After a disappointing 6-11 season, Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse head coach Katrina Silva resigned last week to pursue a business opportunity outside of coaching.
Tech announced that assistant coach Megan Burker will take over the reigns, serving as the team’s interim head coach for the 2010-11 academic year.
“We thank Katrina for her dedication to Virginia Tech and wish her well in the future,” said Jim Weaver, director of athletics, in a statement made July 23.
In her four seasons as the head coach of the Hokies, Silva posted an overall record of 22-37. In that time, Tech never posted a winning record and never advanced past its first game at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships.
In fact, during her time at Tech, Silva’s teams posted just one win against ACC opponents.
Since joining the conference in 2005, the Hokies have underachieved and failed to improve much at all. However, the team’s new leader believes she can reverse its fortune in her new role.
“I’m really excited about this opportunity,” Burker said. “I’ve worked at Virginia Tech for four years now as an assistant coach, I’ve been involved in a lot of the changes we’ve made so far and you know, I’m just excited to have a new leadership position and coach this team to the next level.”
A native of Baltimore, Md., Burker came to Tech after a standout athletic career at Stanford University. As a four-time Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament All-Star and a four-time MPSF selection, she finished her career ranked in the top-10 in every career chart.
Her resume includes being named to the U.S. National Teams program at the completion of her junior season, handling captain duties for the US Developmental Squad and receiving Stanford’s team MVP honors in 2005 and 2006.
She says her experience at every level of the game will help her lead the Hokies.
“I’ve really had great leaders throughout my lacrosse career,” Burker said. “Even starting at high school… in college, I had some great mentors and coaches. Then, playing at the US level, obviously, gave me the competition where I really played against the best in the country. I understood what it took to get to be the best.”
A version of this article appeared in the Jul 29 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Really smart move by Jim Weaver hiring an interim head coach as if they play in the fall and can't take the time to hire a good coach. How is this interim coach going to go on the road and recruit good players when she doesn't even know if she'll be the coach 1 year from now? Good luck competing against the Maryland's and UNC's of the world because the talent disparity is huge. Maryland's bench warmers would beat us easily so its clear the old coach can't recruit. Now we're handcuffing the new coach by labeling her as interim so she won't be able to recruit the top players.
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