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Steve Vaikness

 
Profile
Steve Vaikness has been an invaluable member of the Loyola men's lacrosse coaching staff since rejoining the program in 2006 as a volunteer assistant coach.

A collegiate teammate of Greyhounds' Head Coach Charley Toomey, Vaikness has developed Loyola's faceoff unit into one of the nation's finest and has been regarded by national media as the NCAA's top faceoff coach.

He coached the two players who have the most faceoff wins and ground balls in school history, brothers Graham '17 and Bailey '21 Savio. Under Vaikness' tutelage, Bailey Savio won 808 faceoffs, a Loyola and Patriot League record while picking up 472 ground balls, also records for the school and conference. He broke the Loyola marks previously set by Graham Savio of 709 and 340.

In 2012, Vaikness guided first-year faceoff midfielder J.P. Dalton to a .523 winning percentage, and the senior captain and his unit had one of their most dominating performances in the NCAA Quarterfinals. Dalton won 17-of-22 faceoffs against his All-American counterpart and a team that had won .678 restarts against the Greyhounds in two previous meetings that year.

From 2009-2011, John Schiavone has become one of the nation's premier faceoff specialists under Vaikness' tutelage. In 2010, Schiavone was named an All-America Honorable Mention player after finishing sixth in the country in faceoff winning percentage.

In 2009, the Greyhounds led the ECAC and were fifth in the NCAA with a .566 faceoff winning percentage. Schiavone was fourth in the NCAA last year, winning .587 of the faceoffs he attempted.
In his first three seasons as an assistant coach with the Greyhounds, Vaikness' instruction at the faceoff `X' paid large dividends, as well. The Greyhounds were 12th nationally in faceoff percentage (.556), and Tim McDermott was ninth individually, winning .586 of his restarts.

In 2007, Loyola registered the nation's fourth-best face-off win percentage as a team, and had the country's third-best faceooff man in Dan Kallaugher.

A native of Camillus, N.Y., Vaikness attended West Genesee High School and played for the 1985 New York State Championship Team. He came to Loyola and in his four years, helped the Greyhounds advance to three NCAA Tournaments, including the Quarterfinals in 1988 and the NCAA Championship Game in 1990.

As a senior, Vaikness earned the John R. Mohler Award, presented annually by the Loyola College Alumni Association for excellence in the areas of athletics, scholarship and character. He earned his bachelors degree in marketing and immediately began his coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Greyhounds during the 1992 and 1993 lacrosse seasons.