JU Dolphin Lacrosse
MATT KERWICK ANNOUNCED AS HEAD MEN'S LACROSSE COACH
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With a vast amount of knowledge and experience in collegiate lacrosse, JU named Matt Kerwick as the school’s first men’s lacrosse coach on Wednesday. After going through nearly 200 resumes to find the first head coach of the only Division I men's program in Florida, Kerwick's passion and vision to build the JU men’s lacrosse program from scratch was infectious. Kerwick will have a year and a half to build the program in anticipation of the varsity team's first game in Spring 2010. (Read the full press release here)
Coach Mindy McCord's Speech
I would like to thank Alan and President Romesburg for providing me this great opportunity and for the board of trustees for having the vision to add the fastest growing sport in the country and in the south to the Dolphin’s line-up. There is no question that adding lacrosse, which has 100 high school programs for boys and girls and more than 5,000 participants in Florida alone will pay dividends for JU.
At other top private academic institutions, from the Ivy leagues to Duke, Vanderbelt, and Davidson, lacrosse has been a very successful part of their school equation. It’s a fast-playing, quick thinking sport that develops a great deal of character and appeals to kids from all over the country. The bottom line is, with lacrosse, JU steps into some elite company nationally and it is my hope to build programs here that can compete with the best private schools in the country.
Over the past 5 years, my family and I have made it our passion to grow the sport by all means necessary. We have seen the Jacksonville area grow from 65 female and a couple hundred male participants in 2005 to over 650 girls and 1000 boys from our area that now have picked up sticks. The 600% growth is because the game is so much fun to play. I still love to play. My husband plays on a large local men’s team, and our daughter plays for Bartram Trail High school, which is already a top-20 program in the south region. Being centrally located in the south, JU and I have great plans to build a program that builds the game. We plan on hosting tournaments, camps, coaching clinics and being a conduit to growth in lacrosse all over the south region. We’re at a crossroads for many large metro areas and in building lacrosse, JU and Jacksonville will become a major HUB of lacrosse activity. Someday I want kids to walk around saying, “I live in LAX-sonville!” because they are having so much fun – and there are so many opportunities right here at JU and on the First Coast. It all starts with building our program.
As you can see, we have ambitious designs and goals, to shoot for. We start today – building for the future, fund raising for the future. We want to build this new facility and make it a hallmark of the JU campus. We want to appeal to young men and women from all over the south and lacrosse enthusiasts nationwide. The key to this game making it in the south is held by JU and schools with vision who are going to jump forward and provide the thousands of area kids opportunities to receive an education and enjoy the game they play with so much heart and passion. I plan on building my program with a very large southern “accent” – there are lots of kids who can play college lacrosse and I want them to stay at home in the south! My emails and phone lines have been buzzing with prospects wanting more information. We hope to keep the enthusiasm going and making it a central part of our program for years to come. I know with my background, starting Virginia Tech’s club program, being one of the youngest head coaches I the game a decade ago, and starting lacrosse nearly from scratch at many area high schools and youth associations….I know this is going to be very rewarding for me personally, and my family and I are so very blessed to have been connected to Alan and to JU. Jacksonville University will be a great place to receive an education and play some great lacrosse.