CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – University of Virginia lacrosse coach Lars Tiffany reacted Monday to Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University, his alma mater.

“When will we learn?” Tiffany said to Cville Right Now in an email. “These incidents happen regularly in our country. Again and again and again.  The devastation is real. The destruction of life is real.  When will our country learn? When will our nation’s legislative body finally take action to ensure gun violence prevention measures pass?”

Police in Providence, R.I., are still searching for the gunman who killed two Brown students and injured nine more people in a shooting during final exams at the Ivy League institution.

Tiffany graduated from Brown in 1990 after playing lacrosse there. He was a two-time team captain under then-coach Dom Starsia, who went on to coach at Virginia. 

Tiffany returned to his alma mater in 2007, coaching Bears for 10 years, going 95-56, winning four Ivy League titles and making three NCAA appearances. 

He was hired at UVA after the 2016 season, when he led Brown to the national semifinals. 

At Virginia, Tiffany has won a pair of national championships, in 2019 and 2021. 

Tiffany is not the only Brown athletics alum to weigh in on the tragedy.

USC women’s basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who played at Brown from 1995-99, addressed the shooting Saturday, following her team’s loss to No. 1 Connecticut.

“It doesn’t need to be this way,” Gottlieb said. “Sending thoughts and prayers to my teammates who have kids there,” Gottlieb said while fighting back tears. “To the parents who have to worry about their children. … We’re the only country that lives this way. The college football cycle has been in the news a million times, and are we going to report about this? Like, it’s the guns. We’re the only country that lives this way.”

“Parents should not have to be worried about their kids. I have a teammate who has a daughter who is in the basement of the library because she doesn’t know what’s going on there, and she’s flying there tomorrow,” she said.