Bordley '70 leads prep powerhouse

Except for his four years at Princeton, Bordley, the head coach of Landon’s highly successful lacrosse program and a popular history teacher at the suburban D.C. school, has stayed at his alma mater and parlayed his passions for lacrosse, teaching and children into a rewarding 38-year career.

Bordley has spent 33 of those years as the head coach of Landon’s nationally renowned lacrosse program. His efforts on the sidelines have earned him five Washington Post Coach of the Year awards, 22 consecutive Interstate Athletic Association (IAC) league titles between 1981 and 2002, and a .859 career winning percentage.

Known during his Princeton days for his tendency to climb dorm roofs, Bordley is now famous among his players and students for his dedication and passion.

“I think, probably, the qualities I have most of are energy and enthusiasm,” Bordley said. “I don’t let setbacks hold me back, and I always bring energy to the field. The day I don’t have that energy is the day I need to retire.”

Bordley began his teaching career in September 1970, just months after his graduation from Princeton, when Landon hired him as a history teacher. Since Landon requires its teachers to coach at least one after-school sport, the former Princeton wide receiver became the Bears’ assistant football coach.

Bordley liked coaching football but disliked that the team met on Saturdays and Sundays, which prevented him from playing rugby on the weekends. Nevertheless, he stayed on as an assistant coach until 1974, when Ned Lanthrop, the head coach of Landon’s newly minted lacrosse program, offered the two-time All-Ivy lacrosse star an assistant coaching position. Bordley jumped at the opportunity to coach his favorite sport, and a year later, in 1975, Lanthrop retired, and Bordley took the reins of what would become the region’s most dominant lacrosse program.

There was only one problem: Landon’s lacrosse team wasn’t any good. It consistently struggled even against other mediocre teams. But the new head coach was too determined to continue losing indefinitely. Ultimately, Bordley decided that he needed to fundamentally change Landon’s approach to lacrosse.

He began by scheduling the Bears against older, more established lacrosse programs from Baltimore and other parts of the D.C. region, with the hope that this exposure would force Landon’s players to elevate their own level of play. Meanwhile, Bordley visited college lacrosse practices to learn new drills to incorporate into his own practices. Above all, Bordley brought intensity to the sidelines and an ability to inspire his players through plain honesty.

“What makes him so good is that he is a great motivator,” said junior midfielder Mark Kovler, a former Landon standout and one of three Landon alums currently on Princeton’s men’s lacrosse team. “He motivates his players to work hard on their own.”

In those early years, though, Landon struggled — or, as Bordley says, “we got spanked.” Yet slowly but surely, the Bears’ lacrosse program began to escape obscurity. By the 1980s, Landon was a Washington-area powerhouse, and by the 1990s, the Bears were a national powerhouse, consistently ranked as one of the top 10 high school lacrosse programs in the country.

“I think he has a good perspective on building a successful program both in the short term and the long term,” said junior midfielder Brendan Reilly, another former Landon star. “And he’s definitely inspirational during the games.”

Bordley, however, deflects credit to Landon’s supportive administration, especially his top-flight assistant coaches, who include Princeton alum Tiger Joyce ’82.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“Any coach who has had any success can tell you that you can’t be successful without good assistant coaches,” Bordley said.

While Bordley has a strong staff of assistant coaches, he also happens to be one of the country’s hardest-working high school lacrosse coaches. He spends hours watching college lacrosse practices, traveling as far as Charlottesville, Va., and spends hours more talking on the phone with other lacrosse coaches, trying to glean advice.

“I think good coaches realize that you can learn from anybody,” Bordley said.

Despite his frequent presence at collegiate practices, Bordley does not want to coach at the collegiate level. While he would enjoy coaching college players, he dislikes the recruiting process coaches must endure.

“I’ve asked college coaches: ‘What is it like when you spend months building a personal relationship with kids and their families, and then they decide to go elsewhere?’ ” Bordley said. “I can’t say I would ever enjoy that.”

Besides, Bordley’s work at Landon is not yet finished. He vows to once again defeat Landon’s archrival, Georgetown Prep, a school that has dominated the IAC in recent years, and win another league title before he retires. The Bears (8-3) will have their annual shot at defeating Georgetown Prep on April 25 and will enter the IAC Tournament on May 7. But even if Landon defeats Prep and wins the league title, don’t count on Bordley’s retirement just yet.

“I love teaching and coaching; you can’t do it for 38 years and not enjoy it,” Bordley said. “I can’t imagine having done anything different.”