After pioneering the Palisades High boys lacrosse program and guiding it to five straight Southern Section playoff berths, head coach Scott Hylen is stepping down to take a position with the Swiss National team.
Hylen, who compiled a 95-30 overall record and 50-0 mark in City Section games and led the Dolphins to the Southern Section championship game in 2012, will serve as the defensive coordinator in Switzerland after six seasons as PaliHi’s head coach. He helped begin the program in 2004 with Jeff Hirschberg, initially serving as Hirschberg’s assistant.
The possibility of a move overseas arose for Hylen when his wife, Ana, was offered the opportunity to transfer within the Nestlé company. Hylen contacted Switzerland’s team president, Dan Hagnauer, who set him up with an interview with head coach Eamon Thornton.
At the end of May, Hylen flew to Switzerland and ran the national team tryouts for the 2014 World Games, which will be held in Denver. He also found housing and schools for his kids – Santiago, 6, and Lucia, 5.
After nearly a decade as a part of the Palisades High family, Hylen’s move will be emotional, but he’s not afraid to pull up stakes. He once lived in Argentina, coaching the national lacrosse team from 1998-2002. In 2010, he took them to the World Games as a player/coach (the team had to play 10 games in 15 days), earning eligibility from having had previous residency there. Hylen also moved there alone in 2005 to start a hunting company before moving back after a year, a period when he and his wife would visit one another every month.
“It’s sad. I’m going to miss Pali a lot,” Hylen told the Palisadian-Post. “It’s been a big part of my life for a long time. We decided as a family to make the move more for our kids than anything else, because it will be a great experience for them. [But] I’ll miss driving to the Palisades every afternoon and coaching.” Hylen lives in Marina del Rey.
He added that much of the credit for the success of the Pali program goes to the parents – he cited the Dyke, Packer and Satz families in particular – and assistant principal Russ Howard and athletic director John Achen.
“It’s been great watching the Palisades athletic staff come full circle,” Hylen said. “At first with [them] not wanting the sport, but the parents pushed for it and now Russ and John have become huge supporters. The most important thing to me is that it ensures the program will go on with the full support of the school. And none of this would have happened if it weren’t for the parents.”
Replacing Hylen will not be an easy task. In addition to being the only coach to lead a City Section team to the Southern Section playoffs, Hylen’s teams were a model of consistency: they posted season records of 12-4, 17-9, 20-5, 15-4, 16-4 and 15-5.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Hylen, 40, attended the University of Santa Clara and played lacrosse there before coaching the team following graduation. Before arriving at Pali, he coached at Paul Revere for one season (2003) and coached both Revere and Pali in 2004.
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