VMI Athletics

Email Head Coach Brian Anken

Brian Anken enter his fourth season in Lexington as the head man of the VMI Keydets lacrosse program for the 2013-14 academic year, after being hired on July 30, 2010.

“VMI is the toughest military institution in the country,” said Anken. “This staff is committed to establishing a brand of lacrosse to reflect the level of physical and mental toughness needed to excel at VMI, as well as in our cadet-athletes impending military duties and civilian life.”

In his first year on Post, the Keydets captured the first team statistical championship in VMI lacrosse history, beating out NCAA Champion Virginia to lead the nation in ground balls per game with 39.62.Coming out of his second season, Anken once again helped lead the Keydets to the national stats rankings, claiming the team face-off winning percentage of 64.4 (212-329). He also saw Stephen Robarge become the first player to win back-to-back groundballs per game (9.07) titles, as well as the individual face-off percentage (66.6) crown for a second straight season.

Following his second season in Lexington, Anken helped the Keydets double their win total from 2011, while also collecting his first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory, 9-7 on the road against Manhattan. After a slow start to the season, Anken and the Keydets bounced back, winning four of their last eight games, including three of the last four. Not only did VMI begin winning, but they hung in games as well, including falling by just three combined goals to the two teams that reached the MAAC title game. Anken moved to the offensive side of the ball in 2012, and with solid results. In conference games, the Keydets finished with the program’s second-best goals per game average in MAAC tilts, putting away 10.33 per game, the best since 2005 when VMI posted 10.62 a MAAC game.

After never having a player drafted under Anken's guidance, or any VMI lacrosse player, two Keydets were selected by Major League Lacrosse teams in the same calendar year. In January, 2012, VMI history was made as Robarge became the first VMI player to be drafted by Major League Lacrosse. Robarge was selected in the sixth round and 44^thoverall by the Denver Outlaws, one of the top teams in the league. Following the season, Robarge's teammate Keith Long was picked up by the Rochester Rattlers in June in the Supplemental Draft. The pair were two of only three MAAC players to be picked up during the 2011-12 academic year.

Prior to working at Lycoming, Anken had been the head man at Mars Hill College in North Carolina, where he helped the team post a five and a half game improvement in the standings during his final year, 2006. He earned conference Coach of the Year honors in 2004. He was also the founder and director of the Lions Lacrosse Camp, and handled game and event management as well.

Anken broke into the coaching ranks with Pfeiffer in 2001, where he was the program’s top assistant. There, he was responsible for the defensive side of the ball, along with goalies. He also handled recruiting in Maryland, New York and New Jersey before leaving in 2001 to join the Rochester Institute of Technology, where again, he handled the defense and goalies. During his three years in Rochester, Anken was also an assistant to the school’s Athletic Association Director of Development.

In his career, Anken has coached a pair of NCAA Division III statistical champions. He has also mentored two conference Freshman of the Year and one Player of the Year, and in nine seasons as a head coach, he has had 23 all-conference players and two All-Americans in Stephen Robarge (VMI 2012) and Andrew Chapman (Mars Hill 2006). Anken is a member of the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s (USILA) Rankings and All-American Committees, as well as being a part of the NCAA Regional Advisory Committee.

In September 2012, Anken married his wife, Mandy. The couple reside in Lexington.