One of Alex Ricker-Gilbert’s first tasks as a newly-minted athletic director at Jacksonville University was hiring a men’s lacrosse coach.

The Dolphins, through seven seasons of Division I men’s lacrosse, has won just 36 games. In the two seasons prior, 2015 and 2016, they finished second-to-last in the Southern Conference.

In June 2016, Ricker-Gilbert tabbed then-27-year-old Providence assistant coach and former Syracuse goalie John Galloway to lead JU’s fledgling program to legitimacy. During his interview, Galloway pitched a vision to Ricker-Gilbert and JU president Tim Cost: An annual national contender, dominating lacrosse in the South. It was exactly what Ricker-Gilbert and Cost wanted to hear.

“I haven’t been more sure about a hire since,” Ricker-Gilbert said.

Before Galloway’s hire, JU’s coaches offices were in vacant dorm rooms, the locker room was equivalent to a golf changing room and film sessions were relegated to the Davis College of Business, where marketing classes took precedence. To contend, Galloway told his soon-to-be bosses, Jacksonville needed a new lacrosse facility.

Galloway spent most of his time pushing the Dolphins closer to national relevance since taking over two years ago. This fall’s opening of the Jacksonville Lacrosse Center — one of the only lacrosse-only college athletics facilities in the country — is the next step in the transformation of the culture he stepped into.

In his first two seasons at the helm, the Dolphins went to the Southern Conference tournament each year. Now, almost 10 years removed from winning a national title at Syracuse, he’s aiming higher for his own program.

“I feel good about our progress, but I also know that we are 20% of where I’d like to be,” Galloway said.

Galloway and the athletic department needed to come up with the $1.875 million needed to move ahead and break ground. After meeting with what felt like thousands of people, Galloway said, while coordinating with donors and partnering with the Jacksonville women’s lacrosse program, the money came together. On Jan. 5, 2019, players saw their new home for the first time.

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The facility Galloway envisioned features men and women’s locker rooms, a film room, offices for coaches, an athletic training center, a nutrition center, a conference room and a lounge. A large inscription on the wall reading “The lacrosse capital of the South,” a catchphrase for the Dolphins, greets visitors in the main lobby.

“To have a lacrosse-only building on our field — It changes the dynamic of how we can do our job,” Galloway said.

Galloway’s second challenge when he took the job was repairing a broken team culture, he said. It wasn’t a negative environment so much as an apathetic one, Galloway said. Players didn’t prioritize lacrosse like other D-I teams. No one on the roster knew what it took to win a conference championship or win an NCAA tournament game, he said.

Galloway’s experience as a starting goalie for a national championship team at Syracuse taught him that Jacksonville’s program needed a reboot. Galloway moved practices to the morning to “curb the social life” and ran his team longer and harder than they’d been before. Largely, players were receptive, and the upperclassmen bought in. Those that didn’t, “saw themselves out” by transferring to Division II schools, Galloway said.

“I think the guys in the locker room, for the most part, wanted change,” he said. “They were tired of losing and they were motivated for change.”

In order to instill an improved culture, JU needed the state-of-the-art facility. Before January, coaches offices and the player lounge were on opposite sides of campus. Now they’re in the same building.

The new space is more comfortable, too, and players spend more free time there, assistant coach Tyler Granelli said. They hang out after practice until they go to class, then they come back to take a nap, play video games or see the trainers. Granelli estimates players often spend three-quarters of their days there.

“It’s kind of like that secondary home,” Granelli said.

With a nearly $2 million investment comes a certain deal of expectations, though. The JLC is a legitimizing tool for Jacksonville’s lacrosse teams, making it a hub of lacrosse in the South, Galloway said.

But a legitimate facility needs legitimate teams — Galloway knows this as well as anyone. He started in goal as Syracuse rolled to a national championship his sophomore year. He saw an identity blossom before his eyes. And he’s hoping for the same a decade later.

Making the conference tournament for a third year in a row is a significant achievement for the Dolphins, who made the postseason three times in seven years before the Galloway era. Still, Galloway’s unsatisfied.

“We’re about two-and-a-half years here on campus and you know, last year was an incredible success, considering where we were,” Galloway said. “But, certainly not to the expectations that I have and we want to win championships yearly.”

Published on April 23, 2019 at 10:32 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham