Coach Whitley begins his seventh season at the helm of the Knights during the 2026 campaign and is currently signed through the 2029 season.
Under the guidance of Coach Whitley, the 2025 Knights made their fourth consecutive trip to the ASUN Championship and finished their third straight regular season at-or-above .500. Four of Bellarmine’s five overall postseason berths have come under Coach Whitley. The Knights’ 2025 graduating class was also the winningest class in the program’s 21-year history, earning 32 victories.
Attackman John Alie had a historic junior campaign, setting a program record and ranking sixth in Division I with 52 goals. Additionally, his 77 points were just two shy of the BU record and he enters his senior season just 12 goals shy of setting a new program record. Twice in 2025 he matched the program record with six goals in a game while matching the program record of nine points once. He became the first Knight to be named ASUN Scholar Athlete of the Year while also being named Second Team All-ASUN.
Senior captain midfielder Justin Wescoat became the fifth Knight to earn First Team All-ASUN status in four seasons as he started all 17 games and set career highs with 23 goals and 11 assists. Senior faceoff specialist Aidan Fearn joined Alie on the Academic All-ASUN team after setting a career mark with 40 ground balls. On Feb. 8 against Mercyhurst, Fearn won 22 of 26 faceoffs (.846) and set a BU single-game program record with 15 ground balls.
Ezra Moore was one of four Knights garnering ASUN All-Freshman status, notching 50 points to set a new BU freshman record. Fellow ASUN All-Freshman Nolan Hudnut set a program record and finished fourth in Division I with 212 saves. Attackmen Joe Alie and Leo Prosser also earned ASUN All-Freshman nods to give BU four such players in 2025 after having just five in the previous three seasons.
The 2025 team also enjoyed continued success in the classroom, landing three players on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team (John Alie, Fearn, Wescoat), matching a program best with four players being named USILA Scholar All-Americans (Fearn, Brady Long, Cole Messick, Wescoat), and earning the USILA Team Academic Award for the fifth straight season. On the conference side, the Knights featured five ASUN Honors Graduates (Alex Coco, Fearn, Messick, Jayden Smith, Wescoat) and a program record 50 on the ASUN Honor Roll.
The 2024 Knights continued the program’s run of success in reaching the ASUN Tournament, doing so for the third straight season. The Bellarmine lacrosse program had never, before 2024, played in the postseason in three straight seasons. The senior class graduated having won 29 games against Division I competition, the most in program history until 2025.
Fifth-year goalie JC Higginbotham became the fifth Knight to ever garner All-American status, earning honorable mention from USA Lacrosse after finishing second in NCAA Division I with a school record .590 save percentage. Coach Whitley has now mentored three of Bellarmine's five All-Americans. Higginbotham left Bellarmine as the program’s career leader with 666 saves and 26 career wins, numbers that could have been higher had he not suffered a season-ending injury in the second quarter on April 10 against Robert Morris.
Senior attackman Kyle Playsted, the most decorated player in program history, became both the first Knight ever with 100 career goals and the first Knight ever with 100 career assists. He finished his Bellarmine career with program records of 113 goals, 109 assists and 222 points and was recognized as Bellarmine’s representative on the ASUN Spring Winners for Life Team. He also won a pair of Bellies awards, being named both the men’s Valor MVP and Athlete of Distinction by Bellarmine student-athletes.
Fifth-year attackman Benny O’Rourk finished his Bellarmine career having scored at least one goal in 38 consecutive games, totaling 108 goals in his career, second in program history behind Playsted. Senior attackman Christian Della Rocco finished his Knights tenure third on the all-time goals list with 101 and, after the season, was selected to play in the USILA Senior All-Star Game.
As a team, Coach Whitley’s Knights were the best team in Division I at moving the ball from the defensive end to the offensive end, finishing with a school record .926 clearing percentage. They also placed in the top 25 in a pair of other categories, ranking 11th in man-down defense (.730) and 23rd in saves per game (12.88).
The Knights once again brought in plenty of hardware in 2024. Sophomore attackman John Alie garnered First Team All-ASUN recognition after leading the team with 40 goals. Playsted, Higginbotham, O’Rourk and
defenseman Christopher Reynolds were given Second Team All-ASUN laurels while defenseman Jackson Campisano landed on the ASUN All-Freshman Team. Coach Whitley’s squad boasted four USILA Scholar All-Americans (Della Rocco, Denton Macdonald, Playsted, Tommy Fialkowski), making him the head coach of nine of Bellarmine’s 11 USILA Scholar All-Americans all-time. Additionally, five players landed on College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-District Team (Alie, Della Rocco, Aidan Fearn, O’Rourk and Justin Wescoat), four graduated with ASUN Honors (Della Rocco, Fialkowski, Josh Healy and Lukas Sinon) and a program-record 48 were named to the ASUN Honor Roll.
In 2023, the Knights enjoyed their most successful season in program history. The team broke 33 different program records, including the record for NCAA Division I wins in a season (11). Coach Whitley would lead the Knights to the program’s first consecutive postseason appearances and to their first ever postseason win with a 14-13 triumph over Mercer in the ASUN Championship quarterfinals. The 2023 team broke the program records for points in a season (361), groundballs in a season (506), goals in a season (233), assists in a season (128), shots in a season (701), shots on goal in a season (423), points per game (21.21), goals per game (13.71), assists per game (7.53), shots per game (41.24), and shots on goal per game (24.88). Under Coach Whitley,
the 2023 Knights would finish ranked in the top 20 of Division I in several statistical categories, including man-down defense (7th), clearing percentage (11th), shot percentage (11th), scoring margin (15th), scoring offense (18th), points per game (18th), assists per game (19th) and winning percentage (20th). 2023 was the second year in a row the Knights’ man down defense earned top 10 honors.
The 2023 team also produced the program's fourth-ever All-American in Kyle Playsted and two USILA Scholar All-Americans in Jake Berggren and Benny O'Rourk.
Individually, many Knights made their mark in the record book under Coach Whitley’s tutelage across the 2023 campaign. The attack unit of Kyle Playsted, Christian Della Rocco and captain Benny O’Rourk combined for 199 points, the fourth-most out of any attack unit in NCAA Division I. The trio would each individually break the program record for points in a season with Playsted pacing the group at 79 points and O’Rourk and Della Rocco tying with 60 points apiece.
Playsted earned First Team All-ASUN honors and was the ASUN co-Player of the Year. Playsted’s 2023 season was the best of his Bellarmine career, breaking program records for points in a season (79, led ASUN), points per game (4.65), assists in a season (39, led ASUN) and assists per game (2.29). He tied the program record for goals in a game (6) and tied his own record for points in a game (9). He finished 2023 first in Bellarmine history for career points (161), first in career assists (80), first in assists per game (1.70), second in points per game (3.43), second in career goals (81), and seventh in career shots on goal (132). His 40 goals tied him with O’Rourk for the second-highest single-season total by a Knight. Playsted finished the year ranked 12th in NCAA Division I in assists per game, 13th in individual man-up goals and 17th in points per game. He became Bellarmine’s fourth All-American, earning an honorable mention selection from Inside Lacrosse.
Della Rocco led the ASUN and broke the Bellarmine program record for goals in a season with 50. He went on to make the ASUN All-Tournament Team after totaling six goals and an assist in Bellarmine's two tournament games. Della Rocco additionally broke the Knights records for goals per game (2.94), shots in a season (127) and shots on goal in a season (79). Like Playsted, he tied the record for goals in a game (6), doing so on two occasions: March 4 vs. VMI and March 25 vs. Queens. His 3.53 points per game in 2023 ranked fourth all-time in Bellarmine history. He finished 2023 third in career goals, fifth in career points and 10th in career shots on goal at Bellarmine.
O’Rourk earned Second Team All-ASUN honors while registering 60 points, tying Della Rocco for second all-time by a Knight in a single season behind Playsted. His 40 goals tied him with Playsted for the second-highest single-season total by a Knight at the time. He also tied Della Rocco at 3.53 points per game for the fourth-best single-season mark in program history at the time. O’Rourk finished the 2023 season ranked eighth in career assists (38), third in career points (115), third in career shots on goal (161) and tied with Della Rocco for third in career goals (77).
Defenseman Jake Berggren would also earn Second Team All-ASUN honors, as well as a spot on the ASUN All-Academic Team after finishing the year with 62 ground balls and a team-leading 23 caused turnovers. Faceoff specialist Grant Guthrie was named a member of the ASUN All-Freshman Team and broke the program record for ground balls in a season with 75. Goalkeeper JC Higginbotham broke the season record for goalkeeper wins with nine.
In 2022, the Knights’ first year in the ASUN Conference, Coach Whitley led the program to its second ever post-season berth and a semifinal appearance in the ASUN Championship. The Knights broke several team records in 2022, including points in a season (289), goals in a season (180), assists in a season (109), shots in a season (601) and caused turnovers in a season (170). The team also broke the program records for goals in a game (23) and points in a game (38) in their 23-3 win Feb. 26 vs. Hampton. The defense finished sixth in NCAA Division I in caused turnovers per game (10.0) and fourth in man down defense (.754). The Knights also had four All-ASUN selections in Benny O'Rourk (First Team), Jon Robbins (First Team), Denton MacDonald (Second Team) and Kyle Playsted (Second Team). A league-leading three freshmen earned ASUN All-Freshman Team selections: Brady Long, Aidan Fearn and Justin Wescoat.
Robbins became the program's all-time leader with 112 caused turnovers, good for 11th all-time in NCAA Division I at the time of his graduation. Robbins also broke program records for caused turnovers in a game (6) and caused turnovers in a season (44) during the 2022 campaign. He finished second all-time in program history in career groundballs (180) and became the program's first ever PLL draft pick when the Utah Archers selected him in the fourth round with the 28
th pick. Robbins was an ASUN All-Academic Team selection along with senior attackman Luke Legnard. Playsted would add his name to the record books in 2022 as well, breaking program records for points in a season (53), points in a game (9), assists in a game (6) and assists in a season (28).
After a shortened 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Knights achieved the most wins in a season since 2016. In 2021, Coach Whitley led a program that produced three All-SoCon selections in Eric Rubak (First Team), Jon Robbins (First Team) and Landon Trout (Second Team). The 2021 team also produced Bellarmine's third ever All-American in Eric Rubak, who was given honorable mention notice by USA Lacrosse. Additionally, three of the programs' five total (to that point) USILA Scholar All-Americans (Rubak, Robbins and Trout) and nine SoCon Academic All-Conference selections played on the 2021 squad.
Robbins and Rubak finished fifth and tied for sixth, respectively, in NCAA Division I in caused turnovers per game in 2021. Robbins’ efforts would earn him the single-season program record for caused turnovers (35), a record which he went on to break in 2022 (44), while Rubak became the program’s all-time leader in caused turnovers (68), though Robbins would sprint past that mark in 2022. The defense finished seventh nationally averaging 9.47 caused turnovers, also setting the program’s season record. On the offensive side, Landon Trout finished 17th in the country in individual man-up goals. He also became the second Knight to surpass 100 career points.
Coach Whitley came to Bellarmine after having previously served as the associate head coach at Fairfield University. He joined the Fairfield staff as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2010 season before being promoted to the role of assistant coach for the 2013 season. In 2016, Whitley was elevated to associate head coach of the program. In his tenure at Fairfield, the Stags would achieve 80 victories while competing in the ECAC and CAA. Coach Whitley helped the Stags become one of the preeminent programs in both conferences by coaching 18 All-CAA selections and 22 All-ECAC selections. Additionally, three players were named conference rookie of the year. At the same time, he coached six USILA All-Americans, 16 USILA North South All-Stars, and seven MLL draft selections.
The Stags would also qualify for six conference tournaments, advancing to the tournament finals on four occasions. During his 10 seasons at Fairfield, Coach Whitley was a member of three Stags teams that were regular season conference champions while setting the school record for single season wins in 2012 and 2014.
Before Fairfield, Coach Whitley served as a volunteer assistant coach at Yale University, overseeing the goalkeepers. In his three seasons in New Haven, 10 Bulldogs earned All-Ivy League honors. Four players were also named to the USILA North South All-Star Game. Coach Whitley helped the Bulldogs to 16 victories in his tenure at Yale while competing in the Ivy League. Prior to his time at Yale, Coach Whitley served as an assistant coach at nearby Hopkins School, starting with the 2003 season and helping them to a Fairchester Athletic Association championship in 2006.
In both his first and last seasons at Hopkins, he helped the Hilltoppers to set school records for winning percentage with an 11-2 record. Coach Whitley developed some of the school’s best players in program history, coaching two of the institution’s three All-Americans and 19 All-FAA selections. He was named the FAA Assistant Coach of the Year in 2005.
Whitley began his NCAA coaching career at Wesleyan University in Connecticut as an assistant coach. Coach Whitley would help the team to 28 victories in his four seasons in Middletown. During his tenure at Wesleyan, the Cardinals advanced to the ECAC Tournament on two occasions.
In 2000, Coach Whitley helped the Cardinals post a single-season school record for wins and make an appearance in the ECAC Tournament finals.
Before coaching as a profession, Coach Whitley was the chief executive officer of Ankeny Homes, LLC, of Wilton, Conn., from 2001 to 2008. He was also the vice president of U.S. operations of Athletes, Inc. where he worked from 1994 to 2001.
Coach Whitley is a 1996 graduate of Franklin & Marshall College where he received his Bachelor of Arts in sociology. He was a two-time All-Centennial Conference selection as a goaltender, helping the Diplomats to an NCAA Tournament appearance. He would finish his career at F&M ranked in the top 20 in Centennial Conference history in career saves, save percentage and goals against average. Prior to transferring to F&M, Whitley was a member of two teams at Alfred University that qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
Alma Mater: Franklin & Marshall ‘96
