Some USF sports programs have been trending up the last few seasons.
The football team has more wins in 2023 and 2024 than in the previous four years combined. The men's basketball team won its first American Athletic Conference regular-season title last season. The women's team won that title in 2021 and 2023.
And the track and field and volleyball teams just won their conferences as well.
Now, the university is hoping similar success will follow two brand new programs being introduced very soon.
Leading USF's first lacrosse team
The USF women's lacrosse team held its the final practice before fall break on a bright November morning.
They're playing something called "Olympic games." Players get points for scoring, but also for style, and for celebrations on the sideline. Meaning the game can turn chaotic pretty quickly.
Claire Natoli was practicing the worm on the sideline, something she might need to try in the team's first-ever game.
"I mean, that is a move that I might pull out,” Natoli said. “I'm still working on it. It's definitely a little rusty."
The team starts its inaugural season in February. And Natoli, a sophomore, says the chance to build something new led her to commit to USF over other schools.
"They've won this and they've won that, but we get to be the first to do it, and we know we're gonna do it, because every single person here ... they're looking at us and they're saying they're going to win. We are going to win,” Natoli said.
In 2022, USF hired Mindy McCord to be the team's first head coach. And for her, playing real games has been a long time coming.
"I have to keep my excitement down a little bit because we're going on Year Three, and I haven't coached a real game,” McCord said. “So I have to get my coaching skills back up ... the energy is real, these ladies are ready."
For McCord, though, this isn't entirely new. She started women's lacrosse programs at Jacksonville and Virginia Tech before moving on to USF.
She says while NCAA rules have changed some of the recruiting landscape, along with pitching her program to Gen Z players, other important aspects have remained the same.
“How we build a culture, how we recruit to our style of play — which we like to be that run-and-gun style of play, we like the transition game — that hasn't changed,” McCord said.
And part of building the program is trying to spread the brand since many don't know it exists, or even know how the game is played.
"I think the pitch is that if you like football, if you like soccer, if you like hockey, if you like basketball — basketball especially — come watch that on a 100-yard field,” McCord said.
Players like Natoli are also working to drive up interest, but in a different way.
"I like to say that history is being made,” Natoli said. “Come watch it be made. Come watch us win some championships."
Bringing beach volleyball to USF for the first time
And lacrosse isn't the only team vying for early success.
Priscilla Piantadosi Lima was hired in 2023 to be USF's first beach volleyball head coach.
"We want to start off with a bang, and we want to start off by leaving a huge impression in the NCAA," Lima said.
The team will play a full exhibition schedule in the spring, but won't play official matches until 2026.
“[This year] is going to be the year of knowledge for them, to build their knowledge within the system so they have all their answers for when it's go time,” Lima said.
Lima has a background in building programs in the Tampa Bay area. She founded the local Optimum Beach volleyball club in 2013, and helped launch Eckerd College's beach program in 2015.
She knows the hunger in this market for a D1 beach volleyball program.
"California is like the mecca of beach volleyball in America, and Florida is a close second as a whole,” Lima said. “But specifically now Tampa and St. Pete holds some of the players with the highest level in the country. So it's a huge mecca."
And she’s also taking the mantle of brand ambassador, spreading the message of the new program when she or someone on the team is traveling and recruiting.
“If you go to California, say USF (and) they think of San Francisco,” Lima said. "They don't really know USF.”
Lima says they’ve been prioritizing showing they’re branding wherever they go, whether the event is athletically related or not.
Audrey Gauthier is a senior on the team. Similar to Natoli for lacrosse, the idea of starting something new is what got her and several other players to transfer from a solid Stetson University program.
"Building the new culture, you have to be more a leader,” Gauthier said. “And I don't think I had that chance before, so just bringing that out of me was something that was a good challenge."
For freshman Sam Crosby, a bonus is that opposing teams might underestimate them.
“We're the underdogs,” Crosby said. "Nobody sees us coming.”
Like lacrosse, the players are also helping spread the message. Freshman Sasha Pasloski says she sees the sport getting popular, quick.
“People fall in love with being outside, and you just get to sit there and drink lemonade and watch some good plays,” Pasloski said. “It's a super easy sport to get behind. It's not difficult to cheer for. Sometimes I'm sitting there at football games and I'm like, ‘cool. Why are we stopping again? Like, what does that mean?’ But volleyball is pretty, pretty straightforward, honestly.”
The toughest part for her is waiting until the first official season starts.
"I'm so excited, like, unreal,” Pasloski said. “I can't even put it into words. Sometimes I think about it when I'm, like, falling asleep or whatever, and then I just get jittery and so excited and … it's gonna be so amazing."
Building the foundation
Both teams can also look forward to new facilities.
The lacrosse team will play its home games at the USF football stadium when that's built in 2027, and the beach volleyball team is getting its own facility in time for the 2026 season.
A lot of the credit for the new facilities can go to Athletic Director Michael Kelly. He said one of the first initiatives he ranked at the top of his list was introducing the two new programs, which have been in the works since 2018.
“Where we are at USF athletics right now, it's at a time where we have built up resources,” Kelly said. “We're building up great facilities, but now it's kind of our time to shine, if you will. And I think with this roster of head coaches we have right now, we have a really great leadership in place to do exactly that.”
He says when it came to recruiting Coaches McCord and Lima, and the ongoing recruiting of players, looking for people who wanted to build these teams’ legacies was important.
“You kind of find the personality of someone that wants to be the first to do something, someone that wants to make the mold, rather than maybe be the next chapter,” Kelly said.
The coaches have also taught Kelly that not rushing the process and taking time to build out the foundation of the programs is important.
“There's some programs that might rush it a little bit faster, but we didn't have to do that,” Kelly said. “We wanted to do it right. And because of the experience that they both have, they gave me good counsel on how to set this thing up, right from the very beginning.”
Now that one of the teams is about to take the field in just about two months, Kelly says he’s excited, and proud of what USF has accomplished.
“I think a combination of great, emerging sports that are showing great growth, the sport themselves are naturally growing,” Kelly said. “And then when you combine that with going out and getting elite coaches that we were able to attract, I think it will lead to fun times for the Bulls fans.”
The lacrosse team plays its first game against Kennesaw State Feb. 7, 2025 at home.
Beach volleyball will play several exhibition matches in 2025, but will officially play it first matches in program history in 2026.
