Lehigh University Athletics
From Head Coach Liz Brode Ota
1/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
Dear Lehigh Lacrosse Alumni:I would like to introduce myself as Lehigh University's new head women's lacrosse coach. Although I am new to this position, I am very familiar with Lehigh athletics, having played both field hockey and lacrosse at Lehigh from 1991-1995. Like many of you, my experience at Lehigh as a student-athlete was incredibly positive. I am looking forward to promoting that same type of experience for the 2005 Lehigh lacrosse team. I am also excited to strengthen and continue to build our Division I lacrosse program toward a Patriot League Championship and NCAA Tournament play. Two years ago, under Judy Baxter Turner's leadership, Lehigh competed in the Patriot League Tournament and was defeated by American University. Each year the strength of the Patriot League is recognized when the champion is awarded an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Our goal is to compete in the Patriot League Tournament, and ultimately compete in the NCAA tournament! I am fortunate to have a highly qualified and experienced assistant coach. Jill Johnson Redfern is in her third year as an assistant coach at Lehigh and was an assistant coach and head coach for Lafayette College for 10 years prior to joining Lehigh's coaching staff. She was the Patriot League Coach of the Year in 2000. Jill is a phenomenal coach! Vanessa Abbott '04 also joins the coaching staff as our graduate assistant. Vanessa has been working primarily with our goalies. Together, Jill, Vanessa and I, are looking to bring stability and growth to Lehigh's woman's lacrosse program. As you may know, I am the fourth head coach in four years. The continual change in the coaching staff has been difficult and has hindered the program from gaining momentum. I am confident that with a stable coaching staff and with solid recruiting, we will improve our Patriot League and national rankings. We are very excited about the 2005 recruiting class! We have 10 lacrosse players who were accepted to Lehigh, early decision, from top high school programs such as Radnor High School, NY; Bethlehem Central High school, PA; and Mt. Hebron High School, MD. All 10 student-athletes committed to Lehigh in the fall, after their official visits on the campus. We have already begun looking at high school juniors! We are in search of student-athletes who have the potential to immediately impact our rapidly developing program. We look for young women who typically have an SAT range of 1200-1500, a GPA of 3.3 or better and are in the top 15 percent of their classes. Often, these ideal prospects participate in more than one varsity sport; captain their teams; and gain recognition as All-League, All-Conference and All-State competitors. We will begin the spring 2005 season on January 19th after a successful fall season of practicing, competing in tournaments, and speed and strength training. Beginning in September we started working with speed, conditioning and strength training coaches. These highly qualified and motivating coaches worked with the team three times a week after practice. The players have benefited greatly from this new program. Our fall ball season began on September 13, 2004 and ended the last week in October. We competed in a tournament at the University of Delaware and then in tournaments hosted by Lehigh against Lafayette, LaSalle and Monmouth. We also had an alumni game in October. It was great to see Lehigh Lacrosse alumnae return and reconnect with the program. We hope that we will have many more players return next fall! As we prepare for the season ahead, we are reminded of the importance of alumni support, both emotionally and financially. We would love to see alumni at our games. Please visit our website at www.lehighsports.com for our schedule. We also hope that you will consider donating to the Lehigh partnership fund to help support our program. We will keep you updated on our progress throughout the spring. Thank you for all of your support! GO LEHIGH LACROSSE! Warmest regards, Liz Brode Ota Head Women's Lacrosse Coach
