The first domino of the Whipsnakes’ player movement window has fallen.
Maryland has signed third-year close defenseman Jack Posey to a three-year deal through 2028.
“He’s a big, strong, tough kid,” Whipsnakes head coach Jim Stagnitta said. “I love the level he competes at and how hard he plays. I think he’s a really solid cover guy.”
Posey spent the last two seasons with the Carolina Chaos, who signed him as an undrafted rookie in 2024. He appeared in five games with the Chaos in 2025, tallying five ground balls, three caused turnovers and his first career point.
He played the best game of his professional career against the Denver Outlaws in front of a home crowd in Charlotte. Posey forced a turnover and scooped up three ground balls to help the Chaos knock off the 2025 PLL finalists 12-9.
“He didn’t dress the last part of the year for the Chaos,” Stagnitta said. “He started in the beginning, and then he wasn’t playing, so we offered him an opportunity to truly come in and compete for a spot.”
Standing 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, Posey’s size makes him a threat for would-be midfielders and attackmen thinking of flashing in front of the crease. Stagnitta wants his team to “be more physical and compete a little harder on the ground” in 2026, and he believes Posey fits that mold.
“He brings it every day,” Stagnitta said. “We need to compete a little bit harder and challenge each other a little bit more in practice. He met a bunch of the criteria of things that we needed to address in the offseason.”
Posey graduated from Penn State in 2024. He played 42 games during his time with the Nittany Lions, starting in 25 of them. His best season came in 2023, when he was a full-time starter, tallied 25 ground balls and 11 caused turnovers, and made second-team All-Big Ten on a Penn State squad that reached the NCAA semifinals.
A torn ACL suffered during the 2023 quarterfinals limited Posey to seven games in his final year of eligibility in 2024.
Now, Posey is the newest addition to the Whipsnakes’ defensive unit of Ajax Zappitello, Matt Dunn and Tim Muller, the trio that led Maryland to the No. 1-rated defense in 2025.
“Having three cover guys is really important, and he’s certainly capable of covering,” Stagnitta said. “Ajax is great at the No. 1. Matt Dunn can still cover most anybody in our league consistently and well. So [Posey] gives us another guy when necessary that can cover.”
Posey got to spend the past two seasons training and playing alongside perennial All-Stars Jack Rowlett and Jarrod Neumann, and now has the opportunity to do the same with Dunn, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, and Zappitello, an All-Star and second-team All-Pro in 2025.
Zappitello, like Posey, is entering his third pro season, but Dunn and Muller both are in their 30s.
“I wouldn’t say across the board that you would consider us young [on defense],” Stagnitta said. “So it was something that we felt we were going to address through the draft and free agency.”
Posey came with ringing endorsements from Whipsnakes attackman and former Penn State teammate TJ Malone, Penn State head coach Jeff Tambroni, and former Chaos head coach and general manager Andy Towers, which helped Stagnitta in the process of bringing him to Maryland.
“Jack played with TJ in college, and TJ was a big fan,” Stagnitta said. “ He spoke really highly of [Posey]. Andy Towers gave him a really good review as a teammate and a player. … In doing all of our due diligence, he was so highly recommended by people that I respect, and it made it pretty easy to reach out to him.”
Malone and Posey were not just teammates at Penn State, but housemates and best friends.
“TJ loved him as a teammate,” Stagnitta said. “He said, ‘He’s a great teammate, great competitor and a great kid who is going to bring it every day. He is physical and makes other people better because he pushes them hard.’”
Now, Posey will have the opportunity to team up with his former college teammate – and with some of the best defensemen in the league.
