admin Like Amonte Hiller, Pietramala first got to know Belichick over the phone, receiving an out-of-nowhere congratulatory call not long after coaching the Hopkins men to the ‘05 NCAA championship. Nearly two decades of friendship later, the coaches keep in touch today through recurring phone chats, “often at 5:30 to 6 in the morning when we’re driving to work, or 9 to 10 at night when we’re driving home,” Pietramala says. Topics run the gamut, but tend to lean heavy on coaching philosophy. “We talk a lot about preparation, like putting keys to the game up on the board, what’s too much or too little,” Pietramala says. “He’ll want to know about our gameplans, like how we’re going to handle a star attackman. He’s always interested to hear why others do what they do.”
Over the years the two coaches have also taken trips to visit each other’s workplaces, attending practices and sitting in on player and staff meetings; asked for examples of areas where seeing Pietramala has influenced his work with the Patriots, Belichick provides a lengthy list: “Watching his pre-game preparation of the team, practice organization, use of video, halftime operation, motivation of players, handling problems, discipline—pretty much everything.” But Pietramala is far from the only lacrosse coach to influence how Belichick approaches football—tops being his daughter Amanda, who got her head coaching start at their mutual alma mater, Wesleyan, and has coached Holy Cross since 2016. “Amanda & I talk a lot about assistant coaches, team building, motivation, & player/coach communication,” the elder Belichick emails.
Similarly, Belichick continues, Tierney and Maryland coach John Tillman have evolved from passing connections—he met both through the Top 205 recruiting camps—to regular resources. So too have a host of professional lacrosse players (including brothers Lyle and Miles Thompson, who, in addition to Pietramala over the years, have spoken to the Patriots’ locker room at Belichick’s invitation) as well as Amonte Hiller. “He’ll text me every once in a while and ask me questions, like (about) how I’m dealing with something,” says the Northwestern coach, whose Wildcats recently captured the eighth NCAA title of her tenure with a dozen-goal rout of Boston College in the ‘23 final. “He’s just so humble. I’m going, ‘I should be getting advice from you.’”
Beyond adding tactics to his coaching arsenal, Belichick has also used lacrosse to bolster his roster and staff in New England: In addition to Hogan, who won two Super Bowls in three seasons as a shifty, versatile target for Tom Brady, the Patriots currently employ a pair of ex-college laxers in director of player operations and engagement Chris Mattes (a teammate of Steve Belichick’s at Rutgers) and cornerbacks coach Mike Pellegrino (a former Johns Hopkins player for Pietramala). “So I would say that those were mutually beneficial (people to have met through lacrosse),” Belichick writes.
Out of his many connections in the sport, Belichick reserves perhaps his strongest reverence for Rabil, describing the ex-Johns Hopkins and PLL star as “one of the most impressive people I have ever met, period.” Now 37, Rabil was a junior captain in college when he boldly asked Pietramala to put him in touch with Belichick. (“I knew they were close, so I wanted to see if I could have some one-on-one time to ask about winning,” Rabil recalls.) Belichick agreed, sitting down with Rabil in Pietramala’s office and sparking a lasting and rich relationship. “We’ve gone to each other’s games, we’ve gone out to dinner, we’ll share excerpts from books,” says Rabil, who also reports annually receiving a batch of “amazing” holiday cookies from the Belichick family.
