Maryland Love Connection: Brian and Cathy Reese

On any given spring weekend in College Park, the Reese family can be found in every part of Maryland's lacrosse programs — Cathy on the women’s sideline, Brian in the stands, and their children wearing the same uniform their parents once did.

Few families are as intertwined with the history of Maryland lacrosse as Cathy and Brian Reese. Their legacies span decades, roles, and generations, continuing to be written each season in College Park.

Over 29 years in and around the women’s program, Cathy Reese has helped bring 12 national championships to Maryland. Brian Reese, a former All-American defenseman from 1995–98, followed his collegiate career with six years of professional lacrosse and multiple all-star honors.

But their stories begin long before their success on the field and on the sidelines. It’s a fairytale chronicle of the beginning of a family with decades — and generations — of chapters in the Maryland history book.

The two found each other right away, within one of their first few days on campus in their freshman year. A mixer of the two lacrosse teams, looking to celebrate the start of another season, found the two of them meeting for the first time. They became instant friends and started dating the following summer.

“Whenever there weren't direct conflicts on the schedule, I would go to her games and she would go to mine,” Brian said. “We had a number of people dating on our teams, and some of them got married too. We used to go to their games as a group and cheer on our girlfriends, and vice versa.”

“That's one of the things I love even still today,” Cathy added. “Both of our boys play on the men's team, and their crew is at all of our women's games, and we’re at theirs’. I love that loyalty. It's pretty cool the support that these teams have for each other.”

Both being busy, All-American student-athletes, finding time for a relationship — especially during the season — created challenges, but the two found time for study dates, meals, and walks around the campus.

“It was good that we had the same priorities,” Cathy said. “Both of our teams were top teams in the nation, so we both knew that we were fighting for national championships and ACC championships. We were both captains on our team and in leadership roles. When your priorities are aligned, it makes things fall into place even smoother.”

“It was then, and it continues to be now, because we're both in the same coaching world today,” Brian added. “I understand when she has to go away for a couple days for a road game or recruiting. We’re both in a lot of the same situations, so I think it’s really helped make our relationship better.”

They dated for four years after college, as Cathy took on an assistant coaching position at Maryland and Brian played professionally, both indoors and outdoors.

One night in October of 2002, Cathy came home from a fall ball practice excited to see Brian for a night before he went out on the road again, but he had a surprise waiting for her. He popped the question in her Baltimore townhouse, and the two were married not eight months later on June 7, 2003.

With tons of former teammates in attendance, the Reese wedding was a true “who’s who” of Maryland lacrosse. Of course, with their busy schedules, the two didn’t have time for much of a honeymoon. They went away for the weekend, but went right back to the game they love. They took a true honeymoon in November, five months after the wedding, in between fall ball ending and Brian’s indoor season beginning. 

As a newly married couple, the two were ready to take on the world together. A job opening at the University of Denver gave Cathy the chance to be a collegiate head coach. Brian was already flying to Denver every other weekend to play for the Colorado Mammoth, so the move made sense.

They left the state they’d both grown up in and fell in love for the first time together, but they made sure to bring their Maryland pride and roots with them.

“Even when we were in Denver, we tried to watch every Maryland football game and every Maryland basketball game,” Brian said. “We were out there sitting on our living room couch in Parker, Colorado, when the women's basketball team won that championship game. It stays with you. You’re rooting for the Terps any chance you get, and we were so excited to have the opportunity to get back to Maryland and give back to the university that gave us so much.”

They kept their friends close and the Terrapins closer. Cathy brought on a handful of Maryland alums to coach with her in Denver, while Brian, as the general manager of the Denver Outlaws, found that the most important thing was to build a strong culture, which he did by drafting Maryland guys and coaches.

“You can't go wrong when you surround yourself with Terps,” Brian said. “We all share that general knowledge of what it means to be successful as a lacrosse player and a team. Every generation continues that legacy.”

Even today, Cathy has three other Maryland alumnus on her staff. Brian served with the women’s team for a little bit before now working as a high school coach, which has given him an opportunity to coach their children and win several Maryland high school championships.

“It's rewarding to get to be around your kids all the time,” Brian said. “You're gonna be at their games, probably no matter what, but just having that extra-close seat and being able to pass on some tidbits that can make them into successful players is very nice. It can be difficult creating that separation, switching between the coach hat and the dad hat, but it’s very rewarding.”

Their time in Denver let Cathy get her feet wet as a head coach before returning to College Park, where she’s collected four IWLCA National Coach of the Year accolades, stands as the all-time winningest coach in Maryland women's lacrosse history, and has led the Terps to five National Championships, 12 Final Fours and 22 Conference Championships as she enters to 20th year as head coach.

This season, two of their boys, Riley and Brody, are continuing the Reese legacy on the men’s lacrosse team, playing for the same school as their parents and walking the same grounds Brian and Cathy fell in love on.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see them in a Maryland uniform,” Cathy said. “Brody wears number 34, which was Brian’s number in college, so that’s pretty cool. It's really special to see them in a Maryland uniform, and just being able to do what they've always dreamt of doing and have always wanted to do. They've been around this program since the days they were born, and to finally be able to be a part of Maryland lacrosse  is something that's so special to both of them, and really cool for us to be able to watch.”

Next season, their daughter, Cayden Reese, the top recruit in the 2026 class, is coming to play for Cathy and the Terps, giving her mom a chance to coach one of her children for the first time. If the emotions of watching her daughter play for her program are anything like Brian experienced with the boys, it could be a tearful view from the sidelines.

“Watching the boys on the field, wearing Maryland colors, running out behind the flag, and playing together at our Alma Mater brought a tear to my eye,” Brian said. “We’re so proud of their accomplishments. It’s hard to reach that level, but it's so special because it's a place that we both care about so much and given so much to and really just love.”

College Park built Cathy and Brian, raised their children, and now hosts the next generation of Reese student-athletes. It’s a surreal gratitude that Cathy and Brain make sure to never take for granted.

“I don’t think I can put it into words,” Cathy said. “I’ve spent 29 years around this program. Every aspect of Maryland lacrosse means something to us, for both the men’s and the women’s teams. We’ve loved our experiences at Maryland, so I'm most excited that my kids are going to have that experience as well, and be able to be around all these awesome athletes and programs, make friends in different sports, and have an administration and athletic department that has their back and will set them up for the future. We're not guessing that it's going to be that way, because we know it's going to be that way. When it came to our kids, we didn’t have to be sold on what Maryland has to offer, because we've lived it every day for the last 29 years.”