Building What's Next For Women's Athletics

By Daniel Paulling, Lehigh Development and Alumni Relations

Winning has a way of changing expectations.

Lehigh University's women's basketball team has posted seven consecutive winning seasons, and its softball team has recorded 23 winning seasons over the past 26 years. That's proof that Lehigh's women's teams can compete at the highest levels of the Patriot League.

The question now is how far that momentum can carry across the athletics department.

Lehigh is focused on strengthening all of its women's teams by recruiting top student-athletes and coaches and providing them with the resources needed to succeed.

Brazel Marquez, head coach of Mountain Hawks women's wrestling, has her sales pitch for recruits down: excellent academics, the chance to help build a new program, and a competitive schedule.

She also has a "closer" in the Murray H. Goodman Dean of Athletics, Jeremy Gibson, whose hands-on approach has become a difference maker.

"He'll come in on a Saturday at 8 a.m. and spend an hour talking with the families and letting them know the vision of the program," Marquez says. "He's not afraid to do the hard work to help our program out.

Meeting face-to-face is a nice touch in our recruiting visits."

"We land about 90% of them."

Across women's athletics, newly hired head coaches share a belief in their athletes and an ambitious vision for what their programs can become.

CLICK HERE to read the full story from the Lehigh Alumni website.

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