CHESTNUT HILL – USA women’s lacrosse and Boston College head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein has watched the 2024 title game against Northwestern a handful of times with her family.
Walker-Weinstein has seen and done it all in the lacrosse world, but the moments leading up to, during Shea Dolce’s save (which legitimately deserves a statue outside Alumni next to Flutie’s) and then the celebration that transpired after, will be a feeling she chases until deciding to step away from the sidelines.
“I just think about what it was like in the moment watching the girls fight back and never giving up. That’s what it’s all about, just their resilience in that comeback…It will like, be the North Star of the rest of my life,” she said in an interview on Thursday following the conclusion of Team USA’s two-day tryout/training camp held at BC.
“I hope it is for them too, just to never, ever give up…(we’ve watched) the ACC finals and the whole Final Four a few times as a family. The team will do what they want with it, but my family, we watch it, we enjoy it.”
While admitting there’s “a bunch” of strategic things she would have done differently, Walker-Weinstein was quick to point to her coaching staff ultimately guiding her through the afternoon, particularly early on.
“I thought my coaching staff was brilliant,” she said. “But, I thought the preparation was awesome. I never really thought we were going to lose. Which, is weird to say, but I just didn’t feel it in my stomach. I can usually feel it. You know. The girls…I would say this…
“I wish I hadn’t…I was a bit panicked in the first quarter and the girls weren’t. I wish I had been more like them. But, I’m the coach and I have so little control. They were just cool and calm.”
It’s been a whirlwind for Walker-Weinstein and many of the BC players on Team USA since that championship victory, particularly for those that played on the USA Box Lacrosse title team, but they made sure to enjoy that afternoon in May to the fullest before turning their attention to wearing the red, white and blue.
“We enjoyed it. This was a special group this past season, so I was just so happy they got to go out on a win,” Walker-Weinstein said. “We turned the page pretty quickly because we had to start thinking about USA stuff, we wanted to build a staff. That was what I was like, really concerned about, was getting the perfect staff for this. That was step one and that was what I spent most of the summer doing.
“I wanted to kind of seal the deal (with a staff) and make sure I had people that I trust the most, that’s No. 1. Getting the coaching staff finalized was really important to me. Then, we started thinking about the kids we wanted to invite to the first camp. We had to anxiously wait until November which was hard. But, I think that time allowed us to kind of study the summer seasons, the AAU, college seasons and then even a little bit of fall. Just working with the different disciplines because box was going on and sixes was going on. I was just trying to map out ‘how does this look for us?’
“November was amazing. That was a dream come true to be sitting on the sideline, having USA play BC. My college coach came up to me and she said ‘make sure you take a second to think about what is going on right now,’ so, it was great…we had to narrow the roster and make some really difficult cuts, bring in some new kids and now we’re here and this camp was even better.”
One of the players on both the box world championship team and this current version of the team getting ready for the world championships Japan in 2026 is Charlotte North. North – who also won a title with Walker-Weinstein back in 2021 at BC and is arguably the most recognizable women’s player in the world – talked about what makes Walker-Weinstein so good at what she does.
“Nobody deserves this more than her,” North said. “She’s just such a winner. She instills so much confidence and belief in every player she’s able to coach. Whether it’s at BC or it’s now with the U.S. team, she’s just so amazing as a leader. I’ve learned so much from her about lacrosse and about life and about any challenge that’s thrown your way.
“To see her and be able to be coached up close by her again and feel how much she cares about this team and the history of USA lacrosse, where she wants to take it…she’s just so powerful and so good at her job. I’m honored to be here and be coached by her again…she just cares so much and is so passionate about bringing the best out of all of her players, which is very hard to do. She pushes us to places we didn’t think we could get to and I think that’s why she’s able to build such dominant teams.”
North is one of the women spearheading the new Women’s Lacrosse League, which will include a Boston franchise called the Guard. Both she and Acacia know they have a platform to continue growing the game and are thrilled with the sudden surge in women’s athletics.
“Women’s sports are growing and I give credit to all the girls who are playing, showing leadership on the field that are attracting the eyes of donors or media or the fans,” said Walker-Weinstein. “It really is the girls that are out there playing that are making that happen.”
“We’re trying to push the game to a place it’s never been to in terms of pro lacrosse,” added North. “We want to expand the realm of opportunities for people after college who want to continue playing, especially in the world of female sports. A lot of people stop playing earlier than they need to or earlier than they want to.
“So, there’s a whole world of possibility right now and we’re lucky to have this platform and this opportunity and we hope to expand on it.”
Having the center of the USA lacrosse world be Chestnut Hill for the week was pretty memorable too.
“It’s been so special. It’s crazy we’re able to be here and be with the USA team with Acacia as our head coach,” North said. “To continue to learn from her and be with the best players in the world at my favorite place in the world, it’s just so special. I don’t think I’ll ever forget any of the moments from this week being in Fish Field House playing with some former BC teammates and people I’ve been coached by or just looked up to for so long.
“Any time you get to be at a training camp with the U.S. team is special, but to be here at BC, that’s once-in-a-lifetime.”
“It’s been very cool. I am so incredibly proud of how Boston College got behind us for this adventure,” Walker-Weinstein said. “Just happy to have these girls on my home turf and the facility has been first class, the whole experience. I’ve heard from the girls, they’ve been really happy with it. I’m going to have them give more feedback to someone who isn’t bias, just so we can figure out how to make it better. But, in general, I’m just trying to elevate the whole operation. USA lacrosse and Boston College have been amazing and I think this was a great experience for the girls.”
Acacia isn’t just elevating Team USA or BC, she’s elevated the game to an entirely different level over the last decade-plus and continues to do so year in and year out as one of the truly elite coaches – men’s or women’s – in the world.
