The Oregon women’s lacrosse team will lose one of the most decorated and experienced players in the program’s five-year history to graduation next week.
Ilsa van den Berg, who has been with the program since its second year, already has her first year after graduation well planned out, one that will begin in a little less than two weeks, as she will compete in the 2009 FIL Women’s World Cup starting June 17.
While van den Berg is a native of Reisterstown, Md., her father is Dutch and her mother is from the Republic of South Africa, making her eligible to represent the Netherlands at the World Cup. This summer will mark the first trip for the Netherlands team to the World Cup, in Prague, Czech Republic. The new squad will feature women from the U.S., Canada and England as it matches up with teams from South Korea and Ireland during group play.
“I think she is going to do great and she’ll definitely be a leader on that team,” Oregon assistant head coach Robert Bray said.
Bray, who coordinates the majority of the Oregon offense and has worked with van den Berg extensively throughout her career, says it will be tough for the Netherlands team because the group dynamic will be largely different than what most of the women are used to – meaning the squad will have a little to no time to get to know one another, coming together as a team for the first time just days before the tournament begins.
“It’s been very easy to work with her. She has a self-discipline that makes her want to get better,” Bray continued. “She took what we asked of her to heart and put it into action.”
For van den Berg, playing for a team that is relatively brand new is something that is becoming all too familiar. When she came to visit the Oregon campus in 2005, lacrosse was in its first year as a program and had little respect from other teams around the nation. But the idea of starting as a freshman, as well as the strong sports marketing program the University had to offer, helped van den Berg make the cross-country trip to come contribute to the Ducks’ new sport.
“It started off kind of hard,” van den Berg said. “We needed to get people to realize that we were for real.”
With lacrosse being a primarily East Coast sport, it was initially hard for the Oregon squad to get matchups with quality teams because the program was not being taken seriously.
“I grew up playing lacrosse and a lot of my friends went to D-I programs back east,” van den Berg said. “So it was hard when schools refused to play us at first. But we slowly began to make a name for ourselves.”
During the next four years van den Berg helped the Ducks to four winning records – starting every game of her career – while putting up exceptional individual numbers, which included single season records for goals (46), points (64), shots (101) and free position goals (11) during her junior campaign. In her senior season, she took over first-year assistant coach Jen Derby’s career scoring and career goals record as Derby watched from the sideline.
“Having Jen there was pretty special since I played with her for the first three years of my career,” van den Berg said.
But according to some of her teammates, the thing that makes van den Berg so special is what she is able to do off the field as well.
“I am so impressed she was able to do so well in school and still be a Division I athlete,” freshman Jana Drummond said. “It encourages me to work hard in school because Ilsa made it clear that it is possible to do amazing in school and break records for lacrosse. She’s just an awesome person.”
But once the World Cup is over in late June, van den Berg will hopefully begin preparing for a year-long internship she applied for with the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. After interning with the team last summer with the marketing and promotions department, van den Berg was under the impression that, due to budget cuts, the team would not need interns this season. But once she received a phone call from a former boss asking her to apply, things began to look up. And though she is not certain yet whether she got the job, the verdict should be in some time this week, van den Berg hopes.
“I really enjoyed working for a professional team. Working with the fans during the offseason and helping promote the team was great,” she said.
Bray, though he jokingly admitted to being an avid New York Giants fan, believes that if van den Berg can become established with the Ravens, she will be a valued employee.
“She’s got a great mind and can really get people behind her. I think she has great ideas,” Bray said. “Once she gets her foot in the door, she will be an asset to the organization.”
Van den Berg says she does not have a preference as to which professional sport or team she would like to work with, just as long as she is around the sporting environment.
“Ilsa has been inspiring off the field as well because she is such a hard worker and continues to succeed in school,” Drummond concluded. “I bet she’ll go into the Nike business and we’ll see her name everywhere, doing amazing things no matter where she goes.”
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