New Western Albemarle coach Alex Whitten knows how to win lacrosse games.

Western athletic director Steve Heon announced Whitten's hire by email Thursday morning. Whitten comes to the Warriors after spending the last eight years as a head coach in Connecticut, where his teams won one state title and made three other championship game appearances.

"Coach Whitten brings tremendous experience as a former collegiate lacrosse player and successful high school head coach," Heon said in the release. "He has an undeniable passion for the game as well as a strong desire to develop young men of character. We look forward to the Whitten era of Warriors boys' lacrosse."

Whitten, a Connecticut native, played college lacrosse at Duke, where he was a member of the the Blue Devils' ACC championship team in 1995, and the program's first-ever Final Four team as a senior in 1997.

Whitten began his high school coaching career in 2005 at Weston High School in Connecticut, where he won a state title in 2007. For the past four seasons he's been the head coach at New Canaan High School, where he led teams to three state title game appearances -- 2008, 2011, and 2012.