No. 1 Adelphi women ready for Division I

Will it be three national championships and out for Adelphi women's lacrosse coach Joe Spallina?

The 38-year-old physical education teacher at Rocky Point High School could parlay his incredible four-year record of 73-2 into a Division I job. Or he could wait and hope Adelphi eventually elevates its D-II program to the next level.

There is no immediate plan in place, but everything at Adelphi suggests it is capable of making the move. With new indoor and outdoor facilities, the infrastructure is in place. Hall of Fame athletic director Robert Hartwell, who used to abhor such talk, now broaches it, saying: "Our alums are asking, 'Shouldn't we be Division I?' The true answer would be 'yes.' "

Hartwell, with 24 years at the helm, remembers the lean times in the mid-1990s when the university was beset by financial problems. "We were close to shutting doors," he said.

Spallina was a student-athlete who played lacrosse. "It was pretty bad," he said. "We were on a dirt practice field, played in a dirt stadium, traveled in vans. The athletic director's office had half a window."

That time is long gone. Said Hartwell, "Now, financially, knock on wood, Adelphi is very solid."

Most of the teams at Adelphi have been successful, but women's lacrosse has set the standard for considering Division I. In Adelphi's long history, other sports have dabbled in D-I, but men's soccer is the only program currently at that level.

Spallina has his own ambitions, but he said: "The big thing, I think the kids are ready. You get to a certain point where they need that challenge. We had had like seven, eight games where we scored 20 at the half. As coach, how do I motivate them? Trick them and tell them the team we are playing is great?"

Senior Elizabeth Fay agreed. "I don't want to say winning gets boring," she said Sunday after Adelphi beat Limestone, 17-4, "but it would be nice to be in a totally new division and challenge ourselves with teams that are Division I. We hold ourselves to such a high level that we almost compete with what we can do individually. We can make the regular pass or we can make the behind-the-back pass. That's the competition we see. It's making ourselves better.

"I know we would play well. This fall, we played Hopkins and Georgetown. Sure it's fall ball, but they don't want to lose, we don't want to lose. D-II is just a title. We are just as disciplined, hard-working, confident and talented as D-I schools."

That comes from Spallina, whom Fay describes as "good crazy, the best crazy you could ever be. He pushes us to new levels. Practices are harder, longer, more intense than anything. You can see [the results] on the field when we play. Every year he makes our team better and stronger, and that's scary for the rest of the world."

Spallina, who also is an assistant men's coach with the Long Island Lizards of Major League Lacrosse, said he fielded some calls after last season, but nothing prompted him to leave.

He enjoys the female version of the sport, which started for him at Rocky Point when he was a young, non-tenured instructor. "I thought I would be the next boys varsity coach," he said. He guided the girls to three county titles in 10 seasons.

There is a vacancy for the women's team at D-I Stony Brook. "They obviously have an opening there," he said. "I won't pick up the phone and call anybody. I don't chase anybody."

He admits to having a bit of an ego, but as he said: "We make good players great. And we make great players amazing."