- Mindy McCord was hired as the first head coach of the JU women's lacrosse program in 2008. - Under McCord's leadership, JU has gone from an 8-11 record in its first season to qualifying for the NCAA tournament last season. - One factor in JU's success was recruiting Mindy McCord's daughter Taylor, who transferred from Florida and became JU's top scorer.

1. The MCCORD ACCORD
Taylor McCord was Jacksonville’s top scorer
in 2013 after transferring from Florida to
play for her parents, Dolphins coach Mindy
McCord and assistant Paul McCord.
A Dolphin Tale
W
“I was looking for
a change leaving
Florida, and I found
the bond between the
players and coaches
at JU was unreal.
Everywhere else I
visited, there was
nothing like it.”
©jacksonville
— Taylor McCord
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Lacrosse Magazine
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A Publication of US Lacrosse
A Publication of US Lacrosse
Eighty-five miles from Gainesville, Florida’s
other women’s lacrosse startup from
2010 has made its own mark
By Laurel Pfahler
While the Florida women’s lacrosse
team garnered national attention with
a final four appearance in just its third
season in 2012, another program just as
young quietly made significant strides 85
miles up the road.
Jacksonville went Division I in 2010,
the same year the Gators did. By 2011,
the Dolphins were the highest-scoring
team in the country in terms of goals
per game, a distinction they have owned
for three straight years.
After an 8-11 inaugural campaign,
Jacksonville has gone 42-15 over the
past three seasons, including an NCAA
tournament appearance last spring,
when the Dolphins made their Atlantic
Sun Conference debut and won the title
with their first full senior class.
Though Jacksonville’s rapid development
from startup to NCAA tournament
contender doesn’t quite match Florida’s
ascent to a No. 1 national ranking, two
NCAA quarterfinal appearances and one
semifinal trip, the Dolphins have made
their own splash under less advantageous
circumstances.
“We were starting under a little
different premise of where our program
was building from,” said Jacksonville
coach Mindy McCord, who was hired
in April 2008. “We also were kind of
surprised with how successful we’ve
become in such a short time.”
McCord said she has never felt like
her small private-school program was
inferior to its big sister in Gainesville,
because Florida hired Mandee O’Leary a
November 2013 >> Lacrosse Magazine
49

2. year earlier than Jacksonville brought her
in. The Gators had a leg up in recruiting.
Florida also had resources, McCord
said, as a “mega-athletics school” with
a “facility better than some NFL teams.”
“There was more of the expectation
that’s where they would be because
of the commitment their school was
putting into it,” she said.
While Florida snagged blue-chip
recruits, the Dolphins carved out their
niche by tapping talent in non-traditional
lacrosse regions and from less established
high school and club programs.
Following a third-place finish in the
National Lacrosse Conference in 2010
with a roster of 21 freshmen, two
sophomores and two juniors, McCord
roped in her husband, Paul McCord, as
her assistant. She hoped his expertise
in speed training and systems would
jumpstart the program.
The McCords moved to Florida in
2003 when Paul, a former NFL special
teams and strength and conditioning
coach with the Baltimore Ravens, got
a job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
When his stint with the Jaguars ended,
they decided to stay in Florida, where
Paul could work in the strength and
conditioning field and where Mindy could
focus on lacrosse development through
their LaxManiax club program.
“What he didn’t know was I was
going to bring him along with me in
the journey,” Mindy McCord said at the
2009 US Lacrosse National Convention.
The couple devised a marketing plan
to pitch men’s and women’s lacrosse to
colleges in the Southeast. Jacksonville
added both.
“JU turned it around in three
months,” Paul McCord said at the
convention. “JU looked at it as, ‘This can
help [differentiate] us from other small
schools in the Southeast. We’re the
lacrosse school. We had it first.’”
Using a run-and-gun style, Jacksonville
found quick results. The Dolphins opened
the 2011 season with a surprise win
over Cincinnati, and five days later —
after an 18-9 loss to Florida — they
stunned Denver, which was ranked No.
20 at the time.
Jacksonville went on to a 14-5
finish, including a close loss to No. 11
Vanderbilt, and second place in the NLC.
“We had a lot of southern girls who
could run up and down the field and
who were competitors, and we knew we
couldn’t go head-to-head with all these
other teams that have been around
longer than we have, playing a traditional
style,” Paul McCord said. “The girls
bought into the system. They enjoy it.”
Jacksonville built on that success,
going 15-4 in 2012 and winning the
NLC championship but failing to claim an
at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.
And then last season, Jacksonville
finished 13-6, averaged 15.86 goals per
game, limited opponents to 8.37 goals
per game and racked up a Division I-best
256 caused turnovers. All six losses were
to NCAA tournament teams, including
Denver in the first round. Mindy McCord
was the Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year.
One key factor in 2013 was the
addition of the McCords’ daughter,
Taylor, who transferred from Florida as a
sophomore and became the team’s top
scorer with 32 goals and 28 assists.
Over the past few years, recruiting
has picked up, as Jacksonville became
more selective and found its beachside
location made it easier to entice players.
The roster now features a broader
geographic spread. An 11-member
recruiting class for 2013-14 includes
two players each from Long Island, New
Jersey and the Southeast, four from
Maryland and one from Pittsburgh.
“It was creating a culture of players
that wanted to stay and be committed to
building this program to become a top20 program,” Mindy McCord said, “and
finding recruits that saw that vision.”
Senior midfielder Chelsea Watts
said her class of 14 recruits, who
were freshmen during the first winning
season, were motivated by that vision.
“We were so amped and excited about
the season,” Watts said. “I came into JU
knowing it was a starter program, and I
told coach Mindy I wanted to make this a
top-20 program.”
The Dolphins graduated their first full
senior class last year (12 who stayed),
including top scorer Amanda Hurley and
goalkeeper Karli Tobin. Jacksonville now
will lean on a group of eight new seniors,
such as Morgan Derner (34 goals, eight
assists) and Brit Orashen (31 goals,
nine assists).
“We want to build on that momentum
this year with a strong senior group that
was a very talented group coming into year
two,” Mindy McCord said. “It was great to
see their talent push us to the next level
in year two and show our team they could
compete with other good programs. Now,
those kids are leading our team.”
“We are hoping to contend for our
conference championship and be
competitive in the NCAAs,” she added.
“And to keep our scoring title — that
would just be icing on the cake.” LM
’Til Lax Do Us Part
Kelly Amonte and
Scott Hiller
Northwestern
Scott, a former men’s
assistant at Harvard
and Boston Cannons
head coach, has been a
volunteer assistant for
the Wildcats since their
revival in 2002.
Deanna and K.C. Knobloch
Moorestown (N.J.) High
Deanna has more wins
50
Lacrosse Magazine
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November 2013
(450) than any other
coach in New Jersey
girls’ lacrosse history and
has the Quakers back in
dynasty mode (51-0 over
the last two seasons).
They also co-direct South
Jersey Select, a club
program.
Sonia and Mike LaMonica
Towson
The former Terps,
whose playing careers
coincided at Maryland,
have taken the Tigers
to three straight NCAA
tournaments. Mike also
was an assistant coach
for Australia at the World
Cup. (Sonia played.)
Mandee and Kevin O’Leary
Cathy and Brian Reese
Kevin, the all-time saves
leader at Maryland and
former Terps assistant,
could be seen patrolling
the sidelines with Mandee
during Florida’s inaugural
season in 2010. He’s also
a veteran NCAA men’s
lacrosse official.
While also serving as
general manager of the
MLL’s Denver Outlaws and
Chesapeake Bayhawks,
Brian had a three-year
stint as Cathy’s volunteer
assistant with the Terps,
helping them to the NCAA
championship in 2010.
Florida
Maryland
Allison and John Pfeffer
Janine and John Tucker
Neither played lacrosse,
but Allison, the head
coach, and John, her
assistant, have become
Long Island icons and
in May won their 300th
game together.
Where hasn’t John
Tucker coached? The
current Boston Cannons
skipper was Janine’s
volunteer assistant for two
seasons at Homewood.
Bay Shore (N.Y.) High
Johns Hopkins
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©John Strohsacker
For these lacrosse
couples, the honey-do
list doesn’t end at
home. A look at some
notable wife-husband
coaching tandems: