Susanna Wilcox has been named the first-ever coach for the DePauw women's lacrosse team.
Wilcox, a 2009 graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., will start for preparation for the 2012-13 season in June. Wilcox is currently in her third season as the head lacrosse coach for Culver Academy, a college preparatory school in Culver, Ind.
Originally from Wales, Wilcox played lacrosse at Mount Holyoke and has also coached for a club team in San Diego for one season. DePauw will be her first experience as a collegiate lacrosse coach.
"I think the opportunity to coach lacrosse, to sort of build the new program from the ground up, especially at a school that places a lot of emphasis on academics, but also having strong Div. III sports was really appealing," Wilcox said.
The women's lacrosse team, which has only been around for one year, will make the transition from a club to varsity sport at the beginning of the 2012-13 season.
Wilcox anticipates that the jump to varsity will be difficult, but looks forward to building the program.
"I definitely think it (the jump to varsity) presents some challenges," Wilcox said. "Obviously, [the players now] are not athletes I have recruited or who have sort of come to play lacrosse necessarily, but I think it's a good opportunity next year just to find our feet and begin the program."
The lacrosse season is split into fall and spring with the fall season serving more as a warm-up before the spring season. The team will join the North Coast Athletic Conference as part of its jump to varsity.
"I think that next year will certainly be a challenge because we will be playing in a pretty strong conference," Wilcox said.
Wilcox specifically mentioned Denison University's lacrosse team as one that will provide competition for DePauw's newly formed team.
She mentioned that recruitment may be challenging initially, but the growth in popularity of lacrosse in the Midwest will benefit the team.
"Right now lacrosse is growing a lot in Indianapolis," Wilcox said. "We can capitalize on the fact that a lot of college coaches are not coming to the Midwest to recruit players, but I think that the sport has boomed to the point that there a lot of players in the Midwest who are college caliber players now."