For the last year Bianca Diaz has been a contributor to FloridaLacrosseNews.com.  She has done a great job bringing attention and  exposure to girls’ high school lacrosse in South Florida .  Her articles profiling High School lacrosse players have been well received by the South Florida lacrosse community.  Only three years out of college she has already made a significant positive impact the Florida lacrosse scene.

As a senior at University of Central Florida Bianca led the Knights from a 14th seed to the Southeastern Women’s Lacrosse League championship and a berth in the 2012 Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association national tournament.  A few short months later she was the Head Coach at Western High School where she coached the Wildcats to a 28-6 record and two District Championship games over two seasons.  In her first two seasons as a high school coach she earned “Coach of the Year” awards and a US Lacrosse South Florida Person of the Year Award.  Not too bad for a rookie. We spoke to Bianca about her time at Western.

“Last year we had 10 starting Seniors and a total of 14 girls graduate. Those girls will always have a part in my heart. I love them all and still talk to them today. There is no doubt that they have made memories and friendships on that team that will last a lifetime. I was very fortunate to have my very first team that I coach be such a group of great girls. They have taught me so much and I will never forget my two years as a Wildcat.”

Some of those girls will be moving onto play at the next level.  Doreen Brabble is headed to Georgetown (KY) and Margaret Waite is off to Tennessee  Wesleyan.  Bianca spoke about their success.

“Doreen came back from a terrible ACL injury last year and recovered amazingly well and was able to play quickly after. Margaret was our top defender for all 4 years (I was there for 2). I am so proud of them both. Another girl who made an impact was Kaitlyn Carmona who was our starting midfielder and Captain of the team along with Margaret. Madison Woodall was our Rookie freshman who started when I started in 2013. She was the lead point holder on the team and an amazing team player.”

During the off-season Bianca coached Madskillz Lacrosse 4th-7th graders and the MadSwash Ultimate 8th-10th graders.  She is also an assistant coach for The Lady Swashbucklers.  In May she was selected as an assistant coach for South Florida’s US lacrosse National Tournament Team. This year finds Bianca working as a teacher’s assistant at University High School which is affiliated with Nova Southeastern University in Davie. She will not only have the opportunity to pursue her career in speech and language pathology in the University’s Masters Program, but will also be the assistant coach for University High School girls varsity lacrosse team and in 2015 is set to begin coaching a new club called Florida Select.  One thing that Bianca understands is that it takes great coaches to make great coaches.

“The biggest reason why I love to coach is that I had so many wonderful people help me start playing: Eileen Pliske, Ivy Pisani, Charity Cox. They were there for all four of my high school years and taught me to love lacrosse and to give back. I then went to college had coaches at UCF: Tom and Mary Hopkins who taught me how to play the game respectfully. I never fully appreciated all of my coaches until I became one. They were all the ones who influenced me to be the coach that I am today. My hope is that I can make an impact in girls lacrosse in south Florida [as these people above have done for me] so girls can understand my passion for playing and coming back and coaching.”

She has a  natural gift  for motivating and inspiring young people both on and off the field. They say competition builds character and it has always been her philosophy  that she instills to all her players which is to play to the best of your ability and most important, have fun doing it.  One thing that has been consistent over her career is that every organization she is affiliated with has gotten better because of it.  That’s why we are so happy to have Bianca as a contributor at  FloridaLacrosseNews.com