Podcast: Medfield (Mass.) coach John Isaf on culture, legacy and more

Four-time MIAA champion head coach John Isaf of Medfield High School is our guest on the "Chasing The Goal" podcast.

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Owen Hart welcomed Medfield (Mass.) High School head coach John Isaf to Gillette Stadium for a live podcast from the New England Lacrosse Convention.

Isaf is a four-time state champion with Medfield and is entering his 15th season as the head coach. A graduate of Hamilton College, where he is still ranked second all-time in career assists, Isaf is regarded as one of the most influential coaches in the MIAA. He has continued and built upon the strong tradition of Medfield lacrosse established by the program in the early 2000s.

Medfield has become the bogeyman of the third division of the MIAA since moving down from Division 2 in 2022. This season promises to be even scarier for Medfield’s opponents with some key teams moving up and down the MIAA divisions.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Owen Hart:  The culture before you got to to Medfield was championships; they were winning state titles for a while. When you got there, was there a lot of pressure to win that first championship?

John Isaf: Well, I was an assistant under coach (Bob) Aronson since ’08. We’d won in 2007, played in the state championship in 2000. Had the No. 1 undefeated team in 2009 and got upset in the semis, I think, and then won back-to-back championships in 2010 and ’11. When I took over in 2012, we were looking at a three-peat. So yeah, it certainly was pressure. But then, we won in 2014, ’15 and ’16. I think the culture matters, right? Part of that is consistency. I carried over a lot of what he does — playing tough schedules, demanding a lot and expecting high standards. Putting expectations on guys to play their best and being willing to be pushed. Not every parent, kid, et cetera, is comfortable with that.

Today in our program, you have to be willing to be pushed, you have to be resilient and you have to be mentally tough. We don’t know how to really run our program any other way. That said, we’re respectful of the kids. We’re going to demand excellence, and we’re going to demand that they create the habits during the course of the season and whatever they’re doing in the offseason. So, they’re playing team-oriented lacrosse and playing to the best of their ability when the playoffs start. That’s what we’ve always created and it seems to have worked; we’ve played for a lot of state championships. 

Owen Hart: I’ll ask you this one question: I’ve seen you win more games than I can count. What one or two games are you’re like, “Man, I wish I could have that one back.” We stay up late at night thinking about them; what’s the one you stay up the latest for? 

John Isaf: Well, immediately, it would have to be the one last year (an 11-9 loss to Scituate in the MIAA D-3 semis). That’s a fresh wound. And there’s always another one that I always go back to.

Owen Hart: Wayland.

John Isaf: Yeah. In 2018, we’re the No. 9 seed. They’re the No. 1 seed. We have a three-goal lead with a minute-and-a-half left with the ball, and they score as the clock runs out to tie the game. They send it to overtime and we lose. That one will always stick with me, but every season there’s a loss where you’re like, “How did we lose that game?”

@TheKyleDevitte
kyle.devitte@laxjournal.com

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