The symbolism of the moment was not lost on Devon Wills.

The U.S. had just defeated Canada in the International World Games final at Olawka Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland. With gold medals dangling from their necks, veteran midfielders Kelly Rabil and Ally Carey flanked coach Ricky Fried to his right. Wills, now a three-time world champion, sidled up next to Fried on the left, flag in hand, as they posed for a photo.

Or so Fried thought.

As soon as he settled in for the shot, Rabil and Carey broke right, Wills lunged left, and Team USA rookies Alice Mercer and Taylor Cummings dumped gallons of icy water down the neck and spine of their unsuspecting coach.

A beautifully crafted plan. A history-making moment. An American celebration synchronized with a step into the future.

“These are the Ricky years,” said Wills, the co-captain and two-time All-World goalie. “We definitely put a stamp on the map in terms of how we played under this staff.”

When Fried, the head coach at Georgetown University, joined the U.S. coaching staff as an assistant in 2009, the team was hardly a juggernaut. After a stunning loss to the Jen Adams-led Australian team in the 2005 World Cup final, Team USA barely got by the Aussies in 2009 to reclaim the gold medal. Wills was on that team, as was midfielder Sarah Bullard, who along with Wills would become a fixture on the next two World Cup teams.

Named the head coach in July 2009, Fried introduced innovative concepts that were only beginning to breach the surface then. He implemented Aces, the full-field ride that looks a lot like a trapping full-court press in basketball. The U.S. would use to its advantage the youth, depth and athleticism of its collegiate ranks, cherry-picking the top players coming out of the NCAA and unleashing them all over the field. Opponents would have to navigate through waves of double-teams just to advance the ball from one end of the field to the other — an exhausting endeavor that often ended with them retreating toward the sideline or end line in capitulation.

“They were looking to utilize the strengths of the players and do things that the international level hadn’t really seen yet,” said Wills, whom Fried gave free rein to leave the cage to play defense, double-team and be disruptive. “[The ride] wasn’t a part of the plan in 2009, or really 2013. It was sort of utilized. They pushed the envelope. We were dictating everything. That was a forward way of thinking, at least internationally.”

Fried’s vision was a systematic approach that focused on the team, rather than individuals. Players who were standouts in college, like former Syracuse attackers Kayla Treanor and Michelle Tumolo, learned to be creative within the unit’s needs. He also brought on renowned strength coach Jay Dyer after 2013. Dyer implemented a training program that sculpted players in the vein of Carey, Rabil and midfielder Laura Zimmerman — speed demons who could withstand the rigors of playing that way through 12 games in 18 days.

“They do a great job of representing that saying of being the fastest sport on two feet,” Dyer said.

“Our relentless pressure and speed of play all over the field wears the opposing team down,” said Bullard, the co-captain who scored three goals in Team USA’s 10-5 win over Canada in the World Cup final to earn Player of the Match honors. “Still, no team has been able to stop us because of how we were able to execute within our various frameworks. … One of the hallmarks of Ricky’s coaching style that will always stick with me is how dynamic he pushed us to be — to play aggressive and disciplined, to play fast with our bodies and slow with our minds, never just one or the other.”

Like any great team, the U.S. has spawned imitators, which bodes well for the future of international lacrosse.

Canada has begun to “mimic the Americans,” according to coach Scott Teeter, with yearly training events to improve its high performance model. 

New Zealand, which finished in a program-best eighth place, completed a tour of the U.S. prior to flying to the World Cup. It included a stop at Stanford, where U.S. assistant Amy Bokker coaches.

England recruited talent from the U.S. to return to the medal stand, including Princeton’s Olivia Hompe and Maryland’s Megan Whittle, who have played with and against many of the Americans.

Then at The World Games — an international multi-sport event in Wroclaw, Poland, in which lacrosse made its debut just days after the conclusion of the World Cup — the Polish national team’s first competition came against the U.S. Team USA defeated Poland 20-0, holding the home team without a shot, but Fried and Bokker took time to offer instruction and two days later staged a clinic.

“After the 2013 World Cup, the bar was set very high and every country worked to raise their level of play,” Fried said. “I believe our success was a part of raising this level for others. Other countries looked at our model to see what they could do differently and raised the level internationally. I am proud to have been a small part of that.”

Under Fried, the U.S. has set a standard of excellence not only for its own players — like Treanor, who set a new World Cup team record with 43 points — but also for other countries.

“If you’re going to get run over, you might as well get run over by a Rolls-Royce,” England coach Phil Collier said after a 19-8 loss to the U.S. in the World Cup semifinals. 

Prior to playing England, Bullard recalled reading on the team’s Instagram feed, “To be the best, you have to beat the best.” While it’s a challenge for the No. 1 team in the world to have other countries catching up — lest anyone forget that the Canadian U19 team upset the U.S. two years ago in Scotland featuring several players who suited up for the senior squad this summer — parity will push the sport forward.

“Like any high achievers, we want to be pushed to be our best, which is only helped by the growth of other teams,” Bullard said. “Devon, during the tournament, had hand-eye speed exercises hanging in her dorm room. If the best goalie in the world is working that hard on her way out the door, what excuse does anyone else have not to? The way the veterans on our team prepared, showed up, and continued to push everyone around them consistently raised the bar for our program, which I believe had a ripple effect out to the international lacrosse community.”

After winning the World Cup in England, the U.S. shifted its focus to The World Games in Poland, an important stepping-stone in the sport’s quest to return to the Olympics. The Olympic-like event, organized by the International World Games Association, would put lacrosse on a new platform.

And it would put Team USA on a new pedestal.

The U.S. defeated Canada again in the gold medal game, an 11-8 victory.

To Bullard, the U.S. program’s growth and global impact is like “a storm picking up steam and continuing to get stronger.” She and Wills likened it to the 1992 Dream Team, the greatest basketball team ever assembled. This summer marked the 25th anniversary of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team that featured Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, and defeated awestruck opponents by an average of 44 points.

More importantly, though, they raised the bar for international basketball. Last season, NBA rosters featured a record 113 international players from 41 countries.

“It wasn’t the wins that defined us,” Wills said. “At The World Games, it was so much bigger. It was about showcasing the sport and how fun it can be and how much people can enjoy it. That’s where it’s similar to the Dream Team. It’s on us. It’s our responsibility to grow the game. Hopefully by showing what we can do as individuals, we can show the Olympic committee what this sport can become globally.”

“The world has witnessed lacrosse at its best both on and off of the field,” Fried added. “I believe that will be the legacy of this group, having players who want to play the game at such a high level and being humble about how they go about promoting the sport. Nothing is bigger than the game. This summer, the players on the U.S. women’s national team represented lacrosse at its best and became synonymous with the game.”

While Fried is quick to push the notion of we instead of me, Wills said he was the engineer behind it all. Bokker added that he has set up the next U.S. coach for success.  

“He left behind a tremendous legacy,” said Wills, who is retiring. “The challenge was to be the best U.S. team and put on the best performance people had seen for lacrosse. That was making history. To extend that, it was, ‘Can you win two gold medals in 10 days?’ That’s making history. You don’t get one without the other. That was definitely something Ricky can be proud of and we did fulfill that dream. He can mark this down as a success.”

Click here to watch the full Chasing Rings series, which concludes with Part VII on Friday.