About Oak City Lacrosse

Oak City Lacrosse Academy is dedicated to providing outstanding youth level instruction in a positive, athlete-centered development environment.  We believe that youth sports should be fun, positive, challenging and give players, coaches and parents the opportunity to demonstrate good character, effort, hard work, teamwork and passion.  All Oak City coaches are in the US Lacrosse coach development and certification pipeline. 

We promote the lessons and philosophy of the Positive Coaching Alliance, which focuses on using youth sports to teach life lessons, hard work, sportsmanship, integrity, personal responsibility and selflessness. All of our coaches have completed at least one Positive Coaching Alliance module and are "Double Goal" coaches.

At Oak City Lacrosse, we strive to provide athlete-centered coaching using the lacrosse athlete development model which stresses overall athlete development and recognizes that the age and physical development of children requires coaches to tailor their trainings to the age and physical literacy of the players they have.  We aren't trying to implement college-level lacrosse to 3rd graders and we aren't asking experienced players to do drills that teach skills they have already mastered. Oak City coaches are striving to implement high-level lacrosse concepts to experienced lacrosse players capable of understanding them. Our coaches meet the players where they are, from beginner to experienced, travel-level youth players hungry to learn advanced concepts. 

Oak City provides a supportive coaching environment and uses competition in training and games to challenge, motivate and improve player skills. We believe that players improve the most when they are playing and training with other players that have a  similar skill level. When possible, we will group players by age AND skill in trainings and place players on teams by both age and skill to provide every player with the best experience possible. 

Coaches Biographies

All Oak City Lacrosse coaches are in the US Lacrosse coach certification pipeline and are in the process of advancing their coaching knowledge through continuing education. 
Matt Peterson - Director 
Coach Peterson played at UC Santa Barbara from 1986-1989 and then played post-collegiate lacrosse for Washington (DC) Lacrosse Club, was a founder and team captain for Team AOL/Arlington, VA Lacrosse. Coach Peterson was a member of the Vail Lacrosse Shootout tournament staff for 17 years and has played in national tournaments (Vail, Ocean City, Lake Placid) and was co-director and player in the Amsterdam Men's Lacrosse Tournament held in 2002. Coach Peterson continues to play for Raleigh Lacrosse Club and risk his health by playing GrandMasters level lacrosse in national tournaments.
Coaching Experience -
US Lacrosse National Coach Trainer 2015-2022 
US Lacrosse Platinum Level certified coach
2003-2006 NC State University Men's Team Head Coach
2014-2021 Carolina Cannons/Team91 Carolina Travel coach 6 years 
2011-Present - Youth recreation coach for all Grades 
HS Lacrosse Coach 2021-2025

Grade 1-2 Group
Coach Bose Bratton
Coach Lucas Peterson
Coach Andy Socha
Coach Tanner Weir

Grade 3-4 Group 
Coach Matt Ward 
Coach Dominic Aratari 
Coach Justin Calvillo
Coach Caleb Fraser
Coach Ryan Gardiner
Coach Kane Gyovai
Coach Jeff Cole

Grade 5-6 Group: 
Coach Peter O'Hara
Coach O'Hara has been coaching youth lacrosse for the past 5 years. He's an accomplished, certified youth lacrosse coach and a fantastic student of the game of lacrosse.  
Coach Alban Barrus: 
Coach Barrus has been coaching youth sports since 2016. In addition to coaching youth lacrosse, he has coached flag football, basketball and tennis. Coach Barrus played two years of lacrosse at Woodberry Forest.


Grade 7-8 Group: 

Coach Ryan Schmidt
Bio in process

Eduardo Jimenez
Coach Jimenez, has been coaching Boys and Girls recreation lacrosse since 2016. Prior to coaching lacrosse, he started in playing in High School and then in College at Stevens Institute of Technology as a goalie. After college, he continued playing in the NJ area club teams and was a player/coach for the NC Wesleyan Lacrosse Club.
Coach Jimenez grew up in NJ and was introduced to Lacrosse late in HS. Coach Jimenez played in college as a goalie at Stevens Institute of Technology. After college, Coach Jimenez played club lacrosse and practiced with the Wesleyan club team in Rocky Mount, NC.Gene Reichers
Coach Gene Riechers played at Penn State long ago, followed by 3 years of club lacrosse. More recently he coached youth lacrosse in the DC area 2007-2015 and was an assistant varsity coach and head JV coach 2015-2019 at The Heights School in MD, winner of 2 conference championships during his 4 years there. He is a USA Lacrosse Level 2 certified coach. He also spent 12 years on the board of the Tewaaraton Foundation, which annually recognizes the top collegiate male and female lacrosse players with the Tewaaraton Awards.