The Elon University Board of Trustees has made it official – there will be a Phoenix women’s lacrosse team. The program will begin play in the 2013-2014 season.
“Women’s lacrosse is growing at an incredible pace, and we are excited to add this opportunity for Elon student-athletes,” said Dave Blank, director of athletics. “Women’s lacrosse is becoming increasingly popular at all intercollegiate levels, and we feel the sport is a strong fit for our athletic program.”
In February, Blank named lacrosse as one of three possibilities for an additional women’s sport to the university’s programs, along with sand volleyball and swimming.
"Sand volleyball is still emerging, so we're not sure what that's going to do," he said in an interview March 27. "Swimming, we're compromised a bit with our facilities. We have a swimming pool that we could utilize, but to be able to really compete, we'd probably have to go somewhere else and do that.
"We'll continue to evaluate and explore our abilities and needs to expand, and obviously those two sports may not go away. One of them may rise to the top next time for more expansion."
Elon will take the academic year of 2012-2013 to recruit players and develop the program, which includes recruiting, scheduling and player development. A national search for a head coach will begin immediately.
"We'll look for a coach that's got experience, like for all head coaching positions," Blank said. "Obviously, it's a little bit tricky because you're birthing a program. That's also very exciting to coaches that are wanting to be head coaches or have been head coaches and really want to start something up and do it their own way. The plan is to be looking for a head coach right now and find the person that's the right fit, that understands the work ahead of being able to create and implement a program from the beginning.
He also said the university has been contacted by potential hires and that the goal is to make the hire "as soon as it makes sense," which may be as soon as June 1.
Blank cited gender equity required by the NCAA as one of the driving factors behind adding the program.
“Among the themes of The Elon Commitment strategic plan is a goal for the university to set conference standards in academics and gender equity,” he said. “The addition of women’s lacrosse is a key step toward achieving that goal, providing additional opportunities for female student-athletes to compete at the NCAA Division I level.”
NCAA Division I lacrosse currently features more than 90 women’s lacrosse programs, and the sport boasts the top graduation success rates (GSR) among all NCAA Division I sports. According to NCAA figures released last May, women’s lacrosse posted a four-year class average GSR of 94 percent, which topped all 18 NCAA-sanctioned sports.
Elon becomes the fifth school in the state of North Carolina with a varsity women's lacrosse program, joining Davidson College, Duke University, High Point University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the Southern Conference, Furman University recently announced the addition of women’s lacrosse to begin competition in 2014-2015. Davidson began lacrosse in 1994 and currently competes in the National Lacrosse Conference, which also features High Point University.
Blank said he would like the program to play in the SoCon. The conference would need six schools to have programs for it to be an official sport. If it does not work out in the SoCon, the athletic department will consider other possibilities. Other local conferences with women's lacrosse Blank mentioned were the Atlantic 10 Conference, the Big South Conference, the Colonial Athletic Association and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The women’s lacrosse program will be the 17th varsity sport and 10th women’s athletic program at Elon. This is the first addition of a varsity sport at the university since the 2000-2001 academic year, when women’s indoor and outdoor track and field began competition.
Women’s lacrosse has been offered as a club sport at Elon since 2001. The Pendulum spoke to players on the team for a story three weeks ago with this possibility in mind.
“We love watching the game, we love playing the game,” said club president and attacker Becca Luz, a junior. “I think any more lacrosse, the better.”
Once the coach is hired, the first place the university will look for players is that club team, Blank said. But he also said the school is getting inquires from elsewhere.
"We're getting inquiries from incoming freshmen, from people that are maybe freshmen somewhere else, some of them are upper classmen, somewhere else saying, 'I knew about Elon. I would have come there if I had known you had lacrosse. Now you're going to add it. Can I learn more about it?'" he said. "So we're going through an educational process with those folks to help them know every step along the way how we're going to implement, and if they have a chance to come here and compete. Those are decisions that they'll make. But they'll be free and welcome to transfer and be part of the program if they meet all the qualifications."
Seventy-two high schools in North Carolina now offer girls’ lacrosse. The five states with the highest number of high school lacrosse athletes are currently New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Maryland, which are all in the top 10 states represented in Elon’s Class of 2015.
"At Elon, we strongly fit the category of institutional recruiting within the northeastern corridor, where lacrosse is a very prominent sport," Blank said. "We felt like lacrosse was the right sport to have"