Wakefield High School and Marymount University each have hired some new or interim head coaches in recent weeks.
At Wakefield, Shanan Knox has been hired as the baseball coach, Jackie Beathea chosen for girls basketball coach and Sam Sharp for girls and boys cross country.
Beathea played four years of college basketball at Southern Connecticut State University, after playing locally in Northern Virginia at Annandale High School. She previously was the head girls coach for two seasons at Annandale High and a freshman girls coach at Bishop Ireton High, where she also coached junior varsity softball.
Knox played college baseball at the University of Maine and has been involved coaching with the Arlington Storm youth program for a number of years. He was Wakefield’s junior varsity coach this past season under head coach Mike Ruck.
“He knows the game, is competitive, and I think he will do a good job holding the guys accountable and leading the program,” Ruck said about Knox.
Sharp was a standout prep runner in Ohio at Moeller High School. He previously coached in high school at School Without Walls in D.C.
n Marymount University has chosen Mike Cassidy and Aprile Preller as the interim coaches of the baseball and women’s basketball teams, respectively.
Cassidy spent the previous seven seasons as an assistant coach at Marymount. During his tenure, he has served as the director of hitting and outfielders coach.
Cassidy is a native of Burke and attended Lake Braddock Secondary School as a three-sport athlete (baseball, football and wrestling), graduating in 2000. He played college baseball at Averett University as a three-year starter.
Cassidy takes over for Frank Leoni, who in 2014 started the baseball program at Marymount, which enjoyed its best season this past spring. Leoni stepped down at season’s end to take the job at Division I Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland.
Preller served as a graduate-assistant coach under former long-time head coach Ashlee Rogers for the last two seasons. Before this season, Preller was moved into a role as an assistant coach.
Before joining Marymount, Preller was a four-year member of the women’s basketball team at Salisbury University in Maryland.