MLL Throwback: How Chris Rotelli Became Synonymous with Lacrosse in California

Chris Rotelli has lived for 20 years in California, where he has helped to grow the game as a coach and club founder.

“I never thought I would work in lacrosse for a living,” he said. “And I never thought I would live in California doing it.”

Rotelli won the 2003 Tewaaraton Award after leading Virginia to the NCAA title, part of a flood of honors in his final weeks of college that included ACC Male Athlete of the Year and the No. 1 selection by the Bridgeport Barrage in the Major League Lacrosse draft.

“They all felt like team awards to me,” Rotelli said. “Anything I achieved individually was really a salute to what our team was able to do.”

His Tewaaraton sits in his Woodside, Calif., office, 30 miles south of San Francisco and a long way from his native Rhode Island and his East Coast beginnings in the sport.

“I did love lacrosse,” Rotelli said. “I loved working in it. I loved coaching it in the summers. When I was in college, I'd work lacrosse camps over the summertime rather than going to get internships on Wall Street.” 

After graduating from UVA, Rotelli jumped into the lacrosse business as New England sales representative for Cascade. He got traded to the Cannons and was living in Boston when friends in the industry moved to the West Coast, he pestered the company to send him there.

They relented — under one condition.

“I want half your time to be growing the game of lacrosse in the western United States,” Rotelli said, paraphrasing the arrangement. “You can be our sales rep out west, but as you travel around, I want you meeting with people who are growing the game and helping them do it.”

That agreement led Rotelli to begin running camps and clinics in California in 2006. He grew further entrenched when MLL expanded west and he played for the San Francisco Dragons. From 2003-2010, Rotelli suited up for teams in Bridgeport, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago, finishing as a three-time MLL All-Star with 163 points (109 goals, seven 2-pointers and 47 assists) in 76 career games.

“I don't know if I would have moved to California in the first place without Cascade,” he said. “Then Major League Lacrosse existing in California for three years is what brought me up to San Francisco and helped me stay there.” 

Rotelli started the Golden State Lacrosse Club in 2006. It had one team. After dabbling for three years in commercial real estate, he came back to lacrosse, making it his full-time profession in 2012 when he founded ADVNC Lacrosse, which now operates nearly 300 teams across 15 states, primarily in non-traditional areas.

“I get so much more fulfillment out of helping people through lacrosse and also running my own business,” he said.

Rotelli got in on the ground floor of youth expansion in California. The North Coast Section began sanctioning high school lacrosse in 2002, and within four years participation jumped significantly. Rotelli added high school coaching to his résumé in 2014 when he became the boys’ head coach at Sacred Heart Prep. Last year, he led the Gators to their second Central Coast Section title, complementing six league championships.

“Lacrosse is one of these things,” Rotelli said. “When it gets in your blood, it stays there.”