The Minnesota Swarm have announced the hiring of Mike Lines to fill the vacant head coaching position for the upcoming 2010 season.

Lines, 38, spent the last three seasons with the Swarm as an assistant coach under Duane Jacobs, who resigned earlier this offseason.

"Mike's a familiar face in our organization, so he was a real popular choice with our players and myself. The Arlottas (owner John Arlotta and vice president Andy Arlotta) really felt that Mike was a big part of the good things that were going on last year, and we all felt that Mike was ready for this challenge," stated General Manager Marty O'Neill.

The St. Catharines, Ont., native will take over a Swarm team that went 6-10 last season despite making the playoffs the previous three seasons.

"He has a real connection with the players and they really stepped up and voiced their opinion and said, 'We would like to see him as the head coach,'" noted O'Neill. "We wanted to keep the positive feeling that we had in the past with Mike and try to build off that moving forward."

"It's exciting. I'm really looking forward to getting the season started. It's going to be good," Lines said. "We don't have a lot to change actually. We're just going to try to bring in a little more size and a little more speed defensively and work to be more consistent on offense. We'll be better next year."

Lines also served as a scout for the Buffalo Bandits in 2005. He has a distinguished resume as both a player and coach in Canada's junior and senior lacrosse programs.