Growing the Game: 3 New Division I Teams Come to USA Lacrosse for Showcase

Three teams that will make their NCAA Division I debuts next spring are looking at the “Growing the Game” showcase on Tierney Field at USA Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md., as an opportunity.

Rhode Island, South Florida and UNC Charlotte see the trip as valuable for the chance to play, to put their programs’ names out in a lacrosse-rich area and garner some national attention, and to continue to spread their passion for the game.

“There’s a countdown on the whiteboard in the locker room,” Rhode Island coach Jenna Slowey said. “The girls are pumped.”

The programs are all developing, each taking their own approach with less than a year until they start play. The three teams are coordinating how to get the most out of their trip to Maryland. They will play a full four-quarter scrimmage, with Rhode Island and Charlotte combining teams to take on South Florida. They also will play small-sided games, do drill work and sign autographs. The trip is one more step as they look to build interest in lacrosse.

“That was one of our big reasons why we wanted to do this initiative, was to be able to spread awareness that while we’re all competitive programs and we all want to win, we all truly care about the growth of the sport,” South Florida coach Mindy McCord said. “Doing this from scratch can be daunting. We’re here to support each other to make sure of the foundations of our programs, and collaborating with each other and building each other’s brands through promotion, it’s super important.”

The exhibition opportunity comes as the three are trying to use this spring to establish standards and culture. A key step toward helping to grow the game is establishing successful programs that can be beacons in their areas. Rhode Island is set to become the third Division I program in the nation’s smallest state, joining Brown and Bryant.

“Really, it’s been a lot of development,” said Slowey, a former assistant at Notre Dame and Richmond. “We talked about in the recruiting process this year, being a year to focus on ourselves to get stronger and faster and better and more athletic and really just focus on the fundamentals. We’re practicing every day. I wanted this year to look as much like next year’s schedule as possible so they can really understand what the D-I lifestyle feels like.”

Slowey and assistant coach Riley Smith, a former teammate at Fairfield, are overseeing 15 players. They will hire another assistant in the next month. Most of their players are freshmen, but the Rams also have transfers from Albany, Ohio State and Xavier. Next year, they will welcome an Australian U20 player and players on the U20 teams for Canada and Ireland.

“I think this is a really unique opportunity to build something in your backyard,” Slowey said. “This is a beautiful place to live. We’re about six miles from the beach. We’ve been lucky to get a lot of great resources. Title IX has been such a huge step forward for women’s sports.”

South Florida will be the first Division I team in the Tampa area. McCord was the architect of Jacksonville’s start-up program that began NCAA play in 2010 and now is tasked with the same job for the Bulls. Lacrosse is the first women’s sport South Florida has added since 1995.

McCord has a full staff and 27 players on her roster, including transfers from Notre Dame, Clemson, UConn and VCU. They played a few fall scrimmages and have taken on national teams from England and Scotland.

“We’ve been in training, but we’ve been able to play some games as well,” she said. “The chemistry is coming together nicely, and our culture is building up the way we want it to. I think we’ve found a really good group of girls to start the program with. They’ve been really hard working and high achieving. It’s helpful to see where our competitive level is and know where we need to grow so we can be competitive next spring.”

Clare Short made the short trip to UNC Charlotte from Queens (N.C.) after taking the Royals to the Division II national semifinals three times in four years. Short has a full staff but only seven players, one of whom transferred in.

“It’s just nice to be involved with lacrosse a little more heavily,” Short said. “We do have a smaller group. Just being able to scout games and review film and have our team be a little more involved is good.”

Charlotte is excited to put its stamp on a growing region of the country. Short is pitching that players from around the country can come to a large Division I school in the South. Closer to home, there are Charlotte-area residents who do know lacrosse, but there are also a fair number that still give Short a quizzical look when she talks about being the 49ers’ new coach.

“It really gives us an opportunity to get our name out there,” Short said. “Especially us being in the South, it’s not as prominent as a sport in youth leagues, or even some high schools still don’t have it. … For me, it’s making history. Who doesn’t want to be a part of that?”

There are 127 schools that sponsor Division I lacrosse. Last spring, Clemson, Fairleigh Dickinson and Xavier were brand new programs, while Lindenwood and Queens moved up from Division II. Rider is new this spring, and Le Moyne also moved up from Division II.

“I don’t think you should be in the college game if you don’t have a sense of responsibility to putting new sticks in new kids’ hands and helping to grow the participation rate so that more schools and more Title IX opportunities come, and more schools at the college level continue to choose lacrosse,” McCord said. “If you’re not growing the sport, why are the colleges going to add lacrosse? It benefits all these girls and women and careers for coaches, so I feel a huge sense of responsibility that you need to be a community leader as a college program and take that to heart.”

The USF players have tried to have a visible presence in their Tampa community. They worked four weeks with Play Like a Girl, have supported area kids with cancer and are out at USF sporting events and making their presence known. McCord sees big pockets of Tampa where there isn’t yet lacrosse, and that’s an opportunity to help a state that has seen its lacrosse profile increase over her coaching career.

“We’re really trying to help push the athletic directors and associations to add more youth programs, add more opportunities for JV programs that would really help the competitiveness of the high school lacrosse community,” said McCord, noting many high schools only have varsity programs. “But hands down, 20 years ago, college coaches didn’t want to recruit Florida. Now you’re seeing it’s one of the places they go to first because there are some fantastic lacrosse players.”

All three schools have held camps and clinics. They also get involved as coaches and players with clinics off-campus in the city area.

Charlotte announced itself at the Crown Lacrosse Classic hosted at Memorial Stadium in Charlotte last month and has raised awareness at other university athletic events. Rhode Island recently connected with its local club, South County Youth Lacrosse.

Coming to Maryland is important for all three teams. The chance to play outside competition will help each assess where they are, and the chance to further entrench themselves is invaluable. The three continue to raise awareness of how their additions expand D-I opportunities.

“It’s a recruiting hotbed for us, and we hope to gain a lot of traction with the kids we have at the game and also celebrating the growth of women’s sports and the opportunity for more participation opportunities for young girls to live their dreams,” McCord said.

The three new programs are linked by their 2025 start dates and common goals of establishing successful teams. Each has had two years to build before starting to play, and that has helped to lay a good foundation.

The showcase is another piece of their process. It allows them to work together, rowing in the same direction to develop ahead of their debuts.

“All of us are building our programs and have our own tactics and strategy behind it,” Short said. “But it’s nice to gather some information or ask questions within our peer group. I do that within my coaching friends all the time, just with how they run their programs. Having Mindy and Jenna starting their programs from scratch themselves, it’s just nice to work back and forth and get their mindset on certain things, or if we have questions, we tic-tac-toe off each other.”

There will be just a few weeks of school left after the April 13 showcase, and then the coaching staffs will begin their next steps. The transfer portal re-opens May 12, and they will be active in it to supplement their incoming freshmen classes.

Then they hit the recruiting trail this summer. Their focus will be mostly on rising high school juniors who will be joining what will be third-year programs.

“These girls aren’t competing in normal seasons, so I really admire their commitment to starting all these inaugural programs, redshirting a year to train,” McCord said. “I think it’ll be really fun for them to just have a game against a different jersey and practice prep and promotion.”