The center spot in a collegiate photo composite often goes to the group’s sweetheart — a member of the opposite sex who holds special status. This year, the Rollins women’s lacrosse team gave that spot to Bodhi Short, the young son of coach Dennis Short.
The Tars did not ask their
coach’s permission to take his son’s hand as sweetheart. Nor did they ask whether they could adorn him in the same Steve Urkel glasses they would all wear. Or whether they could wear them in their own photos. Rollins isn’t that kind of team and Short isn’t that kind of coach.
“I don’t think any other coach would say, ‘Go for it, you guys look cool’,” said senior Erica Pagliarulo, who led Rollins with 46
goals in 2012. “We are absolutely insane, but he’s just as crazy.” The Tars are many things. Funny, humble, slightly insane.
And in 2012 — six years after Rollins rolled out its first team, five years after 70 percent of the team was cut and just a few months after they finally got to play on campus — they were NCAA Division II semifinalists.
“If you see us off the field, there’s no way you’d say, ‘There goes a top team in the country,’” Short said. “We’re out there, but we work too hard to not have fun.” Rollins has earned the right to be weird. After stints at Ohio State and Albany,
Short and his wife, Chrissy, a tennis coach, decided Winter Park, Florida, would be a warmer place to raise their family. Short coached boys’ lacrosse at Ocoee High. The Rollins job opened in December 2006. Short began formulating a master plan for the program four months before
his interview. He did not account for a rushed timeline, but Rollins wanted a team the following spring. Short stopped and laughed when asked about that first season. It’s funny now. He found three players with significant lacrosse experience. The rest were cobbled together, filled by anyone on campus who looked athletic and wanted to play. That inaugural team started 3-9 in early April 2008. Short cut 10 players and canceled the rest of the season. Courtney Bianculli was one of the four players not cut from that first team. “We were kind of outcasts,” said Bianculli, who thanks to a two-year detour is playing out her final season as a graduate student. “With a majority of the team being on Side A and four of us on Side B, people just didn’t relate to our side of the story. After that move it was like, ‘Well, this is not serious.’”
It seemed ridiculous at the time, but
Short said he had a five-year plan to reach an NCAA championship. It required a drastic measure. “A lot of people were looking at me like I was crazy,” Short said. “I said, ‘I believe, but you have to let me do it in a different way.’ Fortunately, my athletic director supported me. It was the best decision we ever made.”
GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE 2012
In 2006, the St. Leo men’s team made its Division II debut as the first college varsity program in Florida. Seven years later, the state now boasts 12 NCAA teams, with plans for two more in 2014. The epicenter of that growth has been in Division II and schools affiliated with the Sunshine State Conference, which will sponsor men’s lacrosse beginning in 2014. Women’s lacrosse may not be far behind. The SSC has produced 78 NCAA champs. “If a few more schools add [lacrosse], the [SSC] can be a powerhouse,” Rollins women’s coach Dennis Short said.
2006 St. Leo men
2008
Rollins women * Rollins men
2009
Florida Southern men 2010
Florida women ** Jacksonville women Jacksonville men
St. Leo women
Florida Southern women Florida Tech men Tampa men
2013 Stetson women
2014 Lynn men Tampa women
* Division II final four in 2012 ** Division I final four in 2012
Rollins went 12-3 the next season. Short was able to recruit players with lacrosse experience, and, more importantly, players who fit academically and philosophically. In 2010, the Tars went 9-5. In 2011, they were 13-4. They never lost to an unranked team. But they also never played a game on campus. The field at Rollins was designed specifically for soccer. The Tars staged home games at nine different locations in the greater Orlando area. They chose to laugh about it. “It was a coping mechanism,” Pagliarulo said. “How much can we argue as players? Do we really need a field that bad? I’d rather put my energy into everything we can control.”
Drives to practice turned into 15-minute bonding trips — upperclassmen driving underclassmen, providing a closeness they might never have developed in more convenient confines on campus. “That’s a life lesson,” senior Mo Imel said. “Things don’t always go as planned. We had a lot of adversity. That’s the ultimate reason why we play, to learn these lessons. That’s also why we want to have as much fun as possible.”
Imel knows more than most. A Maryland native, she transferred from Division I Oregon before last season to be closer to her younger sister Keeley, who was dying of brain cancer. Keeley, 18, passed away
58 LACROSSE MAGAZINE April 2013>> A Publication of US Lacrosse
©GRAY QUETTI
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