GoHeels Exclusive: Levy Far From Bored

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

If Sophie Carpenter Speidel, her coach at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, hadn't recommended her, Jenny Levy might not have played women's lacrosse at Virginia.

She wouldn't have spent two years competing for a spot in the Cavaliers' lineup. She wouldn't have seen her hard work result in two first team All-America selections and Most Outstanding Attacker honors when UVa. claimed the 1991 NCAA championship.

All of that helped lead Levy to Chapel Hill, where she's served as North Carolina's first and only women's lacrosse coach since 1994. She's built the program from scratch.

As she sat in her office inside Carmichael Arena on a Tuesday in November, a few weeks removed from being named the head coach for the U.S. women's national team, Levy reflected on all of those experiences and how they've yielded her newest opportunity.

Saturday will appropriately cap off a momentous year for her, as she'll enter the state of Virginia's Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

"I wouldn't be where I am today without UVa. and my experience there," Levy said. "I wouldn't be here without my teammates and my coaches; they just had such a great influence on what I do every day now. So it's funny that all of this stuff is happening (now) because it's all full circle."

'Invited to be a pioneer'

Coaching the national team was never one of Levy's goals. But it's something she said her husband, former UNC men's lacrosse player Dan Levy, always urged her to consider.

Then in July, following the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Cup in Guildford, England, Levy said U.S. Lacrosse first contacted her to gauge her interest in the position.

Levy already knew her husband's opinion. And a message from Mia Hamm – one of multiple athletes represented by Dan Levy, the senior vice president of Olympics and women's sports at Wasserman Media Group – caused Levy to look at the position more seriously.

"She found out I was looking at the job and thinking about it," Levy said, "and had sent me a text like, 'Hey, you'd be great.' Mia doesn't say anything she doesn't mean; she's very calculated and thoughtful. And I respect her opinion a lot."

Hamm's feedback inspired Levy to seek more. She contacted Bubba Cunningham, UNC's director of athletics, and women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance. Both encouraged her to apply.

Yet Levy said she still hesitated because of her concerns about how her current Tar Heel team and the program as a whole might be affected by her taking the national team job. Dorrance, who coached the U.S. women's national soccer team from 1986–1994, helped quell those worries.

"There isn't an unlimited line of pioneers," Dorrance said. "And she was invited to be a pioneer and help guide her own sport, and she will appreciate that for the rest of her life. Not only will she benefit, but the University of North Carolina will benefit and every girl who plays for her from here on out will also benefit from all of the experiences she will gain."

So, in August, Levy submitted her application. She learned she'd been selected in late October. And with that came a new series of challenges.

'A pivotal moment'

Women's soccer didn't become an Olympic sport until 1996. And although its popularity has grown immensely since then, Levy is well-versed in what it took for the sport to achieve that.

Dorrance guided the U.S. women's soccer team through much of its journey, and Levy said she's often picked his brain about the challenges he faced. She's also working with Dr. Colleen Hacker, a sports psychologist who has helped the U.S. women's soccer and ice hockey teams.

With Los Angeles set to host the 2028 Summer Olympics, Levy hopes to use the information she's gathered to help lacrosse make a leap similar to women's soccer.

"We are at a pivotal moment in our sport of lacrosse that if we do what we've always done, we're going to be in the exact same place in 20 years …" Levy said. "There's a lot of things that are in our corner that the time is right to really push forward. I see that as something I can be a part of and contribute to."

Lacrosse inched toward its goal of becoming an Olympic sport with its inclusion in the The World Games this summer in Poland. In the multi-sport competition, the U.S. defeated Canada, 11-8, to win the gold medal.

Other strides are also being made.

Earlier this year, U.S. Lacrosse announced the formation of the National Teams Development Program (NTDP). The program is designed to create a pipeline from the youth level up to the senior team, and Levy will play a key role in shaping it.

Levy is familiar with such a responsibility. Since launching the UNC program, she's won 312 games, led the Tar Heels to 19 NCAA Tournament appearances and claimed two national championships across 22 seasons.

"One of my core values is 'find a way' because I have no other choice," she said. "I had to figure out how to compete with teams in the ACC and teams in the Big Ten that have a lot more resources than we have here at Carolina. We had to find ways to compete with that and match the resources."

Levy, a volunteer member of the U.S. Lacrosse Board of Directors, also has a few ideas of her own she plans to implement.

One of those concepts is a summer exhibition against an international opponent centered around a high school or club tournament somewhere in the U.S. A clinic would also be held. Levy said the idea could be expanded into a four-team tournament similar to the Four Nations Cup, an annual women's ice hockey tournament between the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden.

"It's kind of like Cirque du Soleil," Levy said. "We're going to go entertain people. We're going to go capture and inspire their imagination and let them know where they're headed, these little guys. And those little guys will create that momentum for the future.

"I don't think we could sell out a Rose Bowl right now. But maybe sometime in the next 20 years we could."

'Far from bored'

Until then, Levy has other priorities.

She's currently working on hiring a coaching staff. Once it's complete, she'll meet with her staff and other members of U.S. Lacrosse to discuss their vision and set a calendar spanning from December until the FIL World Cup in 2021.

She'll balance all that with her UNC responsibilities. Those will move to the forefront in January, but she'll continue spending some time each week on her U.S. national team duties.

"I'm far from bored here; there's still a ton of stuff we're working on and developing," she said. "Every day is different, every week is different, every year is different and every team is different. There's a ton of passion still in what I'm doing here."

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