{"id":11574333,"date":"2025-07-22T17:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T21:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11574333&preview=true&preview_id=11574333"},"modified":"2025-07-23T18:26:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T22:26:06","slug":"st-marys-hires-former-navy-baseball-coach-paul-kostacopoulos-athletic-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/22\/st-marys-hires-former-navy-baseball-coach-paul-kostacopoulos-athletic-director\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Mary\u2019s hires former Navy baseball coach Paul Kostacopoulos as athletic director"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Kostacopoulos dreamt of serving in high school athletics in an administrative role from the day he graduated college decades ago. He just never imagined it would happen so close to where he spent the past 18 years.<\/p>\n

St. Mary\u2019s named the former Navy baseball coach its new athletic director on Tuesday, though his role will officially begin on July 30. He takes over for Tom Smith, who led the St. Mary\u2019s athletic department for the 2024-25 school year but recently took a job in South Carolina. Saints football coach Jason Budroni served as interim athletic director for the second significant chunk of time in two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited as I\u2019ve ever been to take something on,\u201d Kostacopoulos said. \u201cI\u2019ve loved my career. I\u2019ve loved coaching. This [opportunity] presented itself at exactly the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hire brings the 60-year-old back into prominence in local athletics more than two years after Kostacopoulos retired as the second-winningest coach in Midshipmen baseball history<\/a>. In 34 years at the helm, Kostacopoulos, nicknamed “Kosty,” amassed 1,027 wins \u2014 523 of which were at Terwilliger Brothers Field. Only 92 coaches in NCAA baseball history have surpassed 1,000.<\/p>\n

The five-time Patriot League Coach of the Year led Navy to two conference titles and NCAA Tournament berths in 2011 and 2016 while also competing in six league championships. He also ushered 16 players to All-America honors and three to get drafted by Major League Baseball teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul\u2019s exceptional background and his philosophy on providing a culture that fosters the growth of young people \u2014 physically, mentally, and emotionally \u2014 impressed the selection committee,\u201d said interim president of St. Mary\u2019s School Deacon Leroy Moore in a news release. \u201cHis impressive experience working with young athletes will provide the leadership to help foster the values of St. Mary\u2019s parish and school and continue the rich tradition of competitive athletic teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The relationship between the U.S. Naval Academy and St. Mary\u2019s High runs deep, not only because of the half-mile distance between the two campuses and the fact that Saints athletes regularly exchange their royal blue for Navy blue upon graduation, especially in football and lacrosse. St. Mary\u2019s last longtime athletic director of almost a decade, Allison Fondale,<\/a> previously served as an assistant coach for Navy women\u2019s lacrosse for seven years.<\/p>\n

Though he\u2019s not an Anne Arundel County local, Kostacopoulos hails from an area just as rooted in community, sports and Catholicism \u2014 New England. He piled up accolades in his home region, too, over his years coaching his alma mater Providence and Maine from 1990 to 2005. Back then, he was the youngest Division I coach in the nation at age 25, just a few years out of college. Now, his name sits in the Hall of Fame in four regions \u2013 Maryland State Baseball, Middletown Connecticut Sports, Providence College Athletic and State of Maine Baseball.<\/p>\n

Kostacopoulos fell for the history he found when he walked through St. Mary\u2019s heavy wooden doors, as well as its devotion to faith that matched his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the potential there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The new athletic director assumes the reins at a transformative time for St. Mary\u2019s. The school just refinished its secondary field on Bestgate Road into a 70-yard turf practice facility. On July 7, the St. Mary\u2019s Parish also purchased the property down the street from its athletic fields from Annapolis Area Christian School for $8.5 million<\/a>. AACS will continue to use it as its middle school for the 2025-2026 school year, but after that, all nine acres and 40,000 square feet of building is all the Saints\u2019.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not all that\u2019s changing at St. Mary\u2019s, either.<\/p>\n

\"Paige
Paige Neville, left, shoots as Ella Edwards guards the net during St. Mary\u2019s girls lacrosse practice. (Paul W. Gillespie\/Staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both boys basketball and field hockey programs have been promoted to the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association and Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conferences, joining girls basketball, football, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse on the upper tier. Field hockey recently claimed back-to-back B Conference titles in 2023 and 2024<\/a>, while basketball recently took its pair in 2022 and 2023 before competing as an associate in the hallowed Baltimore Catholic League last winter.<\/p>\n

That transition isn\u2019t easy for any program. After years of domination in the B Conference, a young Saints football team suffered an 0-10 season in 2024. Girls basketball only just began to show it could weather the better teams last winter after going undefeated in the B Conference two years ago. Boys swimming climbed to the A Conference in 2020, but the subsequent pandemic season curbed its chances of remaining.<\/p>\n

Kostacopoulos knows as well as anyone who\u2019s been in Annapolis for an extended period of time just how good the MIAA and IAAM A Conference is. His role, he said, is to provide as much support as he can to those programs and those coaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, that\u2019s the most important part of the athletic department,\u201d he said. \u201cBuildings are buildings, schedules are schedules, but coaches matter. Keeping the continuity of our veteran coaches, helping the younger coaches and building a synergy with the whole staff is so important. We\u2019re fortunate to have so many good ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a news tip? Contact Katherine Fominykh at <\/span><\/i>kfominykh@baltsun.com<\/span><\/i><\/a> or DM @capgazsports on Instagram.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Mary\u2019s named Paul Kostacopoulos its new athletic director, bringing the longtime Navy baseball coach back into local 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