Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. US Lacrosse yesterday announced North Carolina's Jenny Levy as the new head coach of the U.S. women's national team.
Levy has led the Tar Heels to two NCAA championships as the only coach in the program's 22-year history. She has amassed a record of 312-109, taking North Carolina to the NCAA tournament in 19 seasons and reaching the semifinals nine times. She takes over for Georgetown's Ricky Fried, who led Team USA to FIL World Cup gold medals in 2009, 2013 and 2017.
“We will compete for extraordinary excellence and work to build a sustainable program which will include a vertical integration from the National Team Development Program (NTDP) to U19 to our senior team,” Levy said in a press release.
Levy played for the U.S. team for two years following an All-American career as an attacker at Virginia. She helped the Cavaliers win the 1991 NCAA championship and was named Most Outstanding Attacker after scoring a total of eight goals in the semifinal and final.
Levy joins Team USA at a time when lacrosse is poised for more growth on the world stage, following the sport's inclusion in the International World Games over the summer in Poland. First she'll assemble a staff, applications for which are now open.
2. More involving Team USA, as men's national team coach John Danowski has been named a speaker at the US Lacrosse Convention (LaxCon). He has led Duke to three national championships in his 11 seasons in Durham, and he's been a popular presenter at the sport's largest educational event over the years.
Danowski will lead the U.S. team to Netanya, Israel, next summer for the FIL World Championship. He guided the Blue Devils to a stretch of eight straight national semifinal appearances and has coached dozens of All-American and all-conference honorees.
LaxCon is set for Jan. 19-21, 2018, at the Baltimore Convention Center. Specific dates and times for sessions are expected to be announced next week. The event is open to the public. Various ticket options are available, including early bird registration with discounted rates that expire Nov. 30.
3. Many have heard of funerals for athletes and coaches that draw large crowds. How about same for an individual with the title of academic representative? Captain Owen G. Thorp III occupied that role with the Navy men's program from 2000 until his Oct. 29 passing due to cancer. Services attracted more than 1,500 mourners, testifying to the positive influence Thorp had on Mids near and far, despite a seemingly behind-the-scenes position.
4. From our popular Gym Rats series in the November print edition, Florida's Pirreca sisters have thrived thanks in part to a background in gymstastics as kids. Shayna and Sydney once were competitive gymnasts that had six hours of training each day, at times.
“Gymnastics taught us you can't do the bare minimum and expect to be the best,” Shayna Pirreca said.
5. Per a few tweets from Joe Keegan of College Crosse, Atlanta Blaze owner Peter Trematerra has sold the franchise back to Major League Lacrosse.
There's hope for a new ownership group to take over the Blaze as soon as this month. Unclear what would happen if that falls through.
— Joe Keegan (@joekeegs) November 9, 2017