After consecutive Premier Lacrosse League championships, it’s not a surprise to see a smile on Jim Stagnitta’s face. It’s a smile that carries extra joy because of the mountain the Whipsnakes head coach had to climb before reaching the summit.

Remember 2013, when he led the Denver Outlaws to an undefeated regular season in Major League Lacrosse, only to run into a red-hot Geoff Snider at the faceoff X in a semifinal loss to Charlotte?

Or the year before, when the Outlaws’ title chances were derailed by an injury to league MVP Brendan Mundorf on the eve of the playoffs? Denver gutted out a semifinal win but fell in the championship game.

In 2004, his Rutgers team beat eventual NCAA champion Syracuse in the regular season but was knocked out in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

His best team in a successful 12-year run at Washington and Lee team was a senior-dominated squad in 2001 that had been to three straight NCAA Division III tournaments, including a semifinal trip in 2000. They were undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country before a one-goal loss late in the season to league rival Hampden-Sydney denied them an NCAA tournament berth.

As an assistant coach at Penn, Stagnitta helped his alma mater reach the NCAA semifinals in 1988 only to run into “Air Gait,” as Gary Gait led Syracuse past the Quakers on the way to the national championship.

All of those near misses finally came to an end in 2019 when his Whipsnakes won the inaugural PLL championship.

“Last year was just exciting,” Stagnitta said. “After all those years of being a bridesmaid, for one reason or another, I wasn’t able to get over the hump. I don’t think it diminished anything I’d done. I don’t think I was a better or worse coach for not winning.”

The lack of a championship never affected how he coached.

“Honestly, last year I had no clue that was his first championship,” said Michael Ehrhardt, the Whipsnakes star longstick midfielder who played for Stagnitta in Charlotte in the MLL before their time together in the PLL. “Just to see that joy on his face was freaking awesome. This year felt a little extra special to see all the hard work that paid off in the offseason. We’re leaving a little bit of a legacy.”

The second championship was harder than the first. Stagnitta readily acknowledged that repeating is harder on its own, and after dominating pool play during the PLL’s Championship Series in Utah, the Whipsnakes faced two big-time gut checks in the playoffs.

In the semifinals against the Redwoods, the Whips never trailed, but it took an overtime tally by Jeremy Sieverts to escape and move on to the championship game.

“We got nervous and gripped our sticks a little tight and tried not to lose the Redwoods game,” Stagnitta said. “We were on the cusp of our first goal, getting back to the championship game. I thought we’d kind of just relax from there and approach it in a different way.”

But the championship would prove to be no easier. The late offensive struggles from the semis continued into the finals. After three quarters, Chaos goalie Blaze Riorden was dominating, and the Whipsnakes trailed 6-3.

“I love this team, and they have an unbelievable team approach and they care about each other,” Stagnitta said. “It was amazing to spend three weeks together. The challenge at times with some older guys when things aren’t going well, they feel like it’s their responsibility to fix it. We couldn’t get the ball past Blaze and started to press a little bit.”

Stagnitta knows his players, and he knows how to communicate with them.

“You can really see how he’s grown as a coach,” said Ehrhardt, who was crowned the Brodie Merrill Long Stick Midfielder of the Championship Series on Thursday. “He gives us a lot of insight into what he’s thinking, and he’s a really good listener. Obviously, he makes the final decision, but he’s very good at listening.”

As the game started to appear out of reach, Stagnitta turned to one of his coaches on the field — veteran midfielder John Haus. Haus, a teammate of Ehrhardt’s on the 2018 U.S. team that won a gold medal, is the son of a longtime college coach and a current assistant coach at Penn State.

Trying to get the offense going, Stagnitta pulled Haus aside and told he and rookie Brad Smith to take the ball behind the cage when they got the ball and work on inverts. He told star Matt Rambo to mirror those two when they were behind the goal. First, they started getting better looks, but Riorden was still up to the task. Finally, some shots started to fall. Then, Zed Williams took over.

Williams, Stagnitta’s first pick in this year’s PLL Entry Draft, scored five times in the fourth quarter to highlight a 10-goal Whipsnakes outburst that resulted in a 12-6 championship game victory.

“We’ve been doing that for two years,” Stagnitta said. “We go into droughts, but we also have the ability to go on runs. We’ve showed an ability to do that.”

The last run delivered a coveted second straight championship for Stagnitta.

“I never felt unfulfilled, but at this point in my career, to compete at this high of a level and be successful against this level of competition and be able to take all of the experiences I’ve learned and actually be able to put it into practice with my team has been really rewarding.”