Menlo School is pleased to announce high school and club coach and former collegiate player Parnika Patel as varsity girls’ lacrosse coach.
Patel most recently led the lacrosse program at Castilleja, and was a coach with Firehawks and Team NorCal.
“Parnika brings passion, energy, and the ability to build strong relationships to our girls’ lacrosse program,” Menlo Director of Athletics Earl Koberlein said. “She is very intelligent and a student of the game. I look forward to her mentoring and coaching our girls on the lacrosse team.” Patel earned her bachelors in psychology with a minor in sociology from Cal State Northridge, where she started as a goalie and was a four-year letterwinner for the lacrosse team She most recently earned her masters in social science from UCLA.
10.16.2023 – Patel aims to foster the vision and principles of the program in a manner that invigorates our student-athletes and teams to consistently show up for and challenge not only themselves, but one another with tenacity, passion, integrity, joy, and grit.
“Menlo’s commitment to providing students with the opportunity to develop a sound mind, body, and character through their participation in athletics is something that parallels my philosophy and “why” as a coach,” Patel said. “As a former student-athlete and social science scholar, I am ever conscious that the privilege of participating in sports throughout childhood and adolescence affords skills and characteristics that are valuable in several walks of life, ones that cannot be taught in a classroom.
“I aspire to cultivate an environment in which our program continues to collectively focus on developing student-athletes in a conscious and holistic way such that they evolve not only as well-rounded athletes but well-rounded individuals who are equipped with a robust set of skills to successfully take on any path they may choose, in lacrosse and beyond.”

Patel takes over from Ryan Sage who moved out of the area,