Maryland Love Connection: Brian & Caitlyn Phipps

As high schoolers at the Tewaaraton Award ceremony in Washington D.C., Brian Phipps and Caitlyn McFadden crossed paths for the first time as Caitlyn’s uncle, Drew Romans, introduced the two star-studded lacrosse players to each other.

“I was just such a nervous high school girl. I think I said ‘hi’, and ran away,” said Caitlyn. Little did she, or Brian, know that it would be the first of many interactions between the two young players. 

Both Brian and Caitlyn grew up in lacrosse families in Maryland. 

Brian’s grandfather and father each played lacrosse for Maryland while his mother played lacrosse and field hockey at Roanoke.

Brian grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, and became a lacrosse star of his own at Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland.

He was ranked as the No. 1 goalie prospect for the class of 2006 and was named to the 2006 Under Armour and US Lacrosse High School All-American teams. 

Caitlyn was a pretty good high school lacrosse player in her own right. Both her parents played lacrosse in college and her mom coached lacrosse at Maryvale Preparatory School when Caitlyn was growing up.

“Even when I was little, before I ever was on a team, I was around my mom's teams and just had all of those women and girls to look up to,” said Caitlyn.

Caitlyn played lacrosse at Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson, where she was a two-time All-Baltimore County selection.

When Brian and Caitlyn both arrived at the University of Maryland in the Fall of 2006, the men’s lacrosse freshmen and the women’s lacrosse freshmen became close and hung out often during all of college, seeing either regularly at the Varsity Team House to off-campus gatherings. 

Both went on to decorated careers in College Park. Brian earned All-American honors, All-ACC accolades and was a team captain as a senior in 2010. He led the Terps to three NCAA Quarterfinal appearances. 

Caitlyn won the sport’s top honor, as she was named the 2010 Tewaaraton Award winner after her senior year. She was a two-time All-American, two-time ACC Player of the Year, two-time ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 2010 as she guided Maryland to its first national title since 2001.

While the two star players spent a lot of time together throughout their four years in college, Caitlyn said, “We never actually dated in college. I would just say we were really close friends.”

As the days and months went by and graduation neared, Brian began contemplating what he should do in regards to his friendship with Caitlyn.

“People were always like, Brian and Caitlyn will probably end up together. They're going to start dating, that kind of stuff,” said Brian. 

“Our senior year (in 2010), I skipped my All-American banquet to go watch her play in the national championship game. I knew that was kind of a big step moving forward,” he added.

Nevertheless, they still weren’t officially dating.

“My good friend, after he graduated, was like, ‘What are you going to do since you're not sure when you're going to see her again? What are you guys going to do? And I was like, I guess I should probably ask her out,’” said Brian.

Right after they graduated, Brian officially asked Caitlyn out on a date and their relationship had officially begun. 

Only a few months later, Caitlyn accepted a coaching position at the University of Florida while Brian went to work as a coach in Maryland.

“I still remember when I started coaching in Maryland for two years after graduation, to kind of be in the college coaching world, that allowed us to keep that long-distance relationship going and stay together during that time,” Brian said.

After those two years, in the summer of 2012, Brian was prepared to become a volunteer assistant coach with Caitlyn at Florida when he ultimately received an offer to become an assistant coach at Georgetown University.

“We're driving down to Florida to basically kind of set up shop and I had to tell her that I wasn't coming down to Florida anymore,” Brian said.

Despite the sudden, shocking news that would potentially force them to remain in a long-distance relationship, Caitlyn completely supported the idea of Brian remaining in the DMV to coach at Georgetown.

“He got the call from Georgetown to go be an assistant coach there, which we both knew was an awesome opportunity for him. I was like, ‘Yes, absolutely,’” Caitlyn said.

In a moment that was almost too unbelievable to be true, Caitlyn received an offer to be an assistant coach at Maryland just hours after she found out that Brian was going to be coaching at Georgetown.

“I got the call from Cathy [Reese] that they were looking for another assistant coach, and if I'd be interested in coming back to Maryland, which, of course, was amazing news with Maryland being my alma mater,” she said.

“Also being able to come back here and be close to Brian and close to our families, that was definitely a dream come true. I think we both started to cry because we were so excited that we could finally be together after spending a couple of years of being long distance,” Caitlyn added.

Less than a year and a half later, Brian and Caitlyn were engaged. On Thanksgiving Eve in 2013, Brian and Caitlyn flew home from Disney World and set up a dinner with his and Caitlyn’s parents at his parent’s house where he ultimately proposed prior to the start of dinner.

“The day we flew home, he was kind of acting all weird. He was like, ‘Since we missed my birthday, we're going to go have dinner with my parents,’ Caitlyn said. 

“We went to his parent's house to meet them before dinner and he sprinted inside the house. I came in the house and he was in their living room and there were candles and all these pictures set up,” she added.

In a sentimental connection, Caitlyn’s parents also got engaged on the night before Thanksgiving.

Thirteen months after Brian and Caitlyn got engaged, they got married on December 13, 2014, in Annapolis. 

“Our wedding consisted of several former teammates, both men's and women's,” Brian recalled. “There was a huge Maryland contingency on the dance floor at the wedding.”

Happy Halloween with Brian & Caitlyn

Brian and Caitlyn love Halloween and go all out with the candy, the food and especially the costumes, which for years have taken on a them of famous cartoon or Disney characters.

Life has been great for both Brian and Caitlyn since they got married. Brian is a high school social studies teacher who also coaches lacrosse at Archbishop Spalding High School. He has played professional lacrosse in Major League Lacrosse since 2011, with the Chesapeake Bayhawks and Ohio Machine. This past summer, he started between the pipes for the Bayhawks in the MLL Bubble in Annapolis.

Caitlyn continues in her role as an assistant coach at Maryland, where she has helped lead the Terps to four National Championships and seven Final Fours.

The Phipps are expecting their first child, a baby girl, in July of 2021.

Both Brian and Caitlyn gave credit to the Terrapin lacrosse programs for ultimately leading to their strong relationship and eventual marriage.

“I think the close-knit bond that we developed with between the men's and women's lacrosse teams and how both teams were so close-knit anyways, kind of allowed us to be like best friends prior to dating,” said Brian.

“I think being a student-athlete, both being at the University of Maryland, we both just kind of understood and still understand what each other's going through,” said Caitlyn.

“I think it just really allows us to understand each other, what we're going through to support each other and encourage each other along the way.”