Lax coach leaves for Louisville
By John Galle, sports editor
Posted on August 28, 2006

The Dukes will be facing a tough road to repeat as conference champions without coach Kellie Young on the sidelines this year, as she took the coaching job at Louisville.

Under her leadership, JMU had a banner year in 2006.

It wrapped up its season in May with a Colonial Athletic Association championship, the CAA Player of the Year in Kelly Berger, the CAA Defensive Player of the Year in Kylee Dardine and coach Young took the CAA Coach of the Year honors.

Young was approached by Louisville in January. Focusing on JMU’s championship-run-to-be, Young declined the offer. However, in June, she was called on again.

Young started her coaching career at Georgetown for four years as an assistant and decided to make the natural jump to head coach at JMU. Young said that this move was less expected and a little bit different.

“The move was both personal and professional,” Young said. “Personally, I was ready for a new environment and the Louisville community has so much to offer. Professionally, it is an environment providing new challenges while also providing long-term vision. Overall, it was an opportunity I could not pass up.”

The players took the change in stride.

“[There were some negative vibes] at first, when we didn’t know anything,” said senior midfielder Kelly Berger, the reigning CAA Player of the Year. “We were like, ‘Who’s going to be our coach?’”

Said senior defender Kylee Dardine, “There were tears shed at the beginning due to the shock, but they were tears of joy at the same time being happy for [Young].”

However, when the Dukes heard who was filling her shoes, the butterflies in their stomachs were put to rest.

Introducing coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe.

This 2005 CAA Coach of the Year coached the Pride of Hofstra for the past five seasons to a 50-35 record.

Additionally, Klaes-Bawcombe has had quite a history with JMU. Not only has she played for the Dukes (1994-’97), but she began her coaching career here as an assistant in 1998. Her husband is a JMU grad and her sister also played JMU lacrosse (1992-’95).

She may have left behind a successful Hofstra team, which finished as the runner-up in the CAA the last two seasons, but in a sense, she’s returning home.

“She bleeds purple and gold,” Dardine said. “She has such an excitement to be back at her roots and is just ready to take that next step, and we’re the team that’s going to do it.”

Young is leaving behind a solid foundation of players for a program that she really put her mark on, according to Klaes-Bawcombe.

“I think she really helped the JMU lacrosse program to understand how important it is to be a student athlete and to be proud of being selected to compete at James Madison,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “She did a great job of helping them to understand that this is a time to learn and grow off the field. It’s been a testament to her leadership how responsible and how wonderful the young ladies are here on the current squad.”

Klaes-Bawcombe said the JMU lacrosse program has really been a collaborative effort of all the coaches who have ever coached there. Each one has made their mark on the program in their own way, and she plans to do the same.
Hofstra started 3-6, but finished 11-7 last year by winning eight straight going into the postseason. Strangely enough, they lost in the CAA championship game in Harrisonburg to the Dukes.

“It was a goal of mine to one day be back here leading the program,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “So for me, if I wanted to prove my worth as a coach, I needed to get Hofstra competing at the same level or be able to beat JMU.”

Now, after having her eye on her alma mater for four years while at Hofstra, she will offer a new perspective as their coach.

“It’s almost like she’s been writing a scouting report on us for three years,” Berger said. “And now we’re going to be her players. So, it’s definitely a little weird, but at the same time, it’s to our advantage because she’s been watching us [and] seeing what our weaknesses were more than what our strengths were. She’s going to come in and tell us those kinds of things and make our game better.”

Said Young, “The student athletes at JMU are outstanding young women who impacted my life as much as I impacted theirs. Leaving them was heart-wrenching, but I know to my core that they are ready for their own challenge.”