Vern Smith is retiring after 14 seasons as Head Coach of the Maple Valley/Tahoma Lacrosse Club. He has touched the lives of hundreds of our student-athletes, including our two sons, teaching them athletic skills, teamwork and important life-skills, and helping them to mature into adults. He will be missed.

Vern founded the Maple Valley Lacrosse Club in 1999 starting with a single team of 19 high school age boys. The Tahoma Lacrosse Club has since grown into 14 teams including girls and boys from kindergarten through 12th grade.

All the schools in the Tahoma School District have teams.

He is most proud of the 11 players he’s coached that have chosen coaching as a profession. One of those players is Tahoma offensive coordinator Brian Johnson who will be Head Coach of the Tahoma Club next season. Brian starred as a freshman on Maple Valley’s 1999 state championship team.

Vern is a 2008 Washington Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee and played at the U.S. Military Academy and later Johns Hopkins University before coming to the State of Washington. He also founded the Bellevue High and Vashon Lacrosse Clubs before moving to the Maple Valley area.

Thank you, Vern for your exceptional service to the youth of our community! We wish you and your wife Nancy all the best in retirement.

Noel and Charlene Gerken,

Maple Valley