What is Lacrosse, you ask? A team sport that uses a stick to carry, pass, catch and shoot a ball into a goal. Well think of it like this, it borrows offense from basketball, played out on a soccer like field, has off sides penalties in which you can’t leave the defensive area, and you can play back behind the goal just like hockey.
Although Fullerton College will not get the new women’s team till 2019, being able to add a new women’s team has set the bar and adds more depth to Fullerton College sports.
The Hornets already offer a wide variety of sports for students to participate and compete in, but with the CCCAA looking to add more opportunities for women”s sports in college, Women’s Lacrosse was the right fit for FC.
Being a part of Title IX has helped by creating more opportunities for women. To be able to carry a team of 20 to 25 in hopes to one day to carry a team of 30 shows how far the world of sports for women has come. It also helped to create opportunities for women to be a part of athletics and play an 11 on 11 game.
Coach Pam Lewin, the Hornet’s current women’s soccer coach, was determined to enhance the sports department by adding another women’s sport to Fullerton College. With the amount of time, determination and motivation, she was successful in her journey.
“How this got started was by asking my dean and to see if they would be interested, and he seemed interested and then I met with the athletic director and he was on board. Then I wrote the curriculum, which is now PE 220 Lacrosse, and once the curriculum was in place we could offer the class,” Lewin said.
After two years, and realizing none of the Division III schools would play Fullerton College, Lewin decided to do some research. Upon her search she found the Western Women’s Lacrosse League, a starting point for Fullerton to begin its lacrosse program in.
Next season, the Hornets will play six games to get acclimated with the new team and league. The WWLL season consists of 12 non-conference games, but it depends on how the team progresses to determine if they will remain in the league.
FC will have to meet all the requirements to show the WWLL they are a provisional team and have every intent to meet the obligations that the league requires. In the WWLL, the Hornets would look to play other schools with a women’s lacrosse such as Cal Poly, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State University Fullerton and Santa Barbara College, the only other two-year college.
“With so many high schools and a few community colleges adding lacrosse teams, its only right for us to provide a team. Luckily for me, here at Fullerton College our athletic department is fully committed and supportive of the new team,” Lewin stated.
Coach Lewin has stayed active in her search for players as the team embarks on its inaugural season. She’s attended a few high school games and talked to coaches to see if any of their players would be interested in playing lacrosse at a college level.
“I’ve gotten real good feedback and I went a little further south of us to Aliso Viejo, and spoke with the coach after the game and he said he has a lot of players looking to play at the community college level. So the response has been great and I think that there is some enthusiasm among our current students that I have had a chance to speak,” Lewin continued.
Fullerton College will offer a conditioning classes in the last eight weeks of the fall and during the season they will have intercollegiate lacrosse on Monday to Friday, 1:20 to 3:30 p.m.
“I think we have a lot of students at FC that have either played or are interested in playing and I just want to give them the opportunity to play and where they can contact me,” Lewin said.
If you or someone you know is interested in playing, contact coach Lewin at [email protected].
