One week ago, Georgetown women’s lacrosse coach Ricky Fried announced he was retiring after two decades at the helm.
Fried had taken over a program which made the Final Four three times between 2001 and 2004. But because of programs like Maryland, North Carolina, Northwestern, and Boston College, the team never made it back to the last weekend of the season.
But you can’t blame Fried. Indeed, he was given the honor of coaching two World Cup teams to championships in 2013 and 2017, and was an assistant on a third, the 2009 title team. Fried’s World Cup record, with 15 wins and no defeats, is the best all-time in the history of the U.S. team. Sure, he’s tied with Jenny Levy and Sue Heether with an even 1.000 winning percentage, but he has more wins than his Hall-of-Fame counterparts.
Throughout it all, Fried has been one of the best ambassadors of the sport. Always willing to chat up the media, always with a great perspective on the game even as it went through radical changes throughout his coaching tenure.
There were a number of times when I thought Georgetown was shortchanged when it came to making the NCAA Tournament. There was one year when the Hoyas were amongst the better teams in the national conversation, but lost out in the selection process for the Division I bracket. Heck, there was one year when Georgetown didn’t have a chance to improve their RPI ratings in the postseason because the team ranked fifth in the Big East and didn’t qualify for the conference tournament despite a a number of factors including non-conference opponents and strength of schedule.
Georgetown may be getting a new coach in the next few months, but it will be difficult for that coach to match what he did in the same circumstances over the last two decades.
