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Megan Burker resigned as the head coach at the end of last season
after a 5-13 campaign and moved into an administrative role within the
department. That created an opportunity for someone with a vision of
what Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse could be and someone willing to
accept—even embrace—the challenge of getting it to that point.
Whit Babcock, Tech’s director of athletics, and Desiree Reed-
Francois, Tech’s deputy AD, chose Sung, who came to Tech after
building theWinthrop program from scratch into anNCAA tournament
participant.
Few people outside of lacrosse circles knew of Sung, but the 40-year-
old Troy, Michigan native has won at every level. After his playing
career at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan ended, he got into
coaching, and he started at the high school level, coaching both the boys
and girls teams at Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Michigan.
He once coached the boys and girls teams in a state championship
game—
on the same day
(the girls won the title).
He went on to coach at the club level at the University of Michigan
before starting the women’s lacrosse program at Adrian College, a
Division III school in Adrian, Michigan. In 2011, he led the squad to
the NCAA Division III tournament and left after the season, taking
the job at Winthrop, where he started that program, too. He
led the Eagles to two Big South championships and
two NCAA tournament appearances in four
seasons.
“I don’t know what it is. I guess
everyone has to have their own
niche,” Sung said of starting
varsity
programs.
“Most
college coaches don’t take the
path I take. They don’t work
themselves up from high
school—you see that more
in the mainstream sports. I had
to make my own path, but I guess if I
was going to make my own path, I may
as well start from scratch. It’s fun to build
programs, and we want to build a program
that lasts.
“Coming up here and feeling the energy and
seeing the direction it was going in and seeing
the excitement was pretty amazing to the point
of, ‘I want to work here. I want to be a part of
the change. Who doesn’t want to be a part of the
momentum?’ Winning is contagious. Everyone
wants to be around winners. I know I can win
wherever I go, but having those other key people
[coaches and administrators] sure makes my job
easier. It makes it contagious for the kids because
they want to win because their peers are winning.”
Sung’s debut as Tech’s head coach took place Feb.
8, and the Hokies rolled past Gardner-Webb 21-5 at
the Indoor Practice Facility. Most
of the people in attendance on
this bitterly cold, windy day
were athletics department
personnel—many of whom
knew little about lacrosse.
They simply came to support Sung, whose
friendly, outgoing personality is infectious.
He encourages athletes from other
sports, coaches, administrators and even
fans to stop by his office, if for nothing
else, to say hello. He’ll even reward
those who do.
“Hey, we’ve got snacks,” he
laughed.
Then added, “That’s one of
the things I’ve been trying to
do for our kids, just
push the program as
much as I can and
be like, ‘Hey, this is
going to be different.
Just give us a shot.’
My goal is to change
the program. No one
wants a loser, so I
have to make sure I
get the winning part involved first.”
Therein lies the challenge. Sung said to get this programheaded in the
right direction means doing one thing—recruiting. The current roster
lacks the size and athleticism to win with regularity in a conference
that features the reigning national champion (North Carolina) and
seven teams ranked in the preseason Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse
Coaches Association poll.
Fortunately for Sung, lacrosse is growing rapidly within the state
of Virginia, and the Northern Virginia area features a lot of high-
quality Division-I prospects. In fact, five of the 13 members of Sung’s
first recruiting class come from Northern Virginia. Plus, a lot
of alumni from Virginia Tech settle in the Northern
Virginia and the surrounding areas of Washington,
D.C. and Maryland, giving Sung important name
recognition within recruiting circles.
“Buzz [Williams] has—what does
he call them?—his kind of guys
[OKGs— ‘our kind of guys’], and for
us, we need to find that same
thing,” Sung said. “It’s easy to
get caught up in the kids who
love recruiting. You either love
the process of lacrosse and getting
better, or you love the process of
recruiting. We need to find the kids
who love the process of lacrosse,
who love the training, who love the
practices, who love that atmosphere as
opposed to being in the spotlight.
“The other thing is opening up our recruiting.
We [Virginia Tech] weren’t recruiting from the
best club teams in the country. That was one of the
biggest things. When I was at Winthrop, I called on
them like my life depended on it. If I could get one
kid from one of those top teams or top high schools
… they could change your program. There were
so many times that kids I recruited said, ‘Coach
Sung, we love what you do, we love your energy, we
love your passion, but we really want football. We
want 30,000 students.’ I just couldn’t do that. Now,
we can.”
Sung’s style of play also figures to help in the
recruiting process. He wants to score goals—lots of
them. His Winthrop teams set Big South single-
season records for points, goals, shots and shots
on goal.
The Hokies’ first game gave Tech fans a glimpse
of what he wants from his teams. The Hokies took
41 shots, scoring 21 goals—just two short of the
school’s single-game record. Tech easily could have
set the record, but toward the end of the game, Sung
told his players to bleed the shot clock and pitch the
ball to the corner instead of continuing to score on
each possession.
“We want it to be fun to watch,” Sung said. “No
one wants to watch a 3-4 lacrosse game. That’s
not fun. We want to get it to where it’s exciting.
After building two women’s
lacrosse programs
from scratch into NCAA
tournament participants,
John Sung is embracing
the challenge of turning the
fortunes of the Virginia Tech
women’s lacrosse program
by
Jimmy Robertson
SUCCESS
IHS
extra
Continued on page 32
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