Men's Lacrosse Success Traces Back to Coach Rizk

The Stockton University men’s lacrosse program has become a force to be reckoned with in the college lacrosse world. 

The Ospreys have gone 93-31 over the last eight seasons.

Stockton head coach Kevin Zulauf is in his 13th season at the helm and entered the 2022 season with an impressive 123-67 career record with the Ospreys. He has coached them to at least 12 victories in each of their last six full seasons.

He gives credit to former Stockton head coach Dick Rizk for helping to set the positive tone for the program. Rizk, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 84, was the head lacrosse coach at Stockton from 1992 to 2009, compiling a 140-116 record. 

When Rizk took over the Stockton program after coaching a club team at San Diego State and serving as associate head coach at Whittier College (Ca.), Stockton’s program was only five years old and hadn’t yet experienced a winning season. He coached his teams to .500 or better records in 14 of his 18 years with the Ospreys, including a then program-record 12 wins in 2002.

“His influence was extremely positive, not just for me, but for anybody that played for him,” Zulauf said of his mentor. “I think that’s something that I probably learned the most from him was just how he treated people, how he treated his players. That really left a lasting impression on me and is certainly something I try to live up to every day in being honest with your student athletes and making sure that they understand, no matter what, you’re always looking out for their best interest. 

“I think that’s a huge part of being a coach. He wasn’t just a mentor to me, he was a mentor to every player. I got to be a part of that as a player but then I got to be a very big part of it as an assistant coach for two years and even further than that, I actually became a very good friend of his as I began my assistant coaching position with him. I will forever be grateful for Coach Rizk and for everything he’s done for the Stockton program.”

Rizk, who played lacrosse for two seasons at Rutgers University, helped grow the sport in New Jersey. When he began coaching at Boonton High School in 1965 that there were only about 10 high school lacrosse programs in the state. In 24 years at Boonton, he won 135 games, two Fitch Division titles and the 1976 state championship.

Zulauf played for Rizk in 2006 at Stockton and spent two years as an assistant coach under him before succeeding him in 2010. Rizk was inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1997 and also the New Jersey Lacrosse League named a division in his honor as well. But Zulauf took the baton and ran with it.

“There’s a lot of connections,” Zulauf added. “Coach Rizk had statewide influence in New Jersey in terms of the game of lacrosse. He started the lacrosse program at Boonton High School in 1965. I believe it’s one of the oldest in high schools in New Jersey. I played at Boonton High School and graduated from there. My older brother Brad played at Boonton and also played for Coach Rizk for four years at Stockton."

"My senior year of high school we actually won the Rizk Division so he has a division named after him in New Jersey high school lacrosse. I played four years of high school for Bruce Davis who played for Coach Rizk at Boonton High School so Stockton and Boonton, the lineage, the connection there runs pretty deep with a lot of our other players who have also come from Boonton and graduated and played at Stockton.”

As a player, Zulauf had three standout seasons at Wagner College from 2003 to 2005 before transferring to Stockton. In his lone season with the Ospreys, he led the team in scoring with 70 points (sixth best season total in program history), earning a spot on the Knickerbocker Conference Second Team in 2006. His 40 assists that year is the fourth-best season total. 

Drew Wright, a 2014 Stockton grad, was part of Zulauf’s first recruiting class and said much of the program’s success is due to Zulauf’s coaching acumen, his ability to recruit top players and to relate to his players. Wright, who lives in Conshohocken, Pa. and works as an associate sales executive for ADP, says he takes a Stockton mentality with him on his job of not making excuses and controlling things he can control, which came from Zulauf.

“He gets guys that get D-I offers to top-tier programs,” said Wright, who organizes a golf tournament at Seaview Golf Club each year to benefit the Stockton program. “He’s just so great at getting people to buy into him, what his goal is. He’s a players’ coach. There was never a day that I dreaded going to practice…I was always ‘can’t wait to go out, can’t wait to get better.’ I think that’s what continues to add to the success. He knows and understands the guys, he knows how to get buy-in and he’s honest. He holds to his word. He just makes you better as a person. I can’t give Kevin enough credit for what he has done for that program.”

Stockton has had two former lacrosse players earn spots in the Stockton Athletics Hall of Fame: Kevin Logue (inducted in 2014) and Rory McPeek (2018). 

McPeek, who resides in Easton, Pa. where he is a high school special education teacher and coaches high school lacrosse, will never forget his Stockton experience. The 2000 grad holds the school record for assists in a career (137) and ranks second in points (267) and fifth in goals (130).

“Many of the guys that I played with during my four years at Stockton, I'm still close with today and consider close friends,” McPeek said. “The hard work and commitment that the coaches have put into building and maintaining a highly competitive program year-in and year-out has led to many high school players wanting to continue their playing careers at Stockton.”

He added that playing for Rizk “had a profound impact on my lacrosse career, both as a player and coach. He is a legend and I'm very fortunate to say I played for him.”

Stockton went a combined 12-3 in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, both shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the Ospreys were 5-1. The loss was a narrow 14-13 defeat in a near upset of No. 6 Ursinus on March 11, 2020 before the remainder of the season was canceled.

In 2019, Stockton had a program-record 18 wins and a CSAC title, an NCAA Tournament berth, and an NCAA Tournament win in a 20-9 victory over Morrisville State. That season, Zulauf notched his 100th career victory and was named CSAC Coach of the Year, the third time he’d been recognized as a conference Coach of the Year. He’d been named Skyline Conference Coach of the Year two times. Zulauf led the Ospreys to a 12-4 mark and the program’s second ECAC title in 2018, which followed 16 wins and a third straight trip to the Skyline Conference championship game in 2017.

The current roster is a perfect balance of experience and youth. Senior Luc Swedlund, a Men's DIII Preseason All-America Honorable Mention by Inside Lacrosse, led the nation in goals per game in 2019 (4.76) and set school season records with 100 goals and 118 points. Last spring, the attack became Stockton’s all-time goals leaders (193), breaking Logue’s career mark (191). 

Stockton assistant coach Noah Morris, also a former Stockton player, has also been part of the team’s ongoing success, Zulauf said. He’s in his 10th season.
 
“I think the best part of our program, certainly since I’ve been there, has been the camaraderie within the team,” Zulauf said. “Our players really look at each other as best friends and brothers. That certainly was the most difficult part through the beginning of the pandemic where our season was shut down in 2020 and we were actually pulled apart from each other and everybody had to go home.

“…We can tell through our fall season and we just started our spring season, the camaraderie is really back in full effect. That’s something that always makes me the most proud of the program. It’s not only seeing these guys respect each other and become best friends, it’s graduating and years later continuing to be best friends and coming back to our games and supporting our programs, that I think is very unique.”