By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

In eight seasons as head coach at the University of Richmond, where her team won 80% of its games, Allison Evans Kwolek '03 had opportunities to go elsewhere. Yet none of them piqued her interest enough to leave a good thing.

Then came word that Clemson planned to debut a women's lacrosse program in 2023. Not much would be asked of its first coach other than to build from the ground up and compete in a Power Five conference that has produced the last two national champions.

That, it turned out, was the opportunity Kwolek had been waiting for. She was hired last August and given 18 months to prepare for her first game in Clemson orange.

"When I started learning more about the university and athletics here, I felt a pretty significant draw," said Kwolek, a former Tribe midfielder and member of the 2020 W&M Athletics Hall of Fame class. "When I got on campus, I could envision myself being there. I felt like this was the place I wanted to be.

"Richmond was where I lived for nine years and where I met my husband. When I told my team, it was really a hard conversation to have. But Clemson definitely feels like home now."

While still a challenge, creating a roster is a little easier these days thanks to the NCAA transfer portal. Kwolek's inaugural team will include 19 transfers, including 11 graduate students. Among those in the latter group are William & Mary grads Belle Martire '22 and Starr Howard '22.

Kwolek coached against both at Richmond.

"Belle is an incredibly dynamic attacker," Kwolek said. "We would have to either put our best defender on her or try to eliminate her from the offense by denying her the ball, but she would still figure out a way to do a lot of damage.

Getting to know her, I was just that much more excited.

"Starr stands out immediately on the field with her athleticism and ability off the draw to be the first to the ball. As a defender, we had some really tough games against her because she's hard to get around. When she was an undergrad, I thought 'I really want to coach her.'"

Martire felt honored that Kwolek reached out to her in the transfer portal after coaching against her for three seasons.

"I had always respected her as the coach at Richmond," said Martire, whose 149 career goals are third on W&M's all-time list. "They were always a tough opponent. And she always put her toughest defender on me, which I saw a great sign of respect.

"I put my name in the transfer portal last fall, and Allison was one of the first coaches to contact me and set up a visit. It was great to meet with her and talk face-to-face. I felt super-humbled she would want me on her team. I really liked her vision for Clemson lacrosse.

The only player Kwolek knows personally is midfielder Marina Miller, who played for her three years at Richmond. So job one will be getting to know everyone else — and getting them to know each other.

"They had a group chat going for a while and got to know each other a little through that," Kwolek said. "But they'll all be navigating Clemson together for the first time. We have four freshmen on campus now for a summer term, and they'll have a pretty good grasp of what it looks like and feels like.

"But it's going to be a lot of, this is what we call this drill. This is how we lay out practice."

Once drills begin, Kwolek will have the challenge of connecting names with faces.

"There's so much name overlap," she said. "We have two Bellas (D'Gracia and Karstien), a Belle (Martire) and an Ella (Little). Those names are way too similar."

Clemson's opening game is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 11 (opponent TBA) at home. The Tigers will play each of their nine ACC opponents once and have eight non-conference games in the regular season.

In meantime, Kwolek will continue building. Although the program is new, Clemson is widely respected, both in academics and athletics.

"The brand is really strong, and the commitment to athletics and lacrosse is obvious," Kwolek said. "The grad transfers coming this year aren't going to be in this unbelievable new facility that's being built. That won't be ready until our second year.

"And they still chose Clemson. They can see just being on campus that the commitment to the student athlete is really strong. And they see the academic fit is really important."

Kwolek feels the same way about her alma mater, from which she graduated with a degree in psychology. On the field, she scored 116 points (85 goals, 31 assists) in her career and was twice named to the All-CAA team.

In March of 2020, Kwolek was one of 10 Tribe alums named to the W&M Athletics Hall of Fame. Then came the pandemic, which canceled the scheduled induction ceremony. It is now set Sept. 9 at the Sadler Center.

The weekend coincides with the Tigers' first main recruiting weekend for 2022-23, so Kwolek won't be able to attend. But, cliché as it sounds, she'll be there in spirit.

"I think about my time at William & Mary often," Kwolek said. "I matured a lot and my discipline grew because I was surrounded by people who were highly motivated. I wouldn't be the person I am now without those four years in Williamsburg.

"My husband I got married at Kingsmill. I'm profoundly thankful for having been a student athlete there. It impacted my life in almost every way."
 
Joining Kwolek in the W&M Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2020 are Derek Cox '08 (football), Scott Estes '93 (tennis), Ian Fitzgerald '09 (track, cross country), Peel Hawthorne '80 (field hockey, lacrosse), Lou Holtz (football coach), Sean McDermott '98 (football), Mindy Wolff '75 (swimming), Sebronzik Wright '95 (gymnastics) and Claire Zimmeck '09 (soccer).

The induction ceremony was originally scheduled for April of 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. It is now set for Sept. 9 at the Sadler Center.

Inductees expected to attend include Cox, Estes, Fitzgerald, Hawthorne, Wolff and Wright.