BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves cheered enthusiastically on the field in their Game of Hope pink and blue uniforms as Brian Kaminskas was honored as one of the inductees into the Michigan High School Lacrosse Coaches Association Hall of Fame, May 4.
“I am excited,” said Kaminskas, head coach of the Clarkston Boys Varsity Lacrosse team. “It’s nice. I have spent a lot of time doing this so it’s nice to be recognized by the other coaches and my peers. Frankly out of all the places I have been, I am excited going in as a Clarkston coach.”
He was also inducted into the Hall of Fame with his father, the late Frank Kaminskas.
“It’s pretty cool,” Brian said. “He is the first coach I ever had. He was my coach for most of my stuff until I got to high school. Then, we started coaching together with my first coaching job and we were together the whole time. I think it’s exciting and it’s a pretty cool honor the coaches association did it this way. It’s pretty special.”
Out of the many different things Brian learned from his dad and uses in his coaching is worry about your people and the wins will come later.
“It’s the philosophy now. I learned it from him,” he said. “It’s what we try to do now – invest in the kids as much as humanly possible. From there, everything will take care of itself.”
Brian coached at Troy Athens, Utica Eisenhower and Bloomfield Hills before coming to Clarkston. At the time of his induction, he had 193 wins, putting him at sixth all-time in Michigan.
Brian was the founding coach of Troy Athens Boys Lacrosse team and led the Red Hawks to three semifinal appearances and one state final, finishing as runner up in 1996.
He coached for two years at Utica Eisenhower as well as one year at Cranbrook as head JV coach. Then, he moved onto Bloomfield Hills United and was there for six years.
Brian was hired into Clarkston in the fall of 2005. Since the spring of 2006, he led the Wolves to four OAA league championships, six regional finals with two regional championship titles.
With the help of many others, he built the club team to a full youth program for kids in grades kindergarten to eighth and also junior varsity.
Some highlights from his career include leading Clarkston to an 18-2 record during the 2011 spring season. During the same year he was selected as Division 1 US Lacrosse Coach of the Year and MHSLCA Coach of the Year.
In 2017, Brian was selected to the Michigan High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame
Brian has served on a number of committees for the Michigan High School Lacrosse Coaches Association.
Frank was founded and coached the Troy Athens and Utica Eisenhower programs. He also coached at Bloomfield United and Clarkston.
While he was at Athens, he was named Coach of the Year and coached the first All-American to come out of the school.
Frank led Clarkston to State Runner-up finish as ‘B ‘State Championship in 1995.
Other honors for Frank include being the coaching staff of the Silver Medal Winning International Youth Cup Team – St. Kitts 1993; on the coaching staff of the Gold Medal Winning International Youth Cup Team – Corning ‘94; and being a member of the Windsor Warlocks Box lacrosse Coaching Staff from 1988 to 1996. He founded two successful lacrosse programs in the state.
