Wingate, N.C.----Wingate University vice president and director of athletics Steve Poston announces the addition of women’s lacrosse as the school’s 20th intercollegiate sport. The Bulldogs will begin play in the 2014 season.

“Lacrosse is one of the most rapidly growing sports in the Southeast,” Wingate president Dr. Jerry McGee says. “We are confident this new program will bring a group of outstanding scholar athletes and an exciting spectator environment to our campus.”
 
“We are very excited to add our 10th women’s sport at Wingate University,” Poston says. “The growth of women’s lacrosse nationwide provides an excellent chance for Wingate to provide more participation opportunities.”
 
Poston says the University will hire a head coach this fall. The newest Bulldog coach will recruit 20-25 student-athletes during the current academic year, with sights set on competition in the spring of 2014. Women’s lacrosse is one of four new South Atlantic Conference sports for addition to the league’s 2013-14 slate.
 
“I know our students and fans will embrace the sport of women’s lacrosse,” Poston says. “Women’s lacrosse is a great game…and very enjoyable to watch. We look forward to adding these outstanding student-athletes to our intercollegiate athletics family.”
 
Wingate is joining in the dynamic growth of lacrosse throughout the country. According to a 2011 participation report published by U.S. Lacrosse, participation in lacrosse on all levels (youth, high school, collegiate, post-collegiate) has grown from 253,931 players in 2001 to 684,730 in 2011. Of the 2011 number, U.S. Lacrosse reports that 260,561 are female players – including 112,865 at the high school level and 13,532 on the collegiate level.

U.S. Lacrosse also reports that lacrosse is the fastest growing sport for girls in high schools across the country, with a 48.2-percent increase of schools sponsoring teams from 2006 to 2011. Lacrosse is also the fastest growing sport for women at the collegiate level, with a 31.7-percent increase in NCAA schools sponsoring the sport from 2006 to 2011, according to U.S. Lacrosse.
 
WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Wingate University, ranked as the eighth “best value” in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves more than 2,700 students on three campuses in Wingate, Matthews and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 34 undergraduate majors, 37 minors and career concentrations, numerous pre-professional programs, graduate degrees in business, accounting, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration, and doctorates in pharmacy and education. With a 14-to-1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life.
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 20 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past six years.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing private colleges in the 2000’s with 50 selections during this millennium. Among North Carolina’s universities and colleges, Wingate’s 50 Academic All-America® honorees are first during this same time period. Wingate’s 59 lifetime Academic All-America® picks are tops among all SAC schools. For more information, go to www.wingate.edu.
 
(A special thanks to Augsburg College SID Don Stoner for contributing information to this article.)