The High Point University Athletic Department is beginning its fundraising campaign to add first-class locker room facilities in the Steele Sports Center for the new women's lacrosse team. The HPU varsity women's lacrosse team will begin play in the spring of 2011.

With the addition of women's lacrosse, additional space is needed in the Steele Center. When the fundraising campaign is complete, the project will feature custom wooden lockers and team audio and video equipment as well as bathroom and shower facilities.

"It's very important that our women's lacrosse program gets off to a great start and head coach Lyndsey Boswell can establish a foothold in the south," said HPU Athletic Director Craig Keilitz. "The team will have an excellent playing facility at Vert Stadium and we want to create a locker room in the Steele Center to match it. We want Coach Boswell and her team to have the resources to build a great program right away."

Contributions to the new locker room will make an immediate impact on the everyday training and competition of women's lacrosse players at High Point University. Supporters can name a locker with a donation of $4,000 and can name the locker room with a contribution of $50,000. Amounts can be made in pledges over five years. All gifts to the project are tax deductable and countable toward Panther Club membership.

"The interest in women's lacrosse at High Point University has been tremendous," said Boswell. "We have a strong initial recruiting class coming in the fall of 2010 and we want to be a contender in the National Lacrosse Conference right away. To compete in recruiting and quickly establish the lacrosse program at HPU, we need support to build a new locker room and facilities that will be on par with the rest of the beautiful campus at High Point University and among the best lacrosse facilities in the nation."

Boswell and assistant coach Whitney Michele joined HPU in 2009 and have been working on recruiting, scheduling and building support for HPU women's lacrosse. Boswell came to HPU after three seasons as head coach at St. Andrew's Presbyterian, where she built the fledgling women's lacrosse program into a contender in the Div. II Conference Carolinas. Michele is a 2009 graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she was a standout midfielder.

For more information on the campaign or to make a contribution, please contact Associate AD for External Relations Rob Aycock at (336) 841-4615 or raycock@highpoint.edu.