Student-Athlete Profile: Jen May
By Robert X. Fogarty
Oregon Media Services
Jen May is sifting and poking at a hedge that guards the perimeter of the Ducks’ Pap? Field. The 5-foot hedge has swallowed at least a half dozen wayward balls during the practice, and May is squinting?hoping to catch a glimmer of the yellow balls that hide entangled within the green shadows.
On most teams, shagging lost balls or lugging equipment bags are freshmen jobs that upperclassmen delegate with reminiscing laughter. But for the Ducks, a first-year team full of first-year players, everybody has chores. Even May, a prep All-American and the first player to score a goal in
In the latter months of 2003 and 3,000 miles east of Eugene, Jen May’s mother, Mary, didn’t know that the burgeoning construction project known as the Oregon women’s lacrosse team included plans for her daughter. By the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year, the coaching staff had May, eight other
Jen May, 18, is happy with her college decision.
Mary May hoped Jen would go to school close to home. It was a realistic request nudged by an assistant coach named Jen Larsen at the
But when
Jen visited with father, Lee, alongside. They went to the coast because neither had ever seen the
It was Mary May’s worst nightmare.
“When she came home and decided that this was where she was going to go it just bowled me over,” Mary May said.
Lee May recounted Mary’s fears in her worrisome tone, “I can see she’s going to go to college out there, she’s going to meet some boy, fall in love and get married, and all my grandkids will be on the West Coast.”
Taking a chance?and a flight?for a program that until this season, didn’t exist was conflicting decision for May. Her mother’s uncertainty and what ifs were a daunting deterrent. She could have gone to St. Mary’s, the same school her brother, Chris, attends.
Today the scenarios are merely afterthoughts. May speaks about the
And when recounting the Ducks’ first goal, struggling to contain a smile is the hardest part.
“I was just really lucky that it got to be me,” she said.
“Oh my gosh, that was the first goal ever of this program,” she remembers thinking. “It was awesome, it was huge, it was definitely really cool.”
But after elation of
“They are a group of freshmen, and for them to have fewer freshman moments is what we are striving for,” Larsen said. “It’s not just a win-and-loss thing for us.”
Jen May, whose optimistic attitude about the next four years is apparent if not utterly uncontrollable, said that she wants to see the Ducks win a national championship by the time she’s a senior.
May cited
“Northwestern is a team who is in their first year having seniors, and they’re ranked third in the nation, and have the potential to bring home the title this year.” Northwestern began Division I play again in the spring of 2002 after being scratched from the Wildcat athletics’ lineup in the early ’90s.
“Four years ago, they were us,” she said.
“I think she’s already stepped up to be a leader,” Larsen said about May. “She’s an inspiration to many of her teammates.”
“Just playing with her makes everyone want to step up to that level,”
Larsen knows that the freshmen she recruited came here for the excitement surrounding building a program. The East Coast of the
No wonder it’s a college talent hotspot.
Larsen, from
“I thought distance was actually going to be a big deal,” Larsen said. “It worked in my favor because those that were serious about the program and were willing to step out of a small little comfort zone and really stick their necks out for a brand-new program got on that plane. And when they came out here, they fell in love.”
“Who was I to tell her no,” Mary May said. “The joy and excitement in her eyes, I knew that that’s why I needed to let her go ... but it’s very hard for a mother to let her daughter go that far away.”
