Belen’s Bellando and Palmetto’s Mendez are the Dade Lacrosse Coaches of the Year
Alan Bellando has kept Belen Jesuit consistently among the best boys’ lacrosse teams in the state and at the top of Miami-Dade County in recent years.
And over at Miami Palmetto, girls’ coach Julian Mendez has been trying to build the Panthers into a championship contender and took a step further in that process this season.
And so, Bellando and Mendez are the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Lacrosse Coaches of the Year.
Bellando is the Boys’ Lacrosse Coach of the Year after leading the Wolverines to their sixth consecutive state championship. Belen secured that championship with a convincing win over NSU University School. The Wolverines followed that up with another win over the Sharks in the Class 1A regional quarterfinals.
Belen’s playoff run ended in the regional semifinals following a tough, 8-7 loss at home against Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest.
Still, the Wolverines went 19-3, and are expected to return the bulk of their core players in the hopes of making another playoff push. Senior Adrian Navarro, the Miami Herald’s Boys’ Player of the Year, was one of the catalysts of Belen’s season as he forced 92 turnovers and scored 33 goals.
Most of Bellando’s returning group will be seniors next season, giving him an experienced team.
Mendez is the Girls’ Lacrosse Coach of the Year after leading Palmetto to an 11-5 record and a district runner-up finish.
The Panthers were the only Miami-Dade girls’ team to advance to the regional quarterfinals in Class 2A. Palmetto earned a No. 7 seed before losing to Stoneman Douglas - the same team which denied it a district title a week earlier. It was an improvement from the prior season when the Panthers’ season ended with a 20-0 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Panthers had wins over Coral Reef and Ransom, which was the only other Dade team to make it to regionals in Class 1A.
Similar to Bellando at Belen, Mendez loses his top player, senior midfielder Alexis Moore, who had 48 goals this season. But the Panthers figure to have a strong core of juniors and underclassmen, who will try to build on this year’s success.
