Coaches
caitlin vasile
Program Director and Varsity Head Coach
coaches@ladyviperslax.net
A native of Lancaster, NY, Coach Vasile comes to Lady Vipers from Canisius Women's Lacrosse, a designated NCAA Division I college in Buffalo, NY where she joined the program as an assistant coach in 2018. Primarily managing the offensive team's players and strategy, Vasile helped Canisius maintain its streak of 12 straight trips to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship, highlighted by the program’s eighth consecutive trip to the MAAC title game in 2018.
Individually, Vasile had been instrumental in the coaching of both 2018 MAAC Offensive and Midfielder Players of the Year with six other attackers/midfielders receiving All-MAAC honors during Vasile's tenure.
Other Career Highlights:
Head Coach at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (2015-2018): Guided the Scots to a school-record tying seven wins in her first campaign, as well as their first ever win over a national-ranked opponent. A pair of Fighting Scots earned All-PSAC honors under her tutelage, which marked the first time Edinboro had more than one honoree.
Assistant Coach at St. Bonaventure (2015)
Head Coach for the Malvern St. James School in Worcestershire, England (2013-2015): Oversaw four different teams with varying age groups.
Director of the Lacrosse United summer camp in Lancaster in 2012 and 2013, as well as coach of the Lady Monsters travel team.
At George Mason University, Vasile was a three-year starter and the Team Captain her Junior and Senior seasons. During her career, she scored 65 goals and added 19 assists for 84 points while appearing in 67 career matches, making 51 starts. A midfielder, Vasile finished as the Patriots’ third-leading scorer as a Senior. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Business Management with a minor in Tourism in 2013 and is currently finishing up her Master of Science in Sport Administration.
High School Coaches
Sophie Castillo
Varsity Coach
Coach Castillo is from Allentown, Pennsylvania. She started playing lacrosse when she was in 4th grade and continued up through the collegiate level. Sophie was a varsity letter winner all four years at Parkland High School while also playing basketball. As for club lacrosse, Sophie played for the HEADstrong foundation based out of Philadelphia. She got recruited to play Division 1 lacrosse for the University of Colorado.
Career Highlights:
University of Colorado
- 2019 Captain
- 2018 Pac-12 All-Tournament Team
- 2018 Pac-12 Conference Champions
- 3 NCAA Tournament appearances
- 2019 NCAA Elite 8
- 2018/19 All-Academic First Team
Samantha Bianchi
Varsity Coach
Coach Bianchi in her words: I grew up in Rochester, NY where I played 4 years of varsity lacrosse. Became Academic All-American junior and senior year of high school. While in high school, I also played soccer. I played club lacrosse for Relentless Hustle.
After high school I went on to play at Canisius College for four years. During my time at Canisius, we won the MAAC championship three out of my four years there. While also playing, I coached for Relentless Hustle in the summer.
After college I went to law school in Michigan where I coached for MI Elite for a year.
Currently I've moved to Texas and loving it and looking forward to getting involved in the community and lacrosse again!
Kathleen Cihota
JV Coach
Coach Cihota...in her words:
Grew up in St. Louis, MO and started my lacrosse career my freshman year of high school. Went to Butler University in Indianapolis, IN where I played club lacrosse freshman-junior year. Then my senior year I was offered a spot on Butler's first women's lacrosse team. After college, I started coaching 3rd-8th grade girl's lacrosse with a program in Indianapolis. After moving to Austin in May 2020, I got involved with the Lady Vipers and am so excited to be a part of this team! When I'm not coaching, I work as an auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Brooke Bechter
JV Coach
Coach Bechter grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where she started playing lacrosse in 7th grade attending lacrosse camps run by UC Berkeley’s team. At College Park High School, she was Varsity Captain for two years, made First-Team All League for three years, and Varsity Letter Winner all four years. In addition to lacrosse, she played four years of high school soccer and volleyball. She went on to play Division 1 Club Lacrosse at Oregon State University, where she held two leadership positions. In addition, she received Top Caused Turnovers in 2018 and received Top Goal Scorer and Top Ground Balls in 2019 for the Northwest Women’s Lacrosse League.
Rebecca wilen
Coach Rebecca is from Mt. Laurel, NJ where she started playing lacrosse in the 5th grade, and began training as a goalie shortly after. She played 4 years of varsity in high school, starting her sophomore through senior years and helping lead her team to two state championship appearances, winning her Junior year. She also played for the South Jersey Select (SJS) club team.
Throughout high school and college, Coach Rebecca was involved in Israel lacrosse, helping introduce the sport across the state and as a part of the Israeli U19 National Team at the 2015 U19 World Championships in Scotland.
She went on to play at the DIII collegiate level for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and is now pursuing a PhD at UT-Austin. Coach Rebecca is also the goalie coach for Texas Outlaws, and is excited to join the Lady Vipers coaching staff this year!
Youth Coaches
Dr. Rachel Peck
Youth Director
YouthDirector@ladyviperslax.net
Coach Peck was born and raised in Austin. She started playing lacrosse in 7th grade and graduated from Westlake. From there, she played and graduated from Texas A&M. She continued on further with her education in sunny SoCal, and is now a chiropractor in Austin, specializing in athletes. When Rachel is not at work or on the field, she loves to be with friends or running. She also has a passion for adults with special needs, and tries to be involved as much as she can in the special needs ministry at Austin Ridge.
Allee samuel
Alexa jones
Doug burkott
Youth Coordinator and Coach
YouthCoord@ladyviperslax.net
Coach Burkott started playing lacrosse in college at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. He was recruited by a member of his fraternity and helped found the SIU men's lacrosse team. After graduation, he pursued a masters degree and played lacrosse at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Currently, he works for Dell Medical School at UT Austin as Director of Enterprise IT Portfolio Management. He and his wife, Jaime, have two girls, Piper and Zoe, who play for Lady Vipers youth lacrosse.
