On The Cusp: Klaes-Bawcombe One Win From JMU Coaching Mark

“My goal was to win and win big, but I’ve enjoyed it so much that I can’t believe 11 years here has passed by so quickly,” she said, while wiping away the tear that trickled down her face. “I’m even getting emotional just thinking about it right now.”

As her players cleared the field and the sky darkened above the bright lights shining down on Sentara Park on Thursday evening, Klaes-Bawcombe realized she is on the verge of something more sentimental to her than statistically significant to anyone else.

JMU’s 11-10 victory over Connecticut on Sunday gave Klaes-Bawcombe win No. 118 at the school, tying her with former Madison coach Dee McDonough for the program’s all-time wins record. If the Dukes can knock off High Point today at 1 p.m. in Harrisonburg, Klaes-Bawcombe will top the charts alone, passing the coach she used to play for.

“I knew in my junior year here that I wanted to be the coach at JMU one day,” Klaes-Bawcombe, who wore the uniform for Madison in mid-1990s, said. “Then, when my name is being compared to a name like Dee McDonough, someone who I have the utmost respect for because she brought me here, she believed in me and taught me what being a great coach looked like, it’s just an incredible thing for me.”

In her coaching tenure at JMU, Klaes-Bawcombe has led her teams to four NCAA Tournament appearances. JMU has earned a Top 20 national ranking nine times since she got the job prior to the 2007 season.

Her players say Klaes-Bawcombe’s best attribute is her ability to relate to them as individuals.

“You could call her up about anything at anytime and it isn’t awkward or anything,” senior goalkeeper Emily Poelma said. “You know she’ll answer.

“She went to JMU. She was a JMU student-athlete, so she knows what the school has to offer, so she supports the players beyond just lacrosse.”

Junior defender Rebecca Tooker, who was named Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday, said she could tell early in the recruiting process that Klaes-Bawcombe cared like no other coach that was recruiting her.

Tooker, a native of Eastport, N.Y., on Long Island, was recruited by North Carolina, Florida, and Delaware among others before electing to play for Klaes-Bawcombe.

“I got off the phone one day with her, and I was like, ‘I want to come here,’” Tooker said. “It was probably a few weeks after a tournament, and she said she had remembered this play, that play and this play that I had played on defense.

“There are so many girls that these coaches recruit and for her to remember that specific thing about me, it felt like she wanted me and that I should want to play for her.”

Senior attacker Leah Monticello said the relationship doesn’t stop growing once Klaes-Bawcombe gets the player to commit during the recruiting process.

“My freshman year was more of a scary year, so I’d say I was more timid,” Monticello said. “But then going into her office more and more, I’d say Shelley is the closest coach I’ve ever had in my 12 years of playing lacrosse, and it’s an incredible feeling to have a coach that is so personable.”

Klaes-Bawcombe said the point she makes to show she is approachable and relatable has enabled consistent on-field play by her teams year after year.

Poelma said Klaes-Bawcombe doesn’t put any restrictions on what her players can or cannot study as far as choosing a major goes and allows the girls to participate in any extra-curricular activity outside of the sport that they’d want to be part of, as long as it doesn’t interfere with lacrosse.

“We are technically a mid-major competing for a national championship,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “So when I present this experience at James Madison to these athletes and they’re trying to decide between JMU and Notre Dame or JMU and U.Va., or JMU and Georgetown, all these incredible athletic and academic programs, we have to have something that we can give them that the other schools can’t.

“The opportunity to get the best out of a university and to take advantage of everything we have to offer you, I think is a huge sell and it’s something the girls have bought into.”

The 2017 Dukes feature a roster that was turned over after losing eight players to graduation from the 2016 team. Last year’s squad reached the CAA championship game and NCAA Tournament, losing 9-8 to Stanford in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Despite dramatic personnel changes, Klaes-Bawcombe has JMU off to a 3-1 start and ranked No. 19 in the Division I Coaches Poll.

“It reinforces the foundation that we’re trying to build well-rounded women and not just lacrosse players here,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “I think sometimes as coaches in the pursuit of winning, we forget that the process matters.

“If we commit to developing them as people — the social development, academic development and athletic development — we’re going to get way more than we ever expected from each individual.”