BUFFALO — And the carousel has stopped.

Canisius today replaced former coach Randy Mearns with alum and former Sacred Heart assistant coach Mark Miyashita.

Miyashita returns to his alma mater, which inducted him into its hall of fame in 2013, to become its fourth coach in program history. His predecessor departed June 20 to coach the new NCAA program at St. Bonaventure.

“We are excited to return to our alma mater in Western New York to help develop not only great lacrosse players, but more importantly, great young men that will be leaders on campus and in the community during their time at Canisius and beyond,” Miyashita, who played five years in the National Lacrosse League for Vancouver, Colorado and Minnesota, said. “I look forward to building upon the core foundation that is in place.”

Prior to helping Sacred Heart reach two Northeast Conference tournaments in four years as the Pioneers’ offensive coordinator, Miyashita founded the program at Castle Rock (Colo.) High when the school opened in 2006. He’d go on to lead the team to its first county championship in 2012.

“After finishing his playing career, he turned his full focus toward coaching at the collegiate level and has become a respected coach and recruiter at the Division I level,” Canisius athletics director Bill Maher said. “As an alumnus, Mark understands the history of our program and we look forward to him leading our team to the MAAC Championship.”

Miyashita graduated from Canisius in 2003 as the school’s all-time leader in faceoff percentage and ground balls and among the top 10 in points and assists. He was a three-time captain, twice led the Griffs in points in a season, and still has the second-highest ground-ball-per-game average in a season in NCAA history with 10.69 in 2000. The Vancouver Ravens selected him with their first pick in the 2003 NLL draft, as did the Western Lacrosse Association’s Maple Ridge Burrards.

A native of Richmond, British Columbia, Miyashita founded and co-owns Fundamental Lacrosse in Connecticut, a company that provides box and field lacrosse instruction for players in the state.

His hiring brings to an end the NCAA Division I offseason coaching shuffle that also saw Cornell, Delaware, Michigan choose or be forced to hire new coaches, in addition to expansion St. Bonaventure and Utah hiring their first coaches.