LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The University of Southern California men's lacrosse program has announced that Peter Swander will be the head coach starting with the 2016-17 season.

Swander, a Bay Area native, learned to play lacrosse as a boy in upstate New York at Camp Dudley in the eighties, captained The Branson School, and went on to start at attack at Wesleyan University in the nineties. He returned to lacrosse as a coach in 2012 and has coached youth, JV, and varsity high school lacrosse since.

He served most recently at the high school level as co-head coach of Marmonte League champions Westlake High School, with a previous stint as offensive coordinator at Harvard Westlake. He has worked with "Catch!Lacrosse" since its inception.

Swander brings a philosophy to the Trojans of fast-paced, high-scoring creative lacrosse that has set scoring records in previous seasons. More importantly, he retains the philosophy from where he learned the sport, "The Other Fellow First", where the creative assist is hoped for, and team enthusiasm is the measure of success.