Munday Taps Bowen, Wills as USC Assistants

Yesterday USC announced that Hilary Bowen and Devon Wills will join Lindsey Munday’s staff as the Trojans prepare to launch their women’s Division I program for the 2012-2013 season.

Bowen and Munday played together for one season (2006) at Northwestern, and then Munday served as an assistant coach at her alma mater for the last three years of Bowen’s NCAA career. Bowen comes to USC from Mount St. Mary’s, where she was originally hired by Munday during the latter’s four-month tenure as the Mountaineers’ head coach before USC came calling.

Wills was Munday’s teammate in the 2009 FIL World Cup, where Team USA won gold. They also played against each other in college, perhaps most memorably in the 2005 semifinal, which Northwestern won, 8-4, with nine saves from Wills and two goals for Munday. Wills comes to USC from the University of Denver after two seasons with the Pioneers.

I spoke with Munday recently and she’s pumped to have two of her former teammates (and two great lacrosse minds) on campus soon, and to see about 10 recruits come to campus in the fall. She’s currently trolling the East Coast looking for even more Women of Troy.

For a fun look at how the USC program is coming together, take a gander at this vid from USCTrogans.com. The athletic department staff had a scrimmage, and well… "A" for effort, Trojan lacrosse newbies!

Things I learned from this video:

1. Playing “The Eye of the Tiger” makes any highlight reel seem awesome, no matter how bad the actual play is. Something to consider for your recruiting videos.

2. I enjoy the comedy stylings of USC AD Pat Haden, who threw his team under the bus in his post-game interview: “I’m shocked at how little athletic ability we have in the department. It’s a fraud… I played exceptionally well. I just didn’t draft well. My team really let me down.” I have not witnessed such candor from a coach since the great Dick Edell told a sideline TV reporter that Maryland’s first-half play versus Towson in the 2001 quarterfinals made him “want to puke” during a halftime interview.