BALTIMORE — The staff for the 2006-07 U.S. Women’s Developmental lacrosse team has been approved by the US Lacrosse Women’s Division Board of Governors. Missy Foote, Jen Larsen and Kerri Whitaker were named as assistant coaches, Kim Simons Tortolani was named as the manager and Sandy Worth was named as the trainer. Amy Patton, the head coach at Dartmouth College, had previously been named as the head coach of the developmental team.

Foote, the head coach at Middlebury College, is one of just four coaches in collegiate women’s lacrosse history to amass more than 300 victories. She led her team to the NCAA Division III championship in 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004 and has guided the Panthers to the semifinal round of the NCAA Division III tournament 13 consecutive seasons. Foote, a graduate of Springfield College, has a career record of 303-70-1. She is a five-time national coach of the year and also led Middlebury to the 1998 NCAA Division III field hockey championship.

Larsen became the first head coach at the University of Oregon in 2003 and is guiding the development of the program into a formidable competitor. Oregon finished third in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 2006 after winning a school record 10 games. Larsen previously served as the assistant coach at North Carolina (2000-03), Duke (1998-2000) and Georgetown (1996-98). Larsen is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she served as a captain of the field hockey and lacrosse teams.

Whitaker has served as the head coach at Columbia University since 2002. Over the last three seasons, the Lions have compiled an 18-6 record in nonconference games. Prior to her stint at Columbia, Whitaker spent five seasons as an assistant at Syracuse. A four-year member of the U.S. Elite team, Whitaker is a graduate of Brown University where she was an All-American in lacrosse and an All-Ivy League selection in both field hockey and lacrosse.

Tortolani is the coordinator for Athletics Leadership Training and the assistant coach at the Bryn Mawr (Md.) School. From 1999 to 2005 she was the head women’s lacrosse coach at Georgetown University, leading the Hoyas to three final fours and the NCAA title game in 2001 and 2002. She’s a graduate of Princeton University where she was an All-American in field hockey and lacrosse.

Worth is the head athletic trainer at the University of Maryland with primary responsibility for the field hockey and lacrosse teams. Worth has been the head athletic trainer for four U.S. World Cup teams (1989, 1993, 2001 and 2005) and 10 U.S. national teams between 1992 and 2005. She also served as athletic trainer for the U.S. Field Hockey Association at the inaugural National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs. A graduate of the University of Maryland, she was certified by the National Athletic Trainers Association in 1978.

Tryouts for the 2006-07 U.S. Elite and Developmental teams will be held from Aug. 5-6 at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. More than 130 of the nation’s top lacrosse players will be competing for spots on the teams including the past four recipients of the Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation’s outstanding collegiate player (Princeton's Rachael Becker Dececco, Virginia’s Amy Appelt, Duke’s Katie Chrest and Northwestern’s Kristen Kjellman) and four members of the 2005 U.S. World Cup team (Dececco, Quinn Carney, Kristen Sommar and Jess Wilk).

The U.S. Elite and Developmental teams have two scheduled weekends of competition in the upcoming months. The teams will play top college programs during the Stars and Stripes Weekend from Sept. 30-Oct. 1 in Northern Virginia and during the Champions Challenge Weekend from Jan. 27-28, 2007 in Orlando, Fla.

US Lacrosse, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the national governing body for men's and women's lacrosse. To learn more about the organization, please visit www.uslacrosse.org.