By Mace Funkhouser

Jason Archbell, who grew up playing football and lacrosse against Collegiate at Norfolk Academy, is now in his first season as Collegiate’s varsity lacrosse head coach. Additionally, Archbell is a member of the new Fellows Program and helps cultivate leadership all over campus.

After graduating from Norfolk Academy, Archbell played lacrosse at Hampden-Sydney College, where he served as captain his senior year. Archbell started thinking about coaching when he was in college, but he wasn’t completely sure that was what he wanted to do when he graduated. Archbell considered pursuing other opportunities, as he had offers to work in the finance industry, but when Virginia Wesleyan University‘s head lacrosse coach, J.P. Stewart, offered him an assistant coaching position, he accepted. 

Archbell at the University of Richmond. Photo courtesy of Collegiate School.

Despite initially thinking that coaching would be a temporary job, Archbell loved it and has been coaching lacrosse ever since. After three years at Virginia Wesleyan, he coached at Kenyon College for two years, Denison University for one year, Washington and Lee University for two years, the University of Pennsylvania for two years, Bowdoin College for nine years, and the University of Richmond for three years. Archbell was the head coach at Bowdoin and an assistant coach at the other schools. 

Archbell was put into a challenging situation this year, as this is his first time coaching high school lacrosse, and there are high expectations for the lacrosse program following a Prep League championship last season. However, he remains unfazed. Archbell admitted that the team “lost some experienced players from last year, and that’s a bit of a challenge,” but he pointed out that that’s not unusual. 

In Archbell’s experience, the most evident change coming from college to high school is the talent level, but Archbell had seen plenty of high school lacrosse for recruiting and was not surprised. On the other hand, Archbell noticed an important upside to coaching a high school team, compared to a college team: the amount of time it takes the team to get better. “In college, it usually takes weeks to improve,” he said, “but what I’ve found is really cool is that with our team, it takes days instead.” Archbell is excited to watch how the team continues to improve this season.

On the field, Archbell’s coaching strategy is centered around challenging the players in order to bring out the best in them. In an interview with The Match, Archbell said, “I love helping people understand how to push themselves in ways that they’re maybe not comfortable with.” Archbell noted that since lacrosse is fundamentally a decision-making game, pushing players to improve their skills helps them become better decision-makers on and off the field. When asked if he had any advice for younger players who want to find success in varsity or college lacrosse, Archbell said, “players need to understand that they have to create their own edge by working outside of practice and stacking as many good days in a row as they can. It doesn’t have to be a Herculean effort, it just needs to be consistent.”

Photo courtesy of Bowdoin College.

Archbell’s main goal is to have impacts that extend to all aspects of students’ lives, not just their athletic ability. Archbell said, “If the season isn’t ultimately successful, that’s really frustrating and disappointing, but if the players that I interact with and coach aren’t successful in their lives, that’s more devastating to me.” Archbell loves his position as a coach because he can instill self-confidence and leadership into players by guiding them to hold themselves to a high standard and embrace competition. 

In order to achieve his goals, Archbell focuses on creating a team that is gritty, selfless, and strongly connected to each other. He sees it as his job as the coach to cultivate that environment where players can trust and motivate each other. When I asked him about creating this environment, he said, “You want people to feel like they belong to the group, feel like they’re improving, and feel like there’s a purpose to what they’re doing.” At Collegiate, Archbell started forming this atmosphere long before the season began by holding various meetings with players. Archbell held individual, Senior, and whole team meetings last fall to spell out how the team can be successful, what he expects from players, and how he approaches coaching. 

As far as reasons for his move from college lacrosse to Collegiate, Archbell mentioned the new NIL policy and transfer portal rules. However, the main reason that Archbell made this change was because of the opportunity he saw at Collegiate. Archbell knew some people at Collegiate before taking the job, which made him think highly of the school, and he saw it as a permanent opportunity to have an even more profound impact on athletes. 

So far in his first season, the team is 12-4 and is among the top teams in the state, including losses against Blue Ridge School, last year’s state champions, and St. Paul VI, the 2023 state champions. Despite these losses, the team is pleased with their progress and believes they can beat any team in the state.  

Off the field, Archbell has furthered his contribution to the community by working with the Athletic Department and Admissions team. For the Athletic Department, Archbell’s job is mostly concerned with fostering leadership ideals throughout the school. In addition to leading captains’ trainings and coaches’ professional development, he speaks to Middle School teams about different leadership styles and habits. Additionally, he is getting experience by helping with both Upper School and Middle School Admissions. Being a Fellow in the new Fellows Program is a one-year role, so he will have new tasks next year, but the majority of Archbell’s work outside of coaching will still relate to promoting leadership.