Wes Speaks enters his fourth season on the Gettysburg College men's lacrosse coaching staff in 2017. He serves as the Bullets' top assistant, working as the defensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator, and strength and conditioning coordinator.
Over the last three seasons, Gettysburg has posted a record of 44-10, including 21-3 in the Centennial Conference. The team ran off perfect conference records in each of the last two campaigns on the way to conference championships. In 2015, Gettysburg won its first 20 contests on the way to an appearance in the national semifinals. The Bullets returned to the NCAA semis in 2016 and capped the year with a 15-2 overall record.
Over the last three seasons, Speaks has coached 13 All-Americans, including three first-team honorees. He has also coached 23 All-Centennial performers and two CC Player of the Year selections. After finishing 14th in the country in scoring defense in 2015, the Bullets ranked sixth in 2016 after allowing just 6.3 goals per game.Â
Speaks came to Gettysburg after serving a two-year stint at Centennial Conference (CC) rival McDaniel College, where he was the defensive coordinator. In 2012, he helped the Green Terror finish fourth in the conference to earn a berth in the CC Tournament.
Prior to his tenure at McDaniel, Speaks also gained coaching experience for East Cobb Thunder Lacrosse, a club team based out of Marietta, Ga. In addition, for the last seven years Speaks has served as the principal and managing director of 1V1Lacrosse, training high school and middle school lacrosse players through clinics, small groups, and private settings in Atlanta. Several of his players have been selected as High School All-Americans and have gone on to play for college programs such as Ohio State, Denison, Massachusetts, Roanoke, Hampden-Sydney, Suwanee and The University of Alabama at Birmingham.
A Fairfax, Va. native, Speaks played for Tom Tufts at Robinson Secondary, where he was a two-time captain and was named a high school All-American as a senior. He started his collegiate career under Bill Gorrow at Anne Arundel Community College, where he was part of a Junior College National Championship and was named a second-team All-American.
From there, he went to Towson University, where he played under Lacrosse Hall of Fame coach Tony Seaman as a three-year starter and as a captain his senior year.
Speaks earned his bachelor’s degrees in business administration from Towson and a master’s in exercise science from McDaniel, where he graduated magna laude.
