The University of Dubuque announces the appointment of Jake Olsen as head men’s lacrosse coach and Offensive Coordinator in football for the Spartans. Olsen will lead the Spartans in their inaugural season of lacrosse in 2014. There are currently 206 Division III Women’s Lacrosse teams and 179 Division III Men’s Lacrosse teams competing in the NCAA.
Olsen, a native of Osage, Iowa joined the Spartans in 2011 as a coach for the wide receivers and as an adjunct professor in the Core Curriculum at UD. He Helped the Spartans to it’s first IIAC title in football in 31 years. Previously Olsen was assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in football at Southern Oregon University working with quarterbacks and wide receivers (2006-10). He also coached 3 All-Americans and 14 All-Independent NAIA performers while serving as team’s strength and conditioning coordinator.
He began his coaching career at Rockford College where he received his master of arts in teaching degree. He coached the Regents quarterbacks and wide receivers while holding the title of passing game coordinator. In 2005 the Regents saw 13 school offensive records rewritten behind the arm of All-UMAC Quarterback Travis Stocker who finished top 10 in Division III passing efficiency. Olsen is a 2003 graduate of Wartburg College where he received an elementary education degree. At Wartburg he was a four-year letterwinner in both football and basketball, earning All-Iowa Conference honors in both sports. He was a member of two IIAC Football Championships and one IIAC Basketball Championship as a student-athlete.
The Spartan lacrosse program will begin as a campus club sport in 2013 and move into a competitive varsity program in 2014.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to help build momentum in an already strong athletic department,” commented Olsen. “Starting from scratch with a fast growing sport in the Midwest, I’m looking forward to bringing quality, diverse student-athletes into the sport of lacrosse.”
“The sport of lacrosse combines several unique qualities student-athletes must possess,” commented Olsen. “Lacrosse has similarities to the sports of football, soccer, and hockey and to combine those traits into one sport and to bring the fast paced game to Dubuque is exciting and challenging. We will create a base number this spring to compete in practices and scrimmages on campus. To add an additional sport for student-athletes in the current economic situation is a tribute to where we’ve come from as an institution with the incredible hard work, focus, and discipline of so many, the University of Dubuque wishes to create opportunities for lacrosse student-athletes, and to make that commitment is simply amazing.”
The Spartans will begin women’s lacrosse as a club sport in the spring of 2012 with anticipation of becoming a collegiate sport in the Midwest Women’s Lacrosse Conference (MWLC) where they will begin conference play in the spring of 2014.
Olsen and his wife Liz reside in Peosta with their two sons Liam (3 1/2) and Noah (2). Olsen will begin recruiting immediately for men’s lacrosse, which will be played on Oyen Field on the campus of the University of Dubuque.
