Dave Pietramala was the heart of the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team. In many ways, he left part of his heart at Homewood Field.

Pietramala, who first heard about the Blue Jays program while reading the “In The Crease” magazine while he was in high school, became one of the most historic figures in the sport’s history at Johns Hopkins over the course of nearly 20 years.

Just last week, his run at the university came to an end when Pietramala and the program mutually parted ways.

Pietramala got the call on April 14. Five days later, he was still processing the news.

“I don’t know if I could describe it. I don’t know what I felt,” he said on “Overtime” regarding his ending with Johns Hopkins. “It wasn’t sad or angry or excited. It wasn’t any of those things. Maybe a feeling of finality.”

There’s no blueprint for what to do after a coach stops leading the program he helped win two national championships over 19 seasons. For Pietramala, this ushers in a new era of his life, but he’s not done reflecting on the previous one just yet.

Pietramala joined host Paul Carcaterra on Season 3, Episode 10 of the “Overtime” podcast, providing thoughts on his departure from Johns Hopkins in a candid conversation. Listen to the full episode below.

In the conversation with Carcaterra, Pietramala admitted he’s been through a range of emotions over the past week.

“There are moments where you’re sad, there are moments where you’re excited to look forward to the future,” he said. “There are moments where you’re angry that it’s over. There are moments where you are thankful for the opportunities that you have. In life, we don’t always get a chance to say, ‘Thank you.’”

Pietramala said he has plenty to be thankful after a successful playing career and an accomplished post-playing career, almost all of which came at Homewood Field. His father provided him with the foundation for success, and Johns Hopkins gave him the tools to do so.

Growing up in a divorced family, Pietramala gravitated to his father and his love for baseball. After trying lacrosse early in high school, he felt connected to the sport and eventually stop playing baseball altogether.

Reading “In The Crease” opened Pietramala to a new world — and a powerful lacrosse community. He developed an affinity for Hopkins star John DeTommaso, who led the Blue Jays in the mid-1980s.

Once Pietramala, a towering defenseman, started his recruiting process, Johns Hopkins was on the list. He “fell in love” with every school he visited, but something about Don Zimmerman and the Blue Jays stood out.

He joined Johns Hopkins in 1986, at the encouragement of his father, and developed into one of the best defensemen in the history of the sport. Pietramala also helped lead Johns Hopkins to the 1987 NCAA championship. He grew, both on and off the field, through his college experience, but the best part of it was the friendships he made along the way.

“The greatest thing for me wasn’t winning a national championship,” Pietramala said. “It was the guys that I had a chance to develop relationships with and call my brothers.”

Inspired by mentors like Don Zimmerman, Bill Tierney and Bob Scott, Pietramala decided to pursue coaching. He served as an assistant at Gilman (Md.), Johns Hopkins, Penn and Loyola before taking over as head coach at Cornell.

As he developed as a coach, he noticed he held the same tendencies as Zimmerman and carried the lessons learned from him. One moment from his time at Penn stood out to Pietramala.

“I had a young man I had to have a discussion with,” he said. “I brought him into the office — I couldn’t tell you what it was about. I started talking to him and midway through my conversation, I said, ‘My god. I sound just like Coach Don Zimmerman.’”

The young man left the office, and I picked up the phone. I called him and I said, ‘Coach, it’s Petro. I just had this meeting. I just wanted to call you and tell you I get it. I know why you did the things that you did. I know why you were tough on me and demanded a lot of me. I know. Thank you so much.’”

By 2001, he returned to his alma mater to lead the Blue Jays men’s lacrosse program, ready to make the same impact that his predecessors once did.

Over the course of 19 seasons, Pietramala developed a reputation for an intense, hard-working style that helped mold stars like Paul Rabil, Kyle Harrison and plenty more. He won national championships in 2005 and 2007 and advanced to four other final fours.

After a 2-4 start to 2020, the NCAA season was cut short. Weeks later, both sides agreed that change was necessary for the Johns Hopkins program. Pietramala will now start the next chapter of his life amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He left a lasting impact on his former and current Blue Jays’ players. Now, he’s hoping to lead them one more time.

“Change is all around us, and I’m dealing with it right now,” he said. “Change can be adverse, it can be hard. The hope is that the way I handle this change is a chance to teach the young men that I coach one more lesson in how you handle this sort of thing.”

Pietramala has no plans to stop coaching. He said he’ll continue to look for the best fit for him and his family, even entertaining coaching his two sons, Dom and Nicholas.

Wherever his next stop is, he knows what he’s looking for when it comes.

“I want to be somewhere where they care about lacrosse,” he said. “That’s always been important to me because I care. I want to be at a place that’s competitive and an environment where you can compete for championships. I want to compete at the highest level, whatever level that is.”

The fire and determination rage on for Pietramala. He won’t be down for long.