Lacrosse Migrates South

Louisville, South Carolina and Florida jumping on board

July 11, 2007

By Josh Herwitt

CSTV.com


	Josh Herwitt Josh is CSTV.com's men's basketball editor and writes a weekly national column. E-mail here!

From the Northern tip of New England to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and beyond, it wasn't that long ago when college lacrosse was confined to a dozen states, all along the East Coast.

Yet with each passing season, those once-regional boundaries have continued to stretch for the fastest growing sport in America.

Long known for its roots at prep schools throughout the Northeast, lacrosse has migrated West with more and more promising talent developing at the youth level in states like Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

And while Oregon, Stanford and UC Davis are among the small handful of West Coast universities who now sponsor women's lacrosse, the South has further expanded the college lacrosse landscape with programs being announced over the last two years at Louisville, Florida and, most recently, South Carolina.

The announcement of a women's lacrosse team at Louisville came first between the trio of schools, and after a two-year layoff, the Cardinals will be the first to join the college lacrosse community when they take the field next season as a member of the Big East.

Behind them will be a seasoned veteran coach in Kellie Young, who built a national contender at James Madison in just four quick years of work, guiding the Dukes to three CAA championships, three NCAA tournament appearances and a top-five national ranking.

But starting that process over--this time in the state of Kentucky, at a school affiliated with a major BCS conference--was something that immediately attracted Young to the job.

"The opportunity to build a powerhouse lacrosse program within this dynamic community was too good to overlook," Young said when she accepted the job a year ago. "I look forward to many years at the helm of the Louisville lacrosse team."

While Young has hopes of making history and attracting new talent to the South, the same can be said for Amanda O'Leary, who just last month was named Florida's head coach after Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley announced more than a year ago that the Gators would begin fielding a women's lacrosse team in the spring of 2010.

For Foley, the announcement was just another notch on his belt amid his many other accomplishments at Florida since he took over the athletic department in 1992.

And with other universities across the country adding women's lacrosse, Foley saw the sport as Florida's next potential athletic program, one that can bring a new sense of excitement to Gainesville and develop a consistent fan base in the near future.

"Any time you can add a sport, it's exciting," he asserted. "To have the opportunity to start a program from scratch and build it and hopefully achieve a great deal of success down the road, that is why we do what we do. This University has always had a tremendous amount of pride in our women's athletic programs."

For O'Leary, the former Yale coach who led the No. 11 Bulldogs to a 13-4 record and an appearance in the first round of the NCAA tournament this past spring, receiving the head coach position at Florida was even more a dream-come-true.

"When I saw the opening, I just thought [it would be] a great opportunity to compete at the highest level because that's what they are, that's what they're used to competing at," O'Leary said.

"It's an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

For as much success as O'Leary had at Yale, however, what ultimately convinced her to take the job in Gainesville was the recent athletic success that Florida captured with a football and two men's basketball championships in the last year.

And though O'Leary wouldn't trade anything for her 14 years in New Haven, the athletic achievement that Florida has attained in such a short period of time could quickly bring in even more exposure for a sport that continues to grow rapidly throughout the country.

"I would have never left Yale for any other job but this one," O'Leary assured. "I think what was so enticing about this job is the reputation of the athletics association. The things that stand out are the national championships in basketball and football and the success that their women's teams have had as well. They are successful in every single sport across the board, and they are, by far, the finest athletic department in the country."

It will be an opportunity like none other for O'Leary, one that will inevitably allow her to put her mark on the program as Florida's inaugural coach and bring lacrosse to new heights in the Sunshine State.

But while her life has moved more than 1,000 miles South from central Connecticut to central Florida, O'Leary sees little that will change once she's on the sidelines barking orders.

"The coaching won't be any different," she offered. "I don't anticipate that things are going to change. The [University of Florida] community is so incredibly supportive of all of their sports."

Meanwhile, not too far up the road, the South Carolina community is starting to stir up its own excitement about lacrosse after a women's team was announced for the 2008-2009 season as the newest member of the American Lacrosse Conference.

And as Senior Associate Director of Athletics Val Sheley seems to believe, the Gamecocks won't be the only ones adding women's lacrosse to its athletic program in the coming years.

"It's a very attractive sport," she said. "There's so much interest in it nationally...You're going to see more and more of it in collegiate institutions like ours."

So after examining countless surveys and discussing the matter with school administrators on multiple occasions, it came down to lacrosse and rowing as the top two candidates for a new team in Columbia.

With a successful club team already in place, though, it made it that much easier for Sheley and her staff to choose women's lacrosse as the 21^st sport offered at South Carolina.

"We did extensive research," Sheley explained. "It just seemed to fit with what we're doing right now...The more we researched, the more we felt that lacrosse is a good fit for us where we are right now."

Still, a long road stands in front of South Carolina with the program in its early stages and the basic ground work just recently completed.

Thus, as Sheley searches rigorously to hire a head coach by the end of July, the Gamecocks have yet to even take that next step with recruiting visits to the Northeast and construction plans for a new facility on campus.

"We hope within five or six years that we're right in the mix," Sheley added.

By that time, the entire country just might be rallying around women's lacrosse.