COACHING STAFF
BEN NATELSON - HEAD COACH AND PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Coach Natelson is from Knoxville, TN. He previously was the head faculty coach for varsity boys' lacrosse at Alpharetta High School 2015-2019. He has also coached volleyball, dive team and soccer. Coach was captain of Emory Eagles Rugby team in college where he attended, class of 2001. Coach Natelson teaches mathematics at Etowah. 2024 was his first season coaching lacrosse at Etowah and he led the JV boys lacrosse team to an 11-2 winning season. Ben will be leading our 2024-2025 season as Varsity Head Coach and Program Director.
BAJRO BUZALJKO
Coach Bajro Buzaljko (By-row Buzz-Psycho) has been coaching lacrosse and training athletes for over 15 years. Bajro played lacrosse in high school prior to enlisting and deploying with the Marine Corps. He works full time as an Active Duty Marine, most recently serving as the Operations Chief for the state of Georgia recruiting. In the past 12 years, he has coached at the High School, Middle School, and Youth levels with multiple teams in the Cobb and Cherokee County areas and coached speed, strength, and agility for lacrosse with Fury Performance in Woodstock, GA. He has been a pivotal member of our Etowah coaching staff most recently leading our 2021 & 2022 JR Eagles to win the league championships and leading our 2023 Etowah JV team to an undefeated season. In 2024, he was a Varsity Assistant Coach at Woodstock High School. He is married to his wife Jordan, and they have three daughters.
RICK ELTZ
Coach Rick Eltz began his lacrosse coaching career in 2002 when his son (Seth Michael) and Aaron Jones founded the Etowah Lacrosse Club and team. He was an assistant coach for the club team until 2006 when the head coach Ken Byers left to start the Kennesaw State University program. That year Coach Eltz led them to the NGLL title with a 13-1 record and the following year, the Etowah varsity program was established. He resumed his assistant coach position in 2012 when Etowah added a JV team. Coach Eltz has been a certified lax referee since 2007 and umpires’ baseball (since 2001). Coach Eltz has also coached baseball, soccer, ice and roller hockey and football. He is also a Chiropractor (since 1983) and lives on Lake Allatoona in Woodstock with his wife Ellen.
BRADY HANACK
Coach Brady Hanak is a Cobb County native. He graduated from Kell High School in 2020 where he was a 4-year varsity letterman in lacrosse and helped his team to their first ever Elite Eight and Final Four appearance. He also played multiple years of summer travel with Atlanta Travel Lacrosse. Brady graduated from Reinhardt University in 2024 with a degree in Business Administration and i currently a 2x National Champion as well as 2x voted captain with the Lacrosse team. In his time at Reinhardt, he was voted 2 nd Team All-conference and was top 5 in the nation in points in both his Junior and Senior year.
TAYLOR LOCKLIN
From 2008 to 2011, Coach Taylor Locklin was a key player for the newly established Etowah Varsity lacrosse team, serving as captain and top scorer. He earned the Most Improved Player award in 2010 and was selected as a Georgia All-Star, attracting many college scholarship offers. After graduation, he briefly played for Kennesaw State under former Etowah coach Ken Byers for a period. Taylor has remained competitive, placing 2nd the Georgia University System’s Flag Football State Championship and selected as an MVP, then later excelling in sales, and running his own real estate lending company, Locklin Capital, in Woodstock. He enjoys boating and sports, and is excited to continue the winning tradition at his Alma Mater in 2024.
JASON TAPP
Coach Jason Tapp grew up playing lacrosse in Northern Virginia where he attended Oakton HS and graduated with All-District and All-Region honors, including a 1992 state championship. He played college lacrosse at West Virginia University and helped lead his team to the 1995 NCLL American Conference championship and a Final Four appearance. After college, he coached youth lacrosse in Virginia before returning to Oakton HS as a varsity assistant coach for a team that captured two district championships, a Northern Region championship, and the 2003 Virginia AAA state championship. Jason continued coaching high school lacrosse in Virginia for several years and served as the boys’ head lacrosse coach at Herndon HS from 2004 to 2006. Upon moving to Georgia, Coach Tapp resumed coaching youth and high school teams and contributed to founding the River Ridge HS program in 2011, serving as community coach, youth head coach, and Program Director for over six years. He’s organized and managed numerous camps, clinics, and leagues in North Georgia through CYL and Legion Lacrosse. Playing and coaching the sport of lacrosse is more than a hobby for Coach Tapp, its his lifelong passion.
DAVID WILLIAMSON
Coach David Williamson is a retired Police Lieutenant/Division Commander CID from the Fulton County Police Dept./ Atlanta Police Dept (28 yrs). David has been playing lacrosse since he was six years old in Upstate New York. He played four years of Varsity for Rush-Henrietta High School in Section 5 large schools as a middie and faceoff man, where he made All-County three of those four years and the All-Tournament Lacrosse Team for Section 5. He went to Utica, New York to college and played for Herkimer CCC , winning a Jr. College National Championship and making Academic All-American. He transferred to Nazareth College of Rochester where he played Fall Ball and ended his Collegiate play. David graduated with a two-year degree in Police Science and a B.A. in History from Nazareth College of Rochester. He is a father of five children, four of them played/playing for Etowah Eagles Lacrosse program. David has coached the Cherokee County Youth 10 and 11 teams. For the past two years, he has been coaching for the Dirty Birds travel fall/summer lacrosse teams. He is currently the Head Coach for Etowah JR Eagles, 6th through 8th grades, and a Fall Etowah JV/Varsity team coach. David also has been an active member of the Boy Scouts of America for the past 12 as a Den Leader, Cub Master, and Assistant Scoutmaster with two of his sons being Eagle Scouts who also play with the Dirty Birds Programs.
ATHLETIC TRAINERS
JAMES WOMBLES - james.wombles@cherokeek12.net
ANDREW MARISCAL - andrew.mariscal@cherokeek12.net
