'Tough-minded' Pitt lacrosse coach Emily Boissonneault may show emotional side at opener

Building a sport from nothing at a major university requires plenty of work and sacrifice.

So, Emily Boissonneault happily grabbed a snow shovel Monday morning and began scraping away some of the excess ice that had accumulated on the edges of the turf field at Highmark Stadium. Five minutes later, the coach of Pitt’s first women’s lacrosse team was directing 38 players through practice in preparation for the season opener at 5 p.m. Friday against Duquesne at Highmark.

Athletic director Heather Lyke described Boissonneault as “unbelievably tough-minded and gritty.”

Yet, Boissonneault said she might show another side of her personality Friday before the game.

“Hopefully, you won’t see me tear up too much,” she said. “But I’m pretty emotionally committed and connected to this program. It’s been 2 ½ years of my life just getting here.”

Women’s lacrosse is the 19th varsity sport at Pitt, and Lyke is pleased by the historical timing of its christening.

“In the 50th year of Title IX, it’s a pretty neat idea to add a women’s sport at Pitt,” she said.

The sport is new to Pitt this year, but the idea goes back more than three years. Lyke announced plans to start the program Nov. 1, 2018, and hired Boissonneault eight months later.

“When we looked for a coach,” Lyke said, “we wanted someone who had the vision and belief and courage and confidence to come and field something that’s never been built.”

This is the third start-up team Boissonneault has joined, having played on new teams at Donald A. Wilson Secondary School in Whitby, Ontario, and Detroit Mercy as a collegian.

It’s part of her impressive lacrosse background.

She won three silver medals as a player for Team Canada in international competition and was an assistant coach with the Team Canada’s Under-19 team at the 2019 World Championship in Peterborough, Canada. She also was on the James Madison coaching staff that won the NCAA title in 2018.

Even now, she remains active as a player. She will play for Team Canada in the 2022 Lacrosse Women’s World Championships this summer in Towson, Md. She even competed against one of her players, graduate student Paige Petty, at the World Lacrosse Super Sixes event last year in Sparks, Md.

Somehow, she finds the time to be player and coach.

“I’m at my peak as an athlete because my mind is so fresh (from coaching) and able to make the adjustments that are required of me to play at the World Cup level,” she said. “I have to squeeze in my workouts, but I make the time.”

“She cares so much,” senior midfielder Payton Reed said. “You can hear it in her voice and her actions and how much effort she puts in every day. She put her entire life into Pitt lacrosse.”

Pitt will be the ninth ACC team with women’s lacrosse, and keeping up with its opponents won’t be easy. The ACC is considered the strongest conference for women’s lacrosse in the nation, having placed Boston College, North Carolina and Syracuse in the 2021 NCAA Final Four. Boston College defeated Syracuse for the title.

“The ACC is the center stage,” Reed said. “It’s a definitely little nerve-wracking. We all put in a lot of work, and we’re all excited to compete with the best of the best.”

Senior attacker Madisyn Kittell, a transfer from Florida, welcomes the pressure.

“But with pressure, our sports psychologist says, comes privilege,” she said. “We’ve earned this right to feel the pressure. I think it’s good pressure.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs. It’s difficult coming from the ground up. There are going to be bumps and bruises and injuries and sicknesses, especially with covid. Our team has a lot of resources to fight through that adversity and a lot of courage to keep going.”

Building a new team required the addition of 14 women who transferred, including three from ACC schools. There are players from 10 states, Australia and Canada and two WPIAL products, Emily Coughlin of Oakland Catholic and Karina Latsko of Seneca Valley.

One of the highlights of the morning practice was the women’s first look at their new locker room at Highmark.

How excited were they?

After a few minutes, they started singing “Sweet Caroline.”

“It’s so cool to see what people do for us,” Reed said, “how much people believe in us. We’re excited to show them what we got and make them proud.”