Last year, 15 young women came to the College of DuPage with the department, the school’s first women’s lacrosse team. But after only three games, their coach, COD’s athletic department, and the NJCAA crushed that dream by pulling support for the program. In doing so, the women went from being COD pioneers to a team without a sport and an uncertain future at the college.
After coach Cope stepped down from his position, the athletic department posted flyers and spread the word around the school in hopes of finding a new coach, but the department called the search unsuccessful after three weeks. Along with no luck finding a coach, the NJCAA decided to discontinue its support and stop funding for women’s lacrosse across the nation due to a “lack of participation.”
Former player Iqura Rehman said the news about the NJCAA not funding them anymore “was very upsetting and disappointing.”
Rehman hoped COD’s athletic department would at least allow the players to keep women’s lacrosse as a club sport, similar to how Wheaton College handles its team. In an interview, COD Athletic Director Ryan Kaiser said there is potential for women’s lacrosse to be a club sport, but that has its own challenges.
“There are a lot of moving parts,” Kaiser said, “You have to have a full team of kids who are committed to burn the season of eligibility, knowing that you won’t play a full season.”
Rehman said there was “little to no incentive” to transform the team into a club sport. Fellow teammate Genevieve Wagner said the quick dissolution of the team was traumatic after all the work that went into creating it.
“It was very unexpected because we already had our preseason meetings for the upcoming year,” Wagner said. “Getting that information was definitely a shock. It was frustrating to know that we were already gearing up and getting ready for the season; we did a lot of work to recruit girls for the upcoming season and then were not doing it anymore, and it’s just gone.”
Rehman was even willing to sacrifice her fall ball season to coach the team, but she was shot down in an email from the COD Assistant Athletic Director Kelsey Plefka.
“The institution requires COD to hold interviews with several qualified candidates before they are allowed to hire anyone,” the email stated.
Rehman was sent another email from Kaiser that killed the dream entirely.
“At this time we have closed this position as there were no more candidates. At this time, we will suspend the program.”
Rehman was the only candidate for the job, but COD couldn’t even consider her because there weren’t enough additional applicants to choose from.
“Unfortunately, at that time, we decided it wasn’t feasible for us to move forward because, look, even if a student decides to play a club sport, they still burn a season of eligibility,” Kaiser said in an interview. “We would be playing a smaller schedule; we wouldn’t be going east to play (in tournaments), and they just lost their coach and assistant coach and have no leadership with the program.”
Many have criticized this controversial decision to shut down the lacrosse team after only one year. It has left a whole team of students without the opportunities they needed to do what they love. Hopefully, Rehman will be able to find another solution with the help of others at COD.
