A crimp in Pitt’s plans
Pandemic puts strain on new women’s lacrosse team
Inside the dining room of Emily Boissonneault’s home is a long table that helps tell a story that goes well past its edges.
Across the table, objects are scattered to the point where the surface isn’t visible. Many coaches have their desks in their offices, their so-called “war rooms.” The Pitt women’s lacrosse coach has her table, and that is where she puts her “daily action plan,” with goals and objectives for that day written on them. She also has the monitor on which she watches film of recruits as well as the stacks of books she hopes to read as part of an effort to, as she put it, “start really taking myself to that next level.”
Before phrases such as “social distancing” became part of the national lexicon, Boissonneault, 29, was tasked with an all-consuming challenge she had been dealing with for nearly a full year. In June 2019, Boissonneault was
hired as the first head coach for the Panthers’ new women’s lacrosse program. Since then, she has worked to make the most of an enthralling yet exacting opportunity — take an idea and turn it into a program that will have to compete at the highest level of the sport.
That already arduous undertaking has been further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of coaches like Boissonneault and their programs have been heavily impacted by the novel coronavirus, to say nothing of the world around them. For someone without the benefit of a pre-existing structure, those obstacles have been taller.
Boissonneault appreciates and understands she is in a rare, maybe even unenviable position. But through it all, she has been handling it in the only way she feels like she can — by continuing with the plan as best as possible to prepare for the program’s first game in the spring of 2022.
“There’s no short game in this,” she said. “The plan was to be here for two years before we even played a game. I think bringing myself back to the long game and understanding there are going to be parts of this process that are going to be changed. The ultimate goal is still there. It hasn’t changed.”
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Adhering to that plan, the one Boissonneault hopes will one day turn Pitt into a formidable presence in the unforgiving ACC, still requires flexibility.
In a different, indisputably more normal world, Boissonneault had a course of action set. While other college lacrosse coaches would be preoccupied with their teams and seasons, Boissonneault and her staff were going to traverse the country to watch high school games, a rare advantage for them in a predicament that provides few. They wouldn’t just visit places, but put down temporary roots there. Boissonneault was going to spend a week in Philadelphia, to use one example, to meet with coaches, watch practices, develop relationships and share her philosophies so that when the time came for a player to pick a college, they would understand what exactly she was trying to build at Pitt.
They had clinics planned, including one in Canada, and assistant coach Daniela Eppler was going to travel to Colombia and do clinics as part of her work with Lacrosse the Nations, a nonprofit organization that uses lacrosse to teach students around the world life skills and other educational lessons.
“I wish we had that opportunity,” Boissonneault said. “But we’re taking advantage of what we have.”
For a program that won’t compete in its first game for nearly two years, much of the work is tied to recruiting. Pitt has signed 11 players who will begin (or, in the case of some, resume) classes in the next academic year. For now, transfers are Boissonneault’s main focus, at least until they can start communicating with 2022 recruits Sept. 1.
For a coach who values one-on-one, in-person conversations and believes them to be a key component of her appeal, Boissonneault has tried to make the most of what circumstances provide. In calls with coaches and players, she tries to make her passion and confidence as apparent as possible.
But there are limits. By representing a buildingfrom-scratch program, Boissonneault and Eppler have been forced to confront doubt and uncertainty from recruits and their parents. Face-to-face conversations are imperative in recruiting for any program, but for one that’s selling a vision, not a visible product, it’s more crucial. There’s a level of trust and a feeling of faith that needs to be established.
With the coronavirus, those apprehensions have been amplified, especially because they are unable to bring prospective players to campus physically.
“I think because of that, that uncertainty is uncomfortable to a lot of people,” Boissonneault said. “It’s about getting our vision across and selling that opportunity to be something great and to develop into something great.”
It’s a scenario that forced both coaches to become pseudo psychologists. Given the program’s infancy, there’s a more limited recruiting pool, but among those prospects, they have to decide which ones are mentally equipped to carry a nascent endeavor.
“Starting a new program isn’t for everybody,” Eppler said. “We want kids who are really excited about the opportunity to be part of a new program. They’re going to have to be leaders right away. They’re going to have to step up right away. We want kids that are excited and are willing to take on those roles.”
Eppler, however, has left the program to accept a job outside of sports (before coming to Pitt, she worked as a consultant for IBM in Washington). With that decision, the Panthers now have two open assistant coaching positions.
Interest in the program has started to build. Athletic director Heather Lyke, one of Pitt’s essential employees who can still work from campus, goes through the mail for the school’s various teams every Tuesday and is continually impressed by the sheer volume of correspondence for lacrosse, be it recruiting questionnaires or hand-written letters.
Perhaps the best news for Boissonneault and her program is that in a time of widespread cuts within athletic departments across the nation, there are no plans to alter course with the lacrosse program and its scheduled launch, even though the pandemic has slowed fundraising efforts for an athletic facilities plan that includes a lacrosse venue.
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As she attempts to construct a program, Boissonneault leans on familiar, deeply personal lessons. She’s not a novice when it comes to living through the early days of a program. As a player, she was a part of a Detroit Mercy program that was in its inaugural season, and, earlier in her coaching career, she worked as an assistant at Winthrop as it launched its program. From those experiences came two main takeaways. The first is to be patient, a trait she regrets not embodying more as a player. The second is to develop a structure and culture that permeates and defines the program.
The pandemic has tested them.
“I think it has given me a lot more time to think,” Boissonneault said. “I’m constantly going through my head, ‘Is this enough? What could I be doing more? How can I change this so that it’s going to be the outcome I would have had if I was with other people?’ That’s definitely been a big part of this. There’s more time to question. As coaches, we don’t do that. We make a decision and we stick to it. I think this is the time where a lot of us are starting to question, what is the best way to approach our athletes? What’s the best way to approach recruiting? None of us know.”
In the meantime, Boissonneault and everyone else associated with Pitt lacrosse is trying to find normalcy wherever it might present itself.
Every day, Boissonneault lists goals for the day that she tries to cross off, something she said has kept her focused. She tries to make at least a few recruiting calls each day. There’s also preparing for the fall, when, if it’s permitted, she’ll be able to gather with her players and start the work that awaits them. For now, she communicates via telephone and video-conference calls to offer those signees plans for training and videos showcasing stick- and footwork.
It’s making the most of a situation few could have anticipated and even fewer would have wanted to endure. But she remains guided by the promise of her task, not daunted by its pitfalls. She gets to sculpt something exactly how she wants it to look.