By: Katherine Waters, Staff Writer
When most people think of Wofford athletics, they think of the basketball team or the football team. Soon enough, they may also see another sport on campus— lacrosse. Wofford is allowing lacrosse players on campus to play the sport they love through intramurals and, in the next few years, an official women’s team.
Emily Ledford, first year student and former high school lacrosse player, is excited to see her favorite sport at Wofford.
“I started my sophomore year of high school. I had never played before, and one of my friends was like ‘hey, we’re getting a team, we need more people, do you want to play?’ I said ‘I don’t know how to play lacrosse,’ but I tried anyway and fell in love with the sport. I got better, and my senior year I was a captain and all-region.”
Wofford recently announced that a women’s team will be starting on campus in two years. It will be an official NCAA team and will begin recruiting soon so that the team can begin competing in 2018. The team will not play in the Southern Conference like the other athletic teams do, but will participate in the Atlantic Sun Conference along with Mercer and Furman and other schools such as Jacksonville, Old Dominion and Detroit.
For any student who wants to play recreationally, there is currently a men’s club lacrosse team on campus. The team plays a regular season during the spring semester, with some practices in the fall.
Although there is not a women’s club team, Ledford says that she, along with sophomore Mary Margaret Holden, want to get involved in the Spartanburg community by volunteering and coaching little league teams. She also hopes that they can start another club team in the future and has already had a few students express interest.
“Maybe if we can get enough support from the school and enough people to commit, and then maybe if we can work out a good time for practices, we can start the women’s club team. Even next year, we can recruit from the incoming freshman class. Hopefully this can take off, if not in the spring then maybe next year. We have the drive to get it done, we just need the support and participation.”