LACROSSE COACHES BUILD LEGACY TEAMS.

Nearly 10 years ago, in September of 2008, High Point University announced the addition of a sport growing all over the country--women's lacrosse.

Less than two years later, HPU added men's lacrosse, bringing the Panther family to 16 Division I teams.

In less than a decade, those two new teams have made a big impact on and off the field. Women's lacrosse won two Big South regular season titles, three Big South Championship crowns and advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times, including the school's first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament win in 2017. Men's lacrosse captured the 2014 Atlantic Sun regular season title and the 2015 Southern Conference Championship, advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

But what are Women's Head Coach Lyndsey Boswell and Men's Head Coach Jon Torpey proud of most?

"The moments I'm most proud of are, of course, the championships, but also the successes my players achieve on and off the field," says Boswell. "We have grown our student-athletes, making women stronger than when they got here. I've been to weddings, I've been in the hospital when they deliver their first born and I've been a part of their life after HPU. That's what I hold closest to my heart."

"When I arrived, we put an emphasis on helping our players get internships and job opportunities," Torpey says. "Now, we're seeing our alumni grow into management positions and become people who are trusted in their jobs, which is fantastic. When you bring in players and parents who fit the right character mold, it allows us to take an invested interest in who they are as people and what they do beyond their time here."

Boswell joined HPU in 2009 to build the Panther women's program from scratch. Torpey was hired in October 2010 to build the men's squad. Both say they couldn't have done it alone, and having the other head lacrosse coach down the hall made all the difference.

"We hit it off immediately," Torpey says, "to the point that we decided to do things jointly, whether it was to fundraise or bounce ideas off of each other. Coach Boswell helped me figure out what could work and how to overcome challenges that a new program might face."

"I consider Coach Torpey and his family to be my family,"...