Head Coach: Jennifer Frapwell... bio coming soon!
Goalie Coach: Paul Smith
Photo by Sean Carman
Having been excused from an assortment of baseball teams, Paul Smith began his Lacrosse career as a freshman in high school in New England, during the last millennium. He elected to play goalie, because it was the only position not requiring him to actually buy a stick. When his playing career began, all players used wooden sticks, strung with rawhide and catgut. Paul will neither confirm nor deny that his earliest teams played with the skull of a small animal instead of a ball. Paul is similarly vague on the details surrounding reports that the winning team usually pillaged the losing teams encampment.
Moving on to the University of Michigan during the Vietnam war, he was converted to a defenseman, when his goalkeeping skills were evaluated by coaches as funnel-like. (Not only were the easy shots getting through, but even shots destined to pass wide of the net were finding their way in.) The Michigan Lacrosse Club, also known as “the Gypsies” for their style of travel to away games and tournaments was (and continues to be) a perennial powerhouse in the Midwest Club Lacrosse scene, finishing at or near the top of the league in each year Paul played. In addition to playing defense for the mother-ship for four years, he played goal for the Wolverine Lacrosse Club, a non-University affiliated club for two years. He also had a brief stint with a Boston men’s club during the Carter administration.
He was recipient of many awards during his playing career, including a game ball and newspaper mention for outstanding play against Duke University, a game played entirely with his mouth taped shut. (It’s a long story.) Other awards included selection to the All-South-Ann-Arbor team (honorable mention), and the coveted “Pincushion Award” for exemplary hypochondria.
Paul is a Naval Architect/Ocean Engineer, and a Principal in The Glosten Associates, a well-respected Seattle engineering consulting firm. In addition to his engineering degrees from Michigan and MIT, he holds an MBA from UW. 2004 will mark his third year as WWL Goalie Coach, and his first as a general assistant. His success has been measured by the ability acquired by Washington goalkeepers to know when to ignore him.