From the podcast: Mike Horowitz on the lure of D-3 in Colorado

Colorado College head coach Mike Horowitz joined the "Chasing the Goal" podcast this week. (Courtesy)

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli were joined by Colorado College head coach Mike Horowitz.

Horowitz is entering his second season in charge of the Tigers. In his first season at the helm, Horowitz led them to a 7-9 overall record and an appearance in the NCAA tournament. They were felled 23-8 by NESCAC power Bowdoin, but getting to that first-round game was an accomplishment for one of the western-most schools in Division 3.

Horowitz played his college lacrosse at Muhlenberg, where he earned All-Conference honors as a goaltender in his junior and senior years. He went on the spend two years as an assistant at Fairleigh Dickinson after graduating. He then spent seven years as an assistant coach at Saint Joseph’s before moving to Colorado in the fall of 2021.

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Jack Piatelli: Many of our listeners are from New England and probably don’t know a lot about Colorado College. Talk a little bit about the college, the academic programs and the lacrosse program.

Mike Horowitz: Academically, we’re one of the top 30 liberal arts colleges in the country. So, when you’re talking about some of those schools, a lot of them tend to be in New England. And that’s why we have such high representation from New England at CC.

In terms of the college itself, we’re in downtown Colorado Springs and it is a beautiful campus. We’re fortunate enough to have Division 1 hockey and and Division 1 women’s soccer at our college, which really has elevated our facilities. I was a Division 1 assistant coach for over seven years, and I can certainly say that our athletics facilities are Division 1 caliber. We’re very fortunate in terms of that. We definitely pride ourselves on being at the highest level on both ends of the spectrum.

Academically, it’s a hard school to get into; we have a 14 percent acceptance rate. On the athletic side, we have everything that we need from our administration to be successful. So it’s a beautiful school. In terms of recruiting, if we can get kids to come to visit the campus, then the sell becomes a whole lot easier.

Kyle Devitte: Colorado Springs is one of the biggest training complexes for the Olympics. I mean, they have all sorts of sports from wrestling to fencing there in that complex. Do you have a relationship with them at all in terms of being able able to train there?

MH: We’re trying to build some relationships. I’m coming up on really one year at CC, so it’s more been about me trying to find a house and memorizing my drive and my commute at this point. But we definitely have some relationships with the Olympic training facilities. USA Basketball is downtown as well, so we’re trying to build on that. But it also is just a great opportunity for us to explore the kind of elite athletics right in our backyard. The Olympic Paralympic Museum — if you wanted to walk — it’s probably a 30-minute walk from campus. So we have some of those things in our backyard that we can use to motivate and inspire our athletes.

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