About the League: Mission, Officers, History, and Membership

Info for Board Members



Mission:

The SWLL has as its mission to expand the opportunities for women to play lacrosse in the Southeast; advance the game in that area through the development of quality student-athletes, umpires, and coaches; and ultimately provide a developmental venue for the creation of varsity programs and scholarship opportunities for women in the Southeast. While focused on the development of the sport, the SWLL is committed to providing a high-level competitive experience for current clubs and leadership opportunities for men and women in Southeastern women's lacrosse.


Officers: The 2008 Executive Committee

Thi Le
President

Adam Weinstein
Vice President

Elizabeth Boyd
Secretary

Stacie Dees
Treasurer

Meghan McDonogh
Past-President

Beth Spinning
Head Official
 

Eric Rudoph, Dan Magee, Megan Bowen
Members at Large



History:

The Southeastern Women's Lacrosse League was launched in January 1999 as a non-profit organization in Georgia with the goal of encouraging growth and competition for women's lacrosse in the Southeastern United States.

The SWLL began as the vision of Rena Whitehouse, who wanted to create an organizing body for club women's lacrosse in the Southeast to facilitate communication between clubs. Despite regional growth, the loose organizarion of teams limited Southeastern clubs at the time.

The league's structure and bylaws were created in the fall of '98 by Rena and Eric Rudolph. Initially, league founders were unsure how popular the idea of a league would be, but several clubs signed up, creating the SWLL. Founding Members of the league were the Atlanta Women's Lacrosse Club, Auburn, Clemson, Emory, Georgia, Georgia Tech, and South Carolina.

The SWLL also had an immediate emphasis on development of umpires for the sport, with several college undergraduates on the clubs certifying through a US Lacrosse clinic during that first season. To this day, many SWLL games are officiated by new, young, umpires, some of whom already have gone on to work up to the NCAA Division 1 level during their umpiring career.

The growth of both umpires and clubs/players in the Southeast falls in line with the highest goal of the SWLL . . . to create leadership opportunities for women and men in the sport of women's lacrosse in this region.

Besides the leadership that has been cultivated by countless women who would not otherwise have picked up a stick or brought a whistle to their lips, several other leadership opportunities have been created for people who developed their skills first with the SWLL. These positions include website development, sports administration, sports writing, coaching, and positions on the front line of gender equity legislation. Both on and off the field, the SWLL has been instrumental in providing the best opportunities a college student-athlete can expect as a community leader.

On the field, the first SWLL championship was played in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 17, 1999 in conjunction with the men's Southeastern Lacrosse Conference Championship at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Georgia remained undefeated in SWLL play to win the first SWLL championship over rival Auburn. Both Georgia and Auburn qualified to compete in the 1999 NIRSA Club Championships in Austin, Texas. They finished 8th and 12th, respectively, and Georgia won the NIRSA Team Sportsmanship Award.

In its first year, the SWLL board decided that its highest award as a league would be the SWLL Sportsmanship Award, to be given to the person or organization who has most exceptionally contributed to the giving spirit of women's lacrosse on which the SWLL was founded. Katie Sweeney, an exceptional attack player and umpire from Clemson received the first SWLL Sportsmanship Award.

In its second season, the SWLL added Furman as a full member and Florida as an associate member. Furman was an excellent representation of the spirit of league . . . club leaders at the tiny South Carolina school taught their friends, roommates, and sorority sisters "their" game to create the Furman women's lacrosse team. . . by the end of the season, the first year club at Furman appeared at the SWLL Championship Tournament, finishing fourth in the league, and picked up the SWLL's Most Improved Team honor.

The 2000 SWLL Championship was a repeat of the 1999 final, and Georgia beat Auburn in an overtime nail-biter that left a reporter for e-lacrosse saying that the only thing missing from the SWLL Championship was "a few thousand fans to see a game like that."

The SWLL Sportsmanship Award that year went to Katie Goodrum from Georgia for her work on the SWLL website, which was launched that year. Her efforts are bringing the Southeastern women's lacrosse community closer together, and is carrying out the intentions of league founders - to faciliate communication for the benefit of women's lacrosse in this region.

The 2000 season ended with the addition of Rhodes College and Florida State for the 2001 season, as well as the elevation of Florida to full member status. Both the Atlanta Women's Lacrosse Club, and the competitiveness of the league as a whole, had feature articles in Lacrosse Magazine. The SWLL Championship was featured on the e-lacrosse website, and quality relationships were built with STX and Sports Her Way. The SWLL website was launched in 2000. The first SWLL umpire and players participated in the US Lacrosse Women's Division National Tournament.

The members of the SWLL are excited about the growth of lacrosse in this region, and the growing recognition for their contribution to "the fastest game on two feet."

The 2001 regular season ended with Clemson undefeated in SWLL play. They went 6-0 with the help of their senior Jenny Adams who made the difficult decision to coach her team instead of playing her final year. Due to final exam schedules Clemson was not able to defend their record at the SWLL championships.

The 2001 championship game was played between Emory and UGA. The game proved to be Georgia's first loss in post season SWLL play. Emory toppled the Bulldogs and became the 2001 SWLL champions. Emory was also awarded the most improved team for 2001. Emory was unable to accept their bid to the WDIA National tournament in St. Louis so Georgia was send in their place.

The 2002 season saw the addition of many new teams to SWLL. Membership jumped up to 16 teams, with nine full members. SWLL covered a geographic area from Louisiana to Florida to North Carolina. Despite the logistical challenges this provoked the SWLL remained dedicated to providing a organizational structure for teams throughout the southeast.

For the 2002 season SWLL decided to hold its championships separate from the SELC for the first time. Emory offered to host the tournament in their soccer stadium, a great venue located in the geographic middle of the SWLL. The final four top teams were UGA, Auburn, Florida, and 1st year members University of Tennessee.

At the end of the 2002 regular season there was a tie for 4th place between the 2002 champions Emory Univeristy and the newcomers from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. A friday night playoff game was added to the Championship weekend to determine which team would play on Saturday. In an exciting game UT pulled ahead to earn the right to play on Saturday against #1 seed UGA.

The 2002 game ended up being a repeat of the 1999 and 2000 games with Auburn and Georgia meeting again in the finals. Once again UGA pulled a win out over the Tigers earning the right to attend the WDIA national tournament, this year as the SWLL champions.

For the 2003 season SWLL decided to split itself into two regions loosely based on geography. Region 1 is UGA, Clemson, UT, USC, Furman, and associate member AWLC. Region 2 is UF, FSU, UCF, Emory, Auburn, Georgia Tech, and associate member Tulane. 

Membership:

The SWLL currently consists of club teams from the University of Georgia, University of South Carolina, Auburn, Emory, University of Florida, Furman, Clemson, Florida State, University of Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Tulane University, University of Central Florida, and University of Miami. The league has two membership categories - full and associate members. Full members are college clubs who play a full SWLL season and are eligible for the SWLL championship; associate members are clubs who play a partial schedule but still enjoy the benefits of league structure. Teams who choose to be associate members generally do so because they are geographically farther from most league teams, have financial constraints that make the lesser associate member dues more reasonable, or are beginning clubs who may not be able to field a full team for as many weekends as the better established clubs.

Membership decisions are made at the October board of directors meeting. If you are interested in pursuing membership or have questions about the SWLL, please contact Stacie Wright at stacie@swll.org.