Karen Heggernes will serve as Hamline’s first ever women’s lacrosse head coach when the Pipers make history beginning in the spring of 2016 for being one of just three universities in the state of Minnesota to offer women’s lacrosse, or more frequently referred to as “lax,” as a varsity sport.

“There was a very strong pool of candidates, but I feel as though we have found someone who will work extremely hard to make this program successful. Coach K, as her athletes call her, is extremely passionate about coaching. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in four or five years, we were competitive nationally,” Athletic Director Jason Verdugo said.

Heggernes played women’s lacrosse at the University of Minnesota and by the time she was a senior she was the team’s captain and vice president. Since then, she has coached youth lacrosse and spent three years coaching at the high school level. While spending the past five years working with Winning for Life, a nonprofit dedicated to developing positive leadership and life skills through athletics, she understands values are what builds a winning culture.

“Hamline really aligns with my belief systems and coaching styles. I want to connect with my players on a personal level. I firmly believe that a well-developed team culture wins championships,” Heggernes said.

Verdugo assures there will be a solid roster for the Pipers.

“Had the Women’s Club Lacrosse team not been as strong, organized and successful as it already was, we most likely would not have made the leap to make it a varsity sport,” Verdugo said, “because of the significant commitment of the athletes already in place, there was full support to take the next step.”

Verdugo is also confident their will be a pool of athletes to recruit since lacrosse is rapidly gaining recognition in the Midwest. It is even said to be the fastest growing NCAA sport in the entire country.

“That’s one of the ways in which the Hamline Athletic Department is very lucky,” Verdugo said. “Not only is it an emerging sport at the national level, but at the high school level as well. The recruitment process for women’s athletics has now expanded that much more because there was already a base of interest in place here.”

Along with the athletic staff, the lax athletes are chomping at the bite to move their club team to varsity athletics. One being sophomore Sarah Campbell, team captain of Hamline’s club lacrosse team.

“I’m looking forward to making history. Not many athletes get to say that they played on the ‘first-ever team’ at their college,” Campbell said. “This is an incredible opportunity that gives our team so much power to create an awesome legacy for Hamline lacrosse, MIAC lacrosse and lacrosse in Minnesota as a whole.”

This new phenomenon does not yet have the population that many other universities have at the Division III level. In fact, there are roughly only 200 Division III collegiate level job spaces for lacrosse coaches across the U.S. Therefore, when the position for head coach for women’s lax team was posted, the response was overwhelming.

“I was bombarded with calls from people looking to apply for the open position,” Verdugo said. “I knew that this was going to have to be a very selective process. Athletics is a big part of the sustainability of our university, so I knew we had to find someone perfectly fit for the job.”

After weeding through applicants based on a wide variety of aspects such as experience with the sport, eagerness, interaction with the other coaches, connection to club teams and familiarity with the MIAC conference, Heggernes was selected  as the first HU women’s lacrosse coach.

Heggernes is now working with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in the midst of the recruitment process.

As a captain of the club lacrosse team, Campbell understands what players need to be added to the mix.

“As a team we understand that everyone’s talents add something because we need top scorers, but we also need players that can get ground balls or win the draw,” Campbell said. “Becoming a varsity sport we want to maintain that same drive, support and appreciation as a team.”