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ne week after losing one of the biggest games of her career, and what would turn out to be her last, Diane Geppi-Aikens did what college


lacrosse coaches do: She went out recruiting.


As the shadows from Goodman Stadium at Lehigh University crept over a back playing field at the 2003 US Lacrosse Women’s National Tournament, Geppi-Aikens was looking for the next star to bring to Loyola. From a wheelchair. Knowing her time was running out. “It was heartbreaking watching her go through everything she was going through, but she stayed so positive and so upbeat,” said her friend, Princeton coach Chris Sailer. “She never gave up. She was such a fighter.” Geppi-Aikens was used to fighting. In 1995, a CAT scan revealed a small tumor on her brain. She had surgery to remove the tumor and continued to coach. Over the ensuing years, she battled seizures, had two more brain surgeries and went through several rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.


All the while, Geppi-Aikens developed Loyola into one of the top women’s lacrosse programs in the country. She took the Greyhounds to the NCAA championship game in 1997, losing by one goal to a Maryland team that was in the middle of a streak of seven straight national titles. That was her fourth trip to the NCAA semifinals, and the Greyhounds went back again in 2000 and 2001.


But in December 2002, doctors gave Geppi-Aikens devastating news. They had discovered a large inoperable tumor in her brain stem. Six months later, she died. But not before she left a lasting mark on the sport she loved. “I had a choice: Spend my 40th year of life feeling sorry for myself or being the best coach and parent I could be,” Geppi-Aikens wrote in a first-person account for Sports Illustrated, titled “No Time to Die.” Geppi-Aikens, a mother of four, chose to coach. “You have to do what you have to do and I think coaching


is part of what I have to do,” Geppi-Aikens told Lacrosse Magazine prior to that season. “Taking care of my family obviously is something I have to do. I think I can balance both — I’ve been balancing both.”


40 LACROSSE MAGAZINE » October 2015 And really, Loyola was so much a part of Geppi-Aikens’


family, there was almost no way she could separate the two. She came to Loyola in 1980 and was a four-year starter in both volleyball and lacrosse, making the U.S. national team in lacrosse. She became Loyola’s head women’s lacrosse coach in 1989 and her four children — son Michael and daughters Jessica, Melissa and Shannon — grew up around the Baltimore campus and the women’s lacrosse program. Shannon now is a junior on the women’s lacrosse team at Loyola, where Jessica also played.


“Obviously with her four children, that was her world,” said Janine Tucker, head coach at nearby Johns Hopkins, who played and coached under Geppi-Aikens at Loyola. “But they were a part of Loyola and her coaching and they just as much felt that everything at Loyola was their family.” Coaching wouldn’t be easy. By February 2003, Geppi- Aikens was confined to a wheelchair, relying primarily on her father, John, to drive her to practices and games. The left side of her body was paralyzed. Her face swelled from the steroids used in her treatment.


In the midst of all of that pain, Loyola put together a magical season. The Greyhounds won their first 14 games, including an early-season win over defending national champion Princeton, to rise to the No. 1 ranking in the country. The regular season ended with Loyola coming back from three down to beat rival Maryland 9-8. It was just the second time ever that Loyola had beaten Maryland and the first time in College Park. After the Sports Illustrated article, Geppi-Aikens’ story began to spread around the country. USA Today ran a feature. NBC’s “Today Show” arrived on campus. ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” talked about women’s lacrosse on national radio. Despite the attention, the players never lost sight of their goal.


Confined to a wheelchair and with her face swollen due to steroid treatment for brain cancer, Geppi-Aikens led Loyola to the 2003 NCAA final four.


A Publication of US Lacrosse


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