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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

New coaches hired to launch new MU lacrosse program

Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletic Department
Marquette's first men's lacrosse coach Joe Amplo.
Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletic Department
Meredith Simon Black is Marquette's first women's lacrosse coach.

Seven weeks after announcing that Marquette would launch lacrosse as a Division I sport, Marquette found itsfirst ever head coaches in Joe Amplo for the men’s team and Meredith Simon Black for the women. The university announced the news Feb. 4.

Both coaches will spend the 2011 season at their current jobs, and then put all their efforts into recruiting and establishing a coaching staff before Marquette begins competition in 2013.

Mike Broeker, deputy athletic director and sport administrator for men’s lacrosse, said both coaches were “great fits” for Marquette.

“From the moment we met them we made a great connection with them,” Broeker said. “Then we talked to people around them, which solidified what we experienced in our first encounter. They were the two absolute best fits for our jobs.”

Simon Black said Marquette’s athletic department made it a good fit for her.

“I met some of the athletic department employees, and I felt an instant connection with Marquette,” Simon Black said. “I felt that an athletic department with goals that covered all aspects of student athlete life was very important.”

Amplo said Marquette has the ability to become a great lacrosse school because of the resources the athletic department has provided, the growing popularity of lacrosse in the Midwest, and the Jesuit university education that Marquette can offer.

Simon Black spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Towson, Notre Dame and California-Berkeley. At Cal, she currently works with the goalkeepers and attack.

Amplo has 11 years of collegiate coaching experience as an assistant at Hofstra, his alma mater, and Pennsylvania, where he spent one year, before returning to Hofstra.

Both coaches are former Division I lacrosse players — Amplo at Hofstra and Simon Black at Notre Dame. Both have NCAA Tournament experience. Amplo’s been three times as a student-athlete and seven times as a coach, and Simon Black went twice as a player — which included two NCAA Championship game appearances — and four times as a coach.

In only two of Amplo’s 10 years of coaching has his team not made the NCAA Tournament. Between 2004 and 2010 at Hofstra, Amplo’s teams have featured 21 all-Americans, the 2001 Tewaaraton Award winner, which is given to the nation’s best player, and five NCAA Championship game appearances.

As a player at Notre Dame, Simon Black was a First Team All-American in 2004 when she posted the program’s most prolific offensive season with 74 points on 46 goals and 28 assists. That year, she was nominated for the Tewaaraton Award.

Simon Black hopes to use her Big East experience to her advantage.

“I definitely know the ins and outs of the Big East,” Simon Black said. “I know what they’re all about. (There are) great teams from top to bottom, and it’s always competitive. I know what I’m up against.”

With no foundation to build upon, the pressure is on Simon Black and Amplo to get the two programs off on the right foot. Broeker said it’s important neither coach gets too overwhelmed.

“Every day has to start with a deep breath,” Broeker said. “Every day when they wake up, it’ll be something different. It’s an enormous opportunity but with it is going to have to come great resiliency, especially early on.”

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