Claire Hubbard informed the athletic department on May 16 that she will leave her assistant lacrosse coach position at the end of June. She said she decided to resign to pursue personal goals.
“This was not an easy decision for me to make,” Hubbard said. “Everything I do moving forward will come from what I have learned from here the past two years and everything they have given me the opportunity to absorb.”
Hubbard joined coach Bonnie Rosen’s staff in Fall 2015 as an assistant after Jennifer Wong was promoted from assistant to associate coach. Temple’s coaching staff won Big East Conference Co-Coaching Staff of the Year in 2016, and Hubbard helped lead Temple to back-to-back Big East tournament appearances in her two seasons.
Temple listed the assistant coaching job on Inside Higher Ed’s career site the same day Hubbard announced her intention to leave the program.
The listing states that candidates must have a bachelor’s degree and “at least two years of lacrosse coaching experience as a collegiate student-athlete or collegiate coach.” A master’s degree and Division I coaching and recruiting experience are preferred.
Rosen said, ideally, someone would be hired before July to help recruit, but she and Wong are more worried about making sure they find the right fit.
“It’s not going to be about replacing Claire,” Rosen said. “It’s going to be about finding the next hire who can help us be better. We will miss Claire in our program, but we will find the next person who can really bring their unique piece to our program.”
Hubbard didn’t have any college coaching experience before she came to Temple. She played college lacrosse for four years at Stanford University where she graduated in 2010 with a degree in product design. Hubbard holds Stanford’s records for assists in a single season and for a career. She is also tied for the program’s single-game assist record.
After she graduated, Hubbard worked for three years as a product design engineer for Science Buddies, an online learning resource provider. She worked as a product manager for Chegg Inc., an online textbook rental and tutoring company, from August 2013 until she joined Temple’s staff.
While working full-time, Hubbard stayed involved with lacrosse by working with club and high school players.
“Claire wouldn’t have been a traditional hire for a lot of people,” Rosen said. “She hadn’t been in the coaching field, but it was very clear to me that her passion for the sport and her experience as a student-athlete and her love of making a difference in students’ lives was a perfect fit, and that’s why we took a chance on her.”
Hubbard does not currently have a job lined up, but she plans to stay in the Philadelphia area. She would like to stay involved with the lacrosse team as a volunteer coach or an event planner.
“I feel very grateful to have met all of the young women in the Temple lacrosse program and to have had the opportunity to work with them and help develop them as people over the last two years,” she said.
Tessa Sayers can be reached at teresa.sayers@temple.edu or on Twitter @SayersTessa. Follow The Temple News @TheTempleNews and @TTN_Sports.
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