All-Americans.
Throughout his career, amidst the honors and accolades, Bordley has been quick to humbly deflect the credit to the players and his assistants.
After capturing his 600th victory in 2015, he said, ““I told the kids that I haven’t scored any goals, I haven’t made any saves, and I haven’t won any faceoffs. I have just been here a long time and had a lot of talented players. I’ve had superb coaches, from start to finish. And the administration and parents have been very supportive. All those factors have contributed to winning our share.”
Early in his career Bordley established a philosophy that served him and his players very well through the years.
“I insisted on being disciplined and on playing hard,” he said. “I didn’t run a complex offense or defense. There’s something to be said for keeping it simple. We let the kids use the assets that they had. And beyond that, the goal was to just have fun.”
As a lifetime educator, Bordley also understood that athletics were fertile ground for imparting life lessons. Rare Landon losses provided the coach with valuable teaching opportunities.
“I would tell them that how you respond to losses determines how successful you are down the road,” Bordley said. “We wanted to keep games in perspective. A loss really meant nothing in the big scheme of life, so I would share stories about real difficulties that people were dealing with that were much more significant. I miss teaching more than coaching.”
Bordley was selected as both The Washington Post’s and the USLCA’s coach of the year five times and was recognized as the National Interscholastic Lacrosse Coaches Association (NILCA) man of the year in 2017. That same year, he received the USA Lacrosse Gerald J. Carroll Award, given annually to one boys' high school coach nationwide who demonstrates support and care for players in their growth and development as young adults and leaders.
Former player Ian Healy succeeded his mentor as Landon’s head coach in 2019. He noted that Bordley’s work ethic was matched by his compassion and desire to help others.
“He is a grinder who is tireless in his work ethic,” Healy said. “He also sees the potential and greatness in players before they do, and he always challenged players to take the next step in their development.”
Bordley’s impact on his assistant coaches was as strong as his influence on players.
“He was always committed to empowering his assistant coaches,” Healy said. “He understood that the assistant coaches need to have an ownership stake in order to grow. He provided intense inclusivity and leadership training. He simply cares about people. He’s special.”
During Bordley’s 2018 retirement celebration, Marty Klingelhofer, strength & conditioning coach at Landon since 1998, noted that Bordley’s care for young men was not limited by the color of the jersey they were wearing.
“If a boy was injured, or was going through a tough time, Rob would be the first one to call him at home and talk to him and his parents,” Klingelhofer said. “He would go visit kids in the hospital. Additionally, he would go to visit kids from other teams in the hospital after they were injured.”
Always sporting a keen sense of humor, Bordley likes to tell a funny story from his basketball coaching days to illustrate that coaches often get credit (or blame) needlessly.
“Many years ago when I was coaching 8th grade basketball at Landon, we were undefeated going into the last game of the season, and I had begun to think that I must be a pretty good basketball coach. The championship game came down to the last minute when I called timeout and diagramed a play. As the kids broke the huddle, they were all laughing, because the player who I designed the play for had just fouled out, and they wondered who was going to shoot the last shot. Someone did, and we won the game. The parents gave me all the credit, but for the next four years the boys teased me about that famous timeout.”
Now, after 50 years of service to the game, Bordley takes his place in the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. An honor, in this case, that is most certainly well deserved.
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The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony honoring the Class of 2020, postponed initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is now scheduled for Saturday, October 2, 2021 at the Grand Lodge in Hunt Valley, Md. Information about tickets will be announced later this summer. In addition to Bordley, the other inductees in the Class of 2020 are Roy Condon, John Desko, Ericka Leslie, Lisa Griswold Lindley, Laura Harmon Schuman, Joe Seivold, and Amy Appelt Slade.
