There’s a new coach in town.
Jen Larsen, Oregon’s newly appointed lacrosse coach, has been preparing for Oregon’s inaugural lacrosse season next spring. In the meantime, Larsen has been keeping herself busy. In between recruiting, ordering new equipment and scheduling games, Larsen and her assistant coach, Rob Bray, have found a team to coach and a match has been made.
The Oregon women’s lacrosse team has found what they have been missing — a coaching staff — and they could not be any happier. After Larsen and Bray found out Oregon’s Club lacrosse team was coachless and looking for help, they jumped at the opportunity to share their experience and knowledge of the game.
“The Club girls actually came into our office a couple of times and were just asking for drill ideas so we just had little x-and-o sessions,” Larsen said. “At first we just tried to steer them in the right direction.”
But as Larsen and Bray talked more with the girls and noticed how interested they were in learning and improving, they wanted to get out on the field and participate in the team’s practices.
“It just seemed like the next direction to go,” Larsen said. “They had practice going on and we were just sitting here without a team and they were practicing without coaches and it seemed like a perfect fit. Once we found out we were allowed to get involved, everyone was so excited.”
After one week of practices, the team had nothing but positive things to say about Larsen and Bray’s involvement.
“Jen’s a breath of fresh air,” team Co-Coordinator Marissa White said. “A lot of us have never had any coaching and it’s great to have direction and leadership. Everyone respects her.”
Putting coaching aside, Larsen is down-to-earth, makes an effort to relate to her players and helps them enjoy being at practice.
“Jen makes the whole atmosphere tons better,” Co-Coordinator Traci Geist said. “Not only is she a good coach, but she is so easy to talk to and she makes it a friendly environment. She is definitely going to turn our program around.”
Larsen and Bray recognize their relationship with the lacrosse team as a partnership. Both sides are benefiting from one another’s involvement.
“Every time we come out they are always just thanking us for being there,” Larsen said. “It is good for us because it keeps us coaching and it is good for them because it gives them instruction.”
Not only does it keep Larsen and Bray active, but they only have known each other for six months, and they are using this experience to learn how one another coaches. In addition, they each need to know how to best incorporate their own coaching styles into one solid program.
“Its good for our staff to get out there and coach because then we can figure out our coaching style,” Larsen said.
Larsen admits beginning a Division-I lacrosse program will be challenging and that she is entering into a world of “unknowns.”
For now, Larsen is grateful that she has found a group of girls who are as excited about the sport as she is and who can help her begin a competitive program that will “someday be competing for the national championship.”
“It’s not so much about the University, but that there is a presence of lacrosse in the state of Oregon and that there are people here who are very passionate about the sport and it’s nice to be surrounded by that,” Larsen said.
Next fall, Larsen and Bray will welcome 17 freshmen, who will ideally join a small group of upperclassmen who will have participated in Club lacrosse.
Until then, it’s to the Club field they go.