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Chazz Woodson brings MLL experience to Hampton University, the only DI HBCU lacrosse program 
Former MLL star Chazz Woodson will join Hampton University as the school’s newest lacrosse head coach. A Hampton Roads native, Woodson is hoping to bring success to the young program which is also the country’s only NCAA Division I HBCU team. (Photo: Hampton University Athletics)

Chazz Woodson brings MLL experience to Hampton University, the only DI HBCU lacrosse program 

HAMPTON, Va. (BVM) — On July 20, former Brown University and Major League Lacrosse standout Chazz Woodson was named the third head coach of the Hampton University lacrosse program. It is the first collegiate lacrosse coaching job for Woodson following a stint as the program director and head boys varsity coach at the Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove, Fla., where he recruited and managed the coaching staffs of two middle school and two high school teams, along with practice and game planning for the varsity team.

For Woodson, the job is a homecoming of sorts. 

When he was just a young child, Woodson’s parents decided to move from their Sacramento, Calif., home to a new city. Though they had six cities in mind, some with connections to family and others with no connections at all, the couple would have fate decide by putting the city names in a hat and picking one where they would move. The paper said Norfolk, Va., where Woodson’s aunt had attended Hampton and was working as a professor at what was then Virginia Wesleyan College and the family made their move.

Though he’s a Hampton Roads native, Woodson grew up in nearby Norfolk where he attended high school at Norfolk Academy until his junior year in 2000. The selection of his high school program was tied to fate as much as his family’s move. Woodson’s father, Ed, was visiting his sister at Virginia Wesleyan. Ed, who played some lacrosse during college and in some adult men’s leagues, noticed a group of students playing the game on the Norfolk field which was next door to the university. In that moment, Ed knew his son would have a program to play with.  

“He stopped and talked to them and as they say the rest is history,” Woodson said.

Woodson’s father would become a longtime teacher and head lacrosse coach at Norfolk Academy and slowly Woodson himself would fall in love with the game from a young age.

“Because my dad was a coach I was always around the game,” Woodson said. “I didn’t really start playing until fourth grade for the Tidewater Youth Lacrosse League. … I played from fourth grade on.”

Prior to his senior year, Woodson’s dad would get a new job at Blue Ridge School in Charlottesville, Va., which forced the young athlete to leave his classmates, program and friends behind. Expectations were high for Woodson at Blue Ridge. People thought he was more elite coming from the prestigious private school and Woodson wanted to prove them right, working harder in both athletics as well as academics in his final year.

“They’re drastically different environments,” Woodson said. “For me the environment was a change I needed for growth. … I also academically went from being an OK, average student to getting to Blue Ridge and a combination of their expectations of me and my expectations of myself prompted me to be a straight-A student the whole year. … They expected more of me academically and I kind of felt the want to live up to that.”

Though he admits today he would have probably pursued basketball had the move not relegated the 5-foot-8 guard from a two-year starter at Norfolk to a bench player behind much bigger guards with the previous state champion Blue Ridge, he understood early on his lacrosse skills would get him farther in college. At Norfolk Academy and Blue Ridge School, Woodson’s prowess on the lacrosse field would earn him a scholarship to Brown University.

“Brown was the very first call I got,” Woodson said. “It was interesting because I wasn’t terribly interested in them, but they were very interested in me and that was a good sign and they stayed with me throughout the process. … It was the right decision and I still stand by that. I had a great experience there.”

Over his four-year career with the Bears, Woodson became one of the best players in the Ivy League. Woodson was a two-time All-Ivy, All-New England and team offensive MVP with the Bears and he scored 71 goals in just 54 games. Later, Woodson was named to the Brown University All-Decade team for 2000-2009. With his performance, Woodson would be drafted by Long Island with the 19th overall pick in the 2005 MLL Collegiate Draft.

Woodson played 10 years in the MLL for Long Island, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Chesapeake and Florida and was well-known as one of the league’s most exciting players during his tenure. Woodson credited his offensive creativity and slight recklessness as reasons he was able to establish himself as an offensive threat whenever he had the ball.

“Major League Lacrosse for me was actually maybe a better fit than playing at Brown because it was so fast,” Woodson said. “It’s designed for players who are a little more creative and a little bit more up-tempo and high energy so I think it worked out for me. It was an opportunity that came up that I was able to take advantage of.”

Woodson, who graduated from Brown with a degree in educational studies, worked as a coach on the side of his professional career beginning as a basketball coach in 2006. Soon after, while expanding his coaching duties to everything from football to cross country to lacrosse, Woodson tracked the status of Hampton University and their upstart lacrosse program.

Hampton lacrosse is young, with only five years at the Division I level after being a club program since 2011. The only historically Black college or university (HBCU) in the country with a Division I college program, the team offered unique experiences for players and personnel. This year, Woodson decided to throw his hat in the ring as Hampton was looking to replace their previous coach who left for another school. Once again, fate brought Woodson back to Virginia.

“Coaching was something I always enjoyed and it’s been something I’ve always been interested in,” Woodson said. “(College coaching) had to absolutely be the right situation. I always had an interest in coaching lacrosse at an HBCU. So as a result when this program first began, especially given it was back home that was always something in the back of my mind, but outside of that I wasn’t interested in coaching collegiately.”

Hampton provides Woodson a special opportunity to connect with his community on a deeper level. Not only is the university in his hometown, but being an HBCU and the only one with a Division I lacrosse program hasn’t gone unnoticed by Woodson. Woodson, who has always been a steward of the game through the Sankofa Lacrosse Foundation, which he co-founded and supports efforts to expand the game specifically in economically disadvantaged areas, was inspired to give back because he kept hearing stories of how he inspired young, Black players to fall in love with the game. He knows the opportunity to coach at an HBCU and draw interest to the program can only help propel the game further, especially in the Black community.

“It’s a responsibility we have to give back and to me this is sort of a way of giving back to a game that has given so much to me,” Woodson said. “(Hearing of how I inspired people) have prompted me to want to give back to the Black lacrosse community specifically. … This gives me a very concrete way of doing it and that hopefully, if we build it the right way, will also be a tool and a mechanism to help inspire kids for years to come.”

With Woodson as the program’s newest head coach, interest in Pirates men’s lacrosse is at an all-time high. With his long playing and coaching experiences, Woodson is the perfect candidate to help bring Hampton to the next level. Behind strong leadership and more on-field success, Hampton can put itself in a strong position to be able to not only win games, but to grow the sport in a way few programs are able to and that is exactly what Woodson wants to accomplish.