According to sources, namely Facebook, 2012 Northwestern graduate, Shannon Smith, has been named the head women's lacrosse coach at Hofstra University. Smith, who just graduated from NU last month, will now be tasked with turning around a Hofstra squad that went 5-12 last year at the ripe age of 22.
The news comes as a bit of a surprise seeing as ya know, she'll be the same age as a lot of the players and in rare cases could actually be younger than them. I am not sure if the Elias Sports Bureau keeps tabs on the youngest women's lacrosse head coaches, but I would imagine Smith would have to be right up there. While, Smith probably has one of the more impressive resumes in the history of NCAA women's lacrosse and was just selected to the USA National Team this week, you would think it would at least take a year or three to join the head coaching ranks. Even the legend, Kelly Amonte Hiller had to pay her dues as an assistant at three different universities before becoming the head coach at NU.
It's not exactly normal for someone to walk off the graduation stage into a head coaching position, but I guess NU women's lacrosse becoming a dynasty in an east coast-dominated sport has been anything but normal.