Kellie Young Selected to Lead Louisville Lacrosse
July 20, 2006 | Women's Lacrosse
July 20, 2006
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Kellie Young, having built an impressive resume of success on the field and in the classroom as the head coach at James Madison, has been selected to lead the University of Louisville lacrosse program into its first varsity season in 2008.
Young arrives at U of L with a 51-24 career record in four seasons as head coach at JMU where she led the Dukes to three NCAA Tournament appearances, three Colonial Athletic Association titles and a top-five national ranking. In 2006, the Dukes were 15-5 overall, including a 6-1 mark in the CAA en route to sweeping the regular-season and tournament titles, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years. The Dukes capped the 2006 season with two players, Kelly Berger and Kylee Dardine, earning Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA)/US Lacrosse All-America honors, while Young was earned CAA Coach of the Year honors.
"When the decision was made to add women's lacrosse, we wanted to go full speed ahead," said Tom Jurich, Vice President and Director of Athletics. "We began to put the infrastructure in place by building a quality stadium and we wanted to target a sitting head coach with a lot of experience. Kellie is a dynamic person with proven success on the Division I level who I know will do a marvelous job here at U of L. She comes to us highly recommended from individuals across the country and we are thrilled to have her as our first coach in this growing sport."
On April 21, 2005, U of L announced the addition of lacrosse as the Cards' 23rd varsity sport. The Cardinal lacrosse program, which will become the seventh team in the BIG EAST Conference in the spring of 2008, will play its home games at the new lacrosse stadium located on South Floyd Street between Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and the now under construction Yum! Center, which will house the team's locker-room and coaches' offices.
"I'm truly thrilled to join the University of Louisville athletics family," said Young. "The opportunity to build a powerhouse lacrosse program within this dynamic community was too good to overlook. I'm honored by the trust and support of both Tom Jurich and Julie Hermann, and I look forward to many years at the helm of the Louisville lacrosse."
In her four seasons at James Madison, Young coached six All-America honorees, three CAA Player of the Year award winners, two national player of the year finalists and one national defender of the year winner. Joining Young at U of L will be assistant coaches Lisa Staedt and Matt Lawicki, both of whom were on Young's coaching staff at JMU during the 2006 season.
In 2004, Young led JMU to a school record 16 wins, including a record-setting 11-game winning streak and a perfect 7-0 league mark, and an appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals. Four members of that 2004 squad earned All-America recognition, and midfielder Gail Decker was both a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist and Honda Award finalist for those national player of the year awards. Other individual award winners for the 2004 JMU team included Jessica Beard, named Defender of the Year by womenslacrosse.com, and Johanna Buchholz, who earned the Aimee Willard Award as the top collegiate player at the U.S. Lacrosse National Tournament.
In 2003, her first season as the Dukes' head coach, Young led JMU to a 13-6 record, the CAA championship and a berth in the 16-team NCAA Tournament. Under her guidance, the Dukes defeated top-ranked Maryland and also posted key wins over nationally ranked Penn State, Dartmouth and Yale. All but one of JMU's regular season losses were to teams ranked in the top six nationally, including a one goal loss to eventual NCAA runner-up Virginia. Midfielder Lisa Staedt, who is joining Young's coaching staff at U of L as an assistant, was a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy and Young closed the 2003 season by being selected to coach in the North-South Senior All-Star Game.
Under Young's guidance, the Dukes not only excelled on the field but also in the classroom. In her first three seasons at JMU, the Dukes had 37 players honored by the CAA with the Commissioner's Academic Award, while 27 players received the JMU Athletic Director's Scholar Athlete Award and 10 more were named to the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Academic Honor Roll.
Prior to taking over the reins at James Madison, Young was the first assistant for four seasons at Georgetown. As an assistant with the Hoyas, Young helped lead GU to a pair of NCAA runner-up finishes in 2001 and 2002 and a pair of NCAA quarterfinal appearances in 1999 and 2000. Georgetown had a record of 57-16 during Young's four seasons as an assistant. She also has coaching experience at two Division III institutions as she served as head lacrosse and soccer coach at Sweet Briar (Va.) College from 1996-98 and assistant lacrosse coach at Amherst (Mass.) College from 1994-96.
Young is a 1993 graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., where she was a two-time (1992, 1993) all-region and all-conference selection in lacrosse, was co-captain as a senior and earned Mount Holyoke's Ruth C. Timm Award as the team's most outstanding player. The Lyons' 1993 record of 13-4 still stands as the best mark in school history. Overall, Young earned nine varsity letters in four sports at Mount Holyoke including soccer, softball and basketball. In 1993, she received Mount Holyoke's Athletic Director's Award for service to Mount Holyoke athletics and the local community.
Following her collegiate playing career, Young continued to compete on the field as a player and from 1999-2002, she was a member of the U.S. National Development Team. In 1999, Young gained international playing experience competing for the U.S. in test matches against the English National Team.
Young is also very involved with the overall state of the game in the U.S., having served on the executive committee of the Women's Division Board of Governors for U.S. Lacrosse from 1998-2005. As vice president, she chaired the competitions committee that oversees the U.S. Lacrosse National Tournament, the premiere event for women's lacrosse in the country.
The Massachusetts native holds a bachelor's degree in political science and women's studies from Mount Holyoke and earned a master's degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts in 1997.
