USA Training Camp: O'Donnell Back Wearing Favorite Colors

Katie O’Donnell always knew her 2025 lacrosse season was going to start in New England. It’s just going to happen a little sooner than expected.

O’Donnell, the head women’s lacrosse coach at Drexel, will take her Dragons’ squad to Storrs, Conn., to play at Connecticut on Feb. 8. But first, she’s got some personal business to take care of.

O’Donnell will be one of 36 players competing with the U.S. Women’s Field National Team during a training camp at Boston College from Jan. 7-9. For O’Donnell, a member of past U.S. training teams, it will be her first chance to play for new U.S. head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein. O’Donnell was unable to attend the November training camp and exhibitions at the IWLCA President’s Cup due to her brother’s wedding.

“I think first and foremost, I’m just grateful for another opportunity to lace up and put on everybody’s favorite colors,” O’Donnell said. “At this point in my career, any time I get to put on a uniform and compete is the biggest honor and privilege. I’m excited to get back out there with some of my teammates from past U.S. training teams and the pro leagues over the last couple of years.”

O’Donnell, an All-American at Penn State, has been a mainstay in Athletes Unlimited pro lacrosse over the last few years, but with that league ceasing operations, the opportunity with the U.S. team is even more important. She wants to keep playing even as she enters her third full season as Drexel's head coach.

“’I’m going to stop playing and coach full-time’ is an easier said than done type of thing,” O’Donnell said. “Because once you kind of hang it up, you hang it up. I think the reason I got into coaching was because I loved playing so much and I loved competing. Competing as a player and competing as a coach is different and right now, I’m not ready to give up that competing as a player aspect just yet.”

O’Donnell has achieved much success in her early coaching career. She took over the Drexel program midway through the 2022 season, just four years out of Penn State, and was the interim head coach through the 2023 season. The interim tag was dropped after that year and the Dragons have reached the NCAA tournament in each of the last three years, with last year’s squad tying the school record with 13 wins.

She thinks the U.S. training camp opportunity is a chance to improve her coaching while chasing her on-field playing dreams.

“I'm excited to be coached by this staff and kind of learn under them, listen to what they have to say and how they do things,” O’Donnell said. “I think your development as a player, but also as a coach, is something that's really awesome and to be exposed to.”

She’ll have the bonus this weekend of having one of her Drexel players with her. Redshirt junior goalie Jenika Cuocco, one of the top players in the country, will be making her U.S. team debut.

“I remember my first training weekend after I graduated college and that's a memory that I will never forget,” O’Donnell said. “She’s been given this opportunity that she has definitely earned and I’m excited to just see her go out there and do her thing and get to be a first-hand witness of it and to be her teammate instead of her coach for three days.”

O’Donnell also knows it could be her own next first step towards the ultimate dream of representing the United States in a world championship. It’s a dream forged in a way unusual from many of her peers. Her mother, Jennifer, is a National Lacrosse Hall of Fame member as an official and officiated at world championships as Katie was growing up.

“My mom would go away for two weeks at a time for every World Cup or U19 championship that she had the honor to ref and represent the United States as an official,” O’Donnell said. “I always knew how special that was to her and as hard as it was to leave our family for two or three weeks, there were always those stories she would come back with and she was proud to have done it.”

O’Donnell didn’t get the opportunity to go to those world championships, but she spent plenty of time watching the greats of past U.S. teams in her younger years as mom her officiated top college games, including her new U.S. coach.

“She’s someone who I just look up to,” said O’Donnell of Walker-Weinstein. “I mean every time in a postgame interview she speaks, it’s kind of like hanging on every word. I really admire the way she coaches and the passion behind that and her belief in her players. I’m looking forward to kind of soak that in as a player for a couple of days.”

She’s hoping it lasts longer than a couple of days.

“I just wanted to play at the highest level and never really knew what the end game would look like,” O’Donnell said. “I was quietly watching my mom in the stands and watching all those greats run up and down the field. Now, to have the opportunity to do it is just surreal. Being able to make a final roster would be like the coolest thing in the world, but you know any training weekend that you get to attend and you get to put on even the pinnie is just surreal in itself. It’s all just been an amazing experience up until now. I’m excited for the week and whatever happens after that happens.”

TRAINING CAMP NOTES: This week’s camp is closed to the public, but updates will be available through the U.S. women’s national team social media channels … this is the second camp for head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein since taking over the program … the next competition for the U.S. women’s team will be the Pan-American Lacrosse Association continental qualifier in June.