Flaherty Aims to Restore Roar at St. Mark’s
While there’s a new man in charge on the sidelines, many of the faces on the field will be familiar for St. Mark’s this season.
Harry Flaherty returns to Texas after spending six years as the head coach at Lawrenceville School in western New Jersey. He takes over for Hayward Lee, a longtime coach for the football and lacrosse programs at St. Mark’s School of Texas who took a job at All Saints Episcopal in Fort Worth.
The Lions played just two games during an abbreviated 2020 season, defeating Greenhill and falling to ESD. They haven’t had a winning season since 2017.
However, Flaherty is confident St. Mark’s can reverse that trajectory with an experienced roster that includes 17 returning starters.
“I feel good about the core nucleus of players we have in the upper grades,” Flaherty said. “The players have been working hard this summer. There’s also an added hunger because these seniors didn’t get to play an extensive junior season. Collectively we’re all excited to get back to normal.”
Alex Nadalini, who took some snaps last season, will return as the likely starting quarterback for the Lions. The weapons around him include Elijah Ellis, Conor Duffy, and Niles Harvey. Ellis also is a standout at linebacker.
“I want to try and be creative with our guys. But more important than the schemes that we run is going to be the way that we play,” Flaherty said. “We want to focus on the process and let the results take care of themselves.”
