Aug. 3, 1999
Lafayette College has named Barbara Young, whose
Lafayette career spans three different decades, an Assistant Director
of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator (SWA), as announced
by Director of Athletics Dr. Eve Atkinson.
Young will represent the College as its SWA for all NCAA and Patriot
League functions, serve as Lafayette's representative to the Lehigh
Valley Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (LVAIAW),
and chair the department of athletics' gender equity committee.
"Lafayette is blessed to have such an experienced and familiar face
as its newest athletic administrator," said Atkinson. "Barbara has
performed exceptionally well as a head coach, and I am confident her
secondary duties as an administrator will be similarly executed."
Winning better than three of every four matches as the college's head
women's tennis coach, she begins her 25th season as one of the
winningest coaches in the history of Lafayette athletics, and her third
year in charge of the men's tennis program.
She not only led the women's team to its first Patriot League
regular-season title during the 1996-97 season, but has also guided
the program to the 1986 East Coast Conference and 1991 Patriot
League crowns. Nineteen different women's tennis student-athletes
have won 29 individual conference titles (singles and/or doubles)
during her tenure.
Young also coached the Lafayette volleyball team to a school-record
175 wins over 11 seasons and led the women's basketball squad to a
59-26 mark through five years.
Young took charge of the women's tennis program in its second year
as a varsity sport in 1976 and has had just had one losing campaign
in her 23 seasons at the helm. She has also guided three teams, her
1981 spring and fall squads and her 1983 fall club, to perfect records.
Since joining the Patriot League in 1990, Young's women's tennis
teams have posted winning league records in all but two seasons. Her
Leopards are a combined 38-21-1 against league opposition.
Young joined Lafayette's staff as a physical education instructor
following coaching stints at Northwestern University, Chatham
College, and East Stroudsburg University.
A 1968 graduate of the University of Delaware, Young went on to earn
her master's degree from West Chester University. She has written a
number of sports-related articles on topics ranging from the
anthropology of sport to the international sensation of mini-volleyball.
Young previously served as an assistant coordinator of physical
education, recreation and intramurals at Lafayette.
Young and her husband, James, have two children, Kate and Matt,
and live in Easton.
