TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The wait is nearly over for the USF women’s lacrosse team.
After three years of building the program from the ground up, head coach Mindy McCord and the Bulls are just a few weeks away from kicking off their inaugural season.
“We’re just so excited,” said McCord. “We’ve been in our exhibition year, been recruiting many, many classes and now we have players ready to put it on the field and compete for the first time.”
McCord is no stranger to building a program. She launched the women’s lacrosse program at Jacksonville University and made the Dolphins into a national power, leading them to eight Atlantic Sun conference championships and eight NCAA tournament appearances. That kind of success doesn’t happen by accident. McCord says it all starts with recruiting the right type of players, like Notre Dame transfer Alison Harbaugh, the daughter of Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.
“I knew the coaches, they recruited me in high school,” said Harbaugh. “So, I knew it was going to be a great culture right from the jump and when I got here, I could tell how much USF cared about athletics, women’s sports especially.”
“We knew Alison when she was a youth player,” said McCord. “We recruited her before she chose to go to Notre Dame, so you always kind of follow the players you recruit. And when they hit the (transfer) portal you’re like, ‘Oh wow, we know this player, we’ve known her and her family since they’ve been young.’ I think the culture was a big piece for her and an opportunity. An opportunity to take that experience she learned on an NCAA-contending team and bring that to a start-up program.
The Bulls will kick off their inaugural season at Corbett Stadium on Friday, Feb. 7 against Kennesaw State.