30 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | FROM THE NEST Women’s wrestling head coach Brazel Marquez believes the Mountain Hawks can produce Olympians. Winning has a way of changing expectations. Lehigh’s women’s basketball team has posted seven consecutive winning seasons, and its softball team has recorded 23 winning seasons over the past 26 years. That’s proof that Lehigh’s women’s teams can compete at the highest levels of the Patriot League. The question now is how far that momentum can carry across the athletics department. Lehigh is focused on strengthening all of its women’s teams by recruiting top student-athletes and coaches and providing them with the resources needed to succeed. Brazel Marquez, women’s wrestling head coach, has her sales pitch for recruits down: excellent academics, the chance to help build a new program and a competitive schedule. She also has a “closer” in the Murray H. Goodman Dean of Athletics, Jeremy Gibson, whose hands-on approach has become a difference maker. “He’ll come in on a Saturday at 8 a.m. and spend an hour talking with the families and letting them know the vision of the program,” Marquez says. “He’s not afraid to do the hard work to help our program out. Meeting face-to-face is a nice touch in our recruiting visits.” “We land about 90% of them.” Across women’s athletics, newly hired head coaches share a belief in their athletes and an ambitious vision for what their programs can become. Building What’s Next for Women’s Athletics With the women’s basketball and softball programs sustaining success, Lehigh looks to extend that momentum to all female sports across the athletics department. By Daniel Paulling “OUR GOAL IS TO PUT PEOPLE ON THE PODIUMS [AT CHAMPIONSHIP EVENTS] AND MAKE WORLD AND OLYMPIC TEAMS AND ACHIEVE A HIGH-LEVEL EDUCATION, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.” —Brazel Marquez, women’s wrestling head coach BETH MURPHY
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