U15 Girls’ Combine’s Emily Campaigne Building on Family Legacy

SPARKS, Md. — Emily Campaigne has heard many of her mom’s lacrosse stories.

She has heard how Suzanne Campaigne helped elevate the women’s club program as a student at Cal Poly over 25 years ago. How that Mustangs program emerged as a WCLA powerhouse and captured the first seven WCLA championships (2001-07) hosted by USA Lacrosse. How a lacrosse legacy was built at a place that had no prior lacrosse tradition. The tales are compelling.

But Emily, 13, is at USA Lacrosse headquarters this week hoping to create her own lacrosse stories. She is among the youngest of the 108 girls participating in the three-day U15 National Combine, part of USA Lacrosse’s National Team Development Program. This is the first time USA Lacrosse has held a U15 combine.

Operated by current and past USA players and coaches, the National Team Development Program Combine leads athletes through elite level skill development training, as well as sessions on strength and conditioning, recruitment, social emotional learning, and leadership. Combine players live, breathe, eat and sleep nothing but USA Lacrosse for three days.

All the girls are vying to be among the 24 players selected for the U.S. Youth National Team that will represent the United States later this fall in the Rivalry Challenge against Canada.

As a rising ninth grader at Tri-City Christian School in Vista, Calif., Campaigne earned an invitation to the Combine as one of the midfield standouts at the USA Lacrosse player clinic in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Campaigne’s young lacrosse career has been shaped by parents who are both involved with the game. Her father, Dan, a former collegiate player at Santa Clara, serves as his daughter’s rec coach, while Suzanne coaches both Emily and older sister Jordan on the Tri-City Christian girls’ team.

“They got me started in lacrosse, but they give me the choice of whether I want to play or not,” said Emily, the youngest of three siblings. “I’m happy they introduced me to lacrosse, but I’m the one that decided to continue with it.”

The roots are well established.

Suzanne grew up in a family of athletes as one of six kids in the Loeffler household that played a sport in college. She started out as a volleyball player before discovering lacrosse as a college sophomore and joining Cal Poly’s competitive club program.

“There’s so much crossover in lacrosse,” Suzanne said. “Kids who have played other sports like soccer, basketball, and even volleyball can pick it up pretty quickly and even thrive in lacrosse. I see it all the time.”

By Suzanne’s senior year, Cal Poly had become a formidable West Coast squad and qualified for USA Lacrosse’s initial WCLA championship tournament. With Suzanne serving as team captain, the Mustangs claimed the 2001 national championship, sparking what would become a record-setting run of seven consecutive WCLA titles.

“We were a bunch of California girls who were so excited to be going to the national championship,” Suzanne said. “We couldn’t believe that we were one of the top 16 teams in the country.”

The Mustangs opened that 2001 tournament with a victory over Northwestern and added two more victories to earn a berth in the final. They capped their run by defeating Navy 13-6 in the championship game.

“That week in St. Louis for the WCLA championship was one of the favorite weeks from my whole college experience,” Suzanne said. “It was surreal. You look back now, and that entire experience seems like a dream.”

After graduating with an engineering degree, Suzanne returned to her hometown of San Diego for her first job and soon found her way into coaching. Over the years, she has coached three different high school teams and also founded the North Coast STORM, a rec league program for girls in grades K-8. She continues to serve as STORM director.

As a USA Lacrosse member program, STORM focuses on player development, a positive team culture and fun. The program seeks to utilize coaches who will make a strong impact on the lives of young players.

“We try to find individuals who are most excited about not only teaching great lacrosse, but also lessons about leadership, teamwork, strength and confidence that girls will need for a lifetime,” Suzanne said. “We believe strength, knowledge and character should go hand in hand.”

Emily hopes to leverage those qualities as she navigates her own USA Lacrosse experience.

“Being one of the youngest, it’s good to see what I am up against,” she said. “The girls here have so much skill, and that forces me to work harder. But it’s really fun.”