Men's Lacrosse

Ted Spencer is in his 13th season as the head coach of the Fairfield University men’s lacrosse program.  Under his tutelage the Stags have seen unprecedented success and continue to make strides towards becoming a perennial contender at the national level.

The second longest tenured male coach in the Fairfield Athletic Department, Spencer has posted an 89-81 (.524) record.  He has led the Stags to two NCAA Tournaments, two ECAC Championships, three MAAC Titles and two GWLL crowns.  Across the three leagues that Spencer has coached the Stags in, he has posted a 47-22 (.681) record.

Fairfield’s 2007 season got off to a rousing start, as the team opened 5-0, and earned a number 12 national ranking, March 19, the highest in program history.  The Stags played several highly-ranked teams, including hosting and defeating 11th ranked Bucknell.  For the third straight year, Greg Downing earned All-America Honorable Mention honors, as well as joining classmate Mike Bocklet among the elite in program history in offensive production.

The 2006 campaign marked the Stags first as a member of the ECAC Lacrosse League.  Fairfield wasted little time in making its presence felt, defeating Rutgers 11-7 in Piscataway, N.J., in the program’s first-ever ECAC contest.  The Stags upset nationally ranked Loyola, nearly dealt a loss to national runner-up UMass, and finished with a 4-3 record in league play.

Spencer’s 10th season at the helm, 2005, will go down as one of the finest in program history.  The Stags posted an 11-5 record on their way to winning a second Great West Lacrosse League (GWLL) crown.  Along with its second NCAA Tournament berth, the Stags set a school record in total wins (11) and consecutive wins (7).

That 2005 campaign earned Spencer his third Coach of the Year honor.  He was named the 2002 GWLL Coach of the Year, and earned MAAC Coach of the Year accolades his first season (1996).  The 2002 coaching accolades were secondary to the team’s accomplishments that season, winning the GWLL crown in just their second campaign, and earning the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth.

That first season, the fourth of the program’s varsity history, saw Spencer lead the Stags to a school record nine wins, including a perfect 7-0 conference mark. The nine-win season was just a start for the Spencer coached Stags.  Since then he has led teams past that win total four times, with 11 wins in 1998 and 2005, and 10 win seasons in 1997 and 1999.

Spencer led his team to three consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) championships from 1996 to 1998.  The Stags lost just two games in four seasons, going 28-2 in MAAC regular-season play, including three undefeated seasons.  Add to that a pair of wins over MAAC foes in the 1999 ECAC Tournament, and the Stags were 30-2 (.938) all-time against league opponents while playing in the MAAC.

Under Spencer's guidance, Fairfield also earned four consecutive postseason bids to the ECAC Tournament between 1996 and 1999, with the Stags knocking off Colgate for the 1998 title and Mount St. Mary's for the 1999 crown.

Spencer's players have garnered three All-American Honorable Mention selections, three All-ECAC selections, two GWLL Newcomer of the Year awards, one GWLL Player of the Year award, one GWLL Offensive Player of the Year award, 20 All-GWLL selections, 21 All-New England selections, 14 USILA North/South All-Star selections, 19 All-MAAC team members, three MAAC Player of the Year awards, nine MAAC All-Academic and eight Academic All-New England selections. In 2002, the Stags were selected as the winner of the Joseph (Frenchy) Julien Memorial Award for Sportsmanship.

In 2001, a panel of Division I head coaches selected Spencer to coach the prestigious USILA North/South All-Star game which showcases the country's top Division I seniors. Major League Lacrosse also honored him for being among a select few to have made significant contributions to the development of lacrosse in Connecticut.

Prior to his time at Fairfield, Spencer held assistant coaching positions at Brown and Yale. He played for UMass-Amherst, where he stood out as a long-pole defensive midfielder before graduating in 1985.

Spencer resides in Fairfield, Conn., with his wife, Denise, and their children, Ryan-Elizabeth (13), Ben (11), and Devin (9).

Darryl Delia, former interim head lacrosse coach at Yale University, begins his fifth season as the assistant head coach of the Fairfield University men’s lacrosse program.

Delia is involved in all aspects of the day-to-day operation of the program, serving as the offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator. Under his tutelage the Stags are averaging nearly 10 goals per game, 528 in four seasons, and have won 29 contests.

Prior to coming to Fairfield, Delia was the interim head coach at Yale in 2003 and recorded a 9-5 record.  He served as the head assistant coach at Yale from 1998 to 2002, where his responsibilities including coordinating recruiting activities for the program.  He was also the team’s offensive coordinator, and was responsible for the planning and implementing of off-season workouts for the team.  Under his guidance, Yale received back-to-back honors as one of the top-10 offensive teams in the country.

Before joining the collegiate ranks, Delia was the head lacrosse coach at Guilford high School from 1996 to 1997.  He also assisted the boys’ lacrosse program at Hamden Hall High School from 1994 to 1995.  He served East Haven High School as head wrestling coach from 1993 to 2003, in which time he registered a 187-59 record and earned Southern Connecticut Conference Wrestling Coach of the Year honors in 1999.

Delia is the president of the Nutmeg Sports Camps, a position he has held since 2000.  He is the director of the Run & Shoot Lacrosse Camp, and is a certified U.S. Progression Lacrosse Instructor.

Delia resides in East Haven, Conn., with his wife, Frances, and their daughters, Danielle and Desiree.

Tony Vallance begins his first season as an assistant coach with the men’s lacrosse program at Fairfield University.  He will serve as the team’s defensive coordinator, work with the goal keepers, and assist in day-to-day operations of the office, including recruiting efforts.

Vallance comes to Fairfield from Bellarmine University where he has served as an assistant coach since Dec. 2003.  In that time he has worked with the goalkeepers, face-off men and defensive unit.  In addition, Vallance was responsible for recruiting efforts, strength and conditioning and opponent scouting.

Vallance began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant coach at Dean (MA) Junior College during the 2001 season, coaching the goalies and defensive unit.  He spent Oct. 2001 through May 2002 in the Republic of Kiribati with the US Peace Corps.  Upon his return to the States, Vallance was hired as an assistant coach at Muhlenburg in July 2002, working again, with the goalies and defensive unit.  He also handled recruiting, and scouting in that role, which he held until making the move to Bellarmine.

A native of Laurel, Md., Vallance was a goalkeeper for Penn State from 1995-97.  He earned his degree, B.S., in Labor and Industrial Relations, graduating in 1998, from the University Park, Pa., institution.