Liz Ford to Head Fighting Scot Women's Lax Team

Liz Ford

WOOSTER, Ohio – Liz Ford is making the cross-town move from head girls’ lacrosse coach at Wooster High School to head women’s lacrosse coach at The College of Wooster, announced Keith Beckett, the College’s athletic director. Ford, who will also be an assistant for the Fighting Scots’ field hockey program, is replacing Alison Share, who decided to pursue other career interests after a successful three-year tenure.

“I am very excited that Liz will be joining our staff and campus community,” Beckett stated. “She brings a great deal of coaching experience and motivation to the position, and is very well networked within the lacrosse community. Her previous connection with our department and the College laid an important foundation, which she built upon in the high school and club level. I look forward to watching her continue the fine traditions established within the women's lacrosse program.”

Ford, 32, is taking over one of the most successful programs in the NCAA Div. III West Region, as the Scots have won nearly 70 percent of their games during the 2000s (68-30) and captured three-straight North Coast Athletic Conference championships from 2002-04 while appearing in the NCAA Tournament each of those seasons.

“I’m excited to (come) to a program that’s had two great coaches before me in Alison and Liz (Grote). I have some big shoes to fill.  I’m confident we can continue (what) they’ve started,” commented Ford. “Of (those) I’ve gotten a chance to talk to thus far, they seem like talented, motivated girls, and I’m excited to start working with them.”

The coach at Wooster High School since the 1999-2000 academic year, Ford guided the Generals to winning records four of the last five seasons, highlighted by an 11-3-2 mark in 2002 and advancing to the Round of 16 in the 2004 Ohio State Lacrosse Association Tournament.

Ford also brings significant experience at the collegiate level to the position. In fact, she was an assistant coach at Wooster during the 1998-99 academic year. Prior to that, Ford was a graduate assistant in field hockey and lacrosse for two seasons at Washington (Md.) College.

Originally from Glassboro, N.J., and a graduate of Glassboro High School, the former Liz Garrett was a four-year starter in field hockey and three-year starter in lacrosse at perennial national power Rowan University. She helped the Profs’ to NCAA Tournament appearances twice in each sport and picked up all-region honors in lacrosse as a senior while captaining the squad in 1995.

Ford, who holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Rowan and a master’s in history from Washington, also has been an educator for much of the last decade, teaching at various schools in New Jersey, Maryland, and Ohio. She’s been a social studies teacher at Mapleton High School in Ashland, Ohio, since 2001-02.