Coaches

Shea Conway
Varsity Head Coach

Coach Conway will be entering his 3rd season as head coach of the Howard boys’ lacrosse program and 13th overall with the program. He is a special education teacher at Howard. In his ten seasons as assistant coach the Lions are 131-47 and 21-11 in his two years as head coach. Howard has had 75 players named to the All-County team and 3 players named Howard County player of the year during his time on staff. In 2023, Howard finished the season 12-5, advancing to the 3A East Regional Final. In 2019, Howard won the 4A North regional title and advanced to the state final for the 4th time in 6 years eventually falling 9-6.  In 2018, Howard won the 4A North regional title and advanced to the state final four for the 5th time in 6 years.   In 2016, Howard won county and regional titles, finishing as the state runner-up in the 4A/3A classification with a 14-5 record. In 2015, Howard won the 4A/3A state championship going 19-0 on the year along with county and regional championships. In 2014, Howard won the county championship going 11-0 in county play, won the 4A/3A North regional championship and was a state finalist. The Lions finished the 2014 season 18-1. Over the years, Coach Conway’s roles have included running the substitution box, implementing rides/clears, coordinating the offense/extra man units, and implementing off-season player development.

Prior to coaching with the Howard Lacrosse Program, Coach Conway served as an assistant coach on the Varsity team at Glenelg High School, which won the 2A/1A state title in 2011. In addition to coaching at Howard, Coach Conway has also coached with the Zingos Lacrosse Club as a head coach, as well as the Rock Lacrosse Club.  Coach Conway played at Glenelg High School, while there he was named All-County for his performance on the field.  He played his collegiate ball at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. While there Coach Conway started on attack for two seasons.


Mike Kaplan
Varsity Assistant Coach

Coach Kaplan is entering his 13th year coaching at Howard High School. Currently, he is the Varsity Defensive Coordinator.  Coach Kaplan has led one of the top defensive units in the state over the past eight seasons with the team ranking among tops in the state for goals against average. In 2018, he was named the Howard County US Lacrosse Assistant Coach of the Year for his efforts as defensive coordinator.  Prior to coaching at Howard High School, he spent 3 years as an assistant coach and the Director of Lacrosse Operations at Howard Community College. His primary focus was with the goalies and defense; coaching several All-Region defensemen and one All-American defender. He also coached back-to-back All-Region goalies. He spent 4 years coaching for the Chesapeake Rock Lacrosse Club with the U18 premier team.  He has coaching experience with Howard County Lacrosse Program at both the youth recreation level as well as the Cobra travel level.

As a collegiate player, he won an NCLL National Championship with the Towson University Club Lacrosse team. Before that he was a member of the Howard Community College lacrosse team. Mike is also a Howard H.S. alumni, graduating in 2003.


Dan Kaplan

Varsity Assistant Coach

Dan Kaplan enters his 4th season as an assistant with the Howard lacrosse program.  His primary duties are working with the offense along with rides/clears and the substitution box.

Prior to joining the Lions staff, Dan was an assistant at York College where he was the offensive coordinator for Brandon Childs.  Dan spent 3 (2017-2019) seasons at York assisting with the offense, recruiting, scouting and many other facets of the lacrosse program.

He attended Lynchburg College and played on the men’s lacrosse team for one season before transferring to HCC for a season of action where he made an immediate impact. He moved on to York College after that where he played his last two years as a midfielder helping his team win it’s first ever conference tournament title in 2016.

He graduated from Howard in 2012. Dan was a 1st Team All County midfielder in 2011 & 2012, 2nd Team in 2010 and HM in 2009.  He was a 4 year starter, 2 year captain and one of the programs top 5 leaders in career points, goals, assists and ground balls.  He was also a Kelly Award finalist and an MSLCA senior all-star in 2012.  Dan currently works full-time with Inside Lacrosse.

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Collin McClelland

Varsity Assistant Coach

Coach McClelland is in his debut season coaching the Howard Lions, but is no stranger to the program.  As a senior at Howard in 2015, Collin helped his team win a State Championship Title.


Matt Hanson

Junior Varsity Head Coach

Coach Hanson returns as the JV head coach after a two year hiatus.  Matt was the head JV coach at Howard 2011-2018 (8 seasons), before stepping away for family reasons.  During those 8 seasons, he led multiple undefeated JV teams and helped develop some of our all-time great players at Howard.  Matt’s focus will be the defense and the goalies.

Coach Hanson played his collegiate ball at York College where he was a multi-year starter at goalie.  He played his high school lacrosse at River Hill and is still on their top 5 list for all-time saves.  He is currently a full-time art teacher at Howard, a post he has held for the past 13 years.


Dayton Fisher
Junior Varsity Assistant Coach


Craig Calton
Junior Varsity Assistant Coach

Coach Calton is in his 23rd year coaching at Howard High School. Calton who is a Howard Alum earned 4 varsity lacrosse letters, and was the 1996 MVP. He was lucky to play under the legendary coach Dan Ross for his freshman and sophomore year.

Calton played club lacrosse at James Madison University where the team was consistently nationally ranked in the top 10. Returning home, Calton became the JV Head Lacrosse Coach in 2002 under the tutelage of varsity coaches Wendell Thomas and Lee Corrigan. He also coached the Varsity Defense for a number of years. In 2007 Calton became the Varsity Assistant Coach for the girls lacrosse program, and in 2008-2010, he served as the Girls Varsity Head Coach.  He returned to the boys’ program in 2011.