By Chris Stevens
As winter slowly becomes spring, two HBCUs are preparing for a historic meeting.
When the University of District Columbia visits Virginia State this Saturday for a doubleheader, it will mark the first time in history that two Division II HBCUs will square off in men’s and women’s lacrosse.
While UDC has had an established program for several years, this will be VSU’s first year fielding a program.
Trojans men’s head coach Shaun Church and women’s head coach Ashley Lawrence have embraced the challenge of building a program from the ground up.
“I think that’s the most rewarding piece. I can be here for 10 or 30 years, but I love knowing I put this foundation in place,” said Lawrence, a four-year player at Howard University who has coached at the high school and college level. “I love this space because I’m not trying to mold from someone else’s template.”
Church, a co-captain of Onondaga Community College’s 2009 national championship team and a Salisbury alum, explained the attraction to Virginia State.
“VSU had some great things … that was something that attracted me when I talked to Miss (Peggy) Davis (the school’s athletic director),” he said. “Lacrosse is an academic sport, and VSU has great engineering and agricultural programs. We’ve been able to fill our recruiting class because of the funding the school offers in those areas.”
Meanwhile, at UDC, women’s head coach Zhane Ruffin and first-year men’s head coach Matthew Marrett are excited about new competition down I-95.
“When I started in 2018, there wasn’t a lot of representation, and the recruiting pool was smaller,” said Ruffin, a former captain at Methodist University. “Trying to navigate that was tough. Then with COVID happening and Black Lives Matter taking off a bit more, people wanted to consider HBCUs, and that has grown our pool.”
Marrett, a UDC alum who begins his first season as head coach this spring, agrees with Ruffin’s sentiment.
“When I look back at it as a student-athlete, the pool was a mix. We were viewed as an HBCU, but we were competing with PWIs,” he says.
Both schools’ coaches agree that representation is just one piece of the puzzle to help lacrosse become a sport that HBCUs can get behind.
“You see these programs and individuals, different pieces that want to talk about diversity in sports, well, the HBCUs are the diversity,” Lawrence said. “We have to put our best foot forward. We all have to find a way to work together. This is one space where we can work together towards a common goal, push the envelope.”
Said Church: “When I started coaching, I saw the lack of representation, and the became a staple of something I wanted to do. To improve Black representation in lacrosse was my reason. That became the plan.”
Virginia State and UDC will make history on Saturday, and the coaches are excited to face each other and set their goals for the spring.
“We are excited for the growth of our program. The brotherhood that they’ve bought in this year has shown more than in previous years,” Matthew Marrett said.