College of Wooster

Wooster, OH 44691

Ohio Midwest

Private Small Developing team

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Coaches

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Elizabeth Ford

Through 18 seasons, Elizabeth Ford has won over 70 percent of her games (195-82-1; .703) and three North Coast Athletic Conference championships, while maintaining Wooster’s reputation as one of the best NCAA Div. III women's lacrosse programs in the 2000s within the Fighting Scots' region. She was named senior woman administrator in August, 2021, and has primary responsibility for athletics diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and Title IX coordination, in addition to her coaching duties.

Highlighting Ford’s tenure, the Fighting Scots added NCAC titles in 2007, 2009, and 2010, marking their fourth, fifth, and sixth over a 10-year period, and with them, received berths into the NCAA Tournament. Her teams have reached double-digit win totals 14 times, including 11-3 in 2006, 12-5 in 2007, 10-6 in 2008, 12-4 in 2009, 12-4 in 2010, 12-5-1 in 2012, 13-5 in 2013, 13-4 in 2015, 11-6 in 2016, 11-5 in 2017, 12-4 in 2018, 16-2 in 2019, 13-5 in 2022, and 11-5 in 2023, and for her efforts, Ford was the 2009 IWLCA West Region Coach of the Year, the 2007 NCAC co-Coach of the Year, and the 2018 and 2019 NCAC Coach of the Year. She was inducted to the Ohio Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2021.

In 2021, Ford's squad advanced to the championship game of the NCAC Tournament for the 14th time in program history and third consecutive year.

Outside of Wooster, Ford gained international coaching experience during the summer of 2011, as she headed the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) under-19 team at the Women’s Lacrosse World Championship in Hannover, Germany.

Ford only had to make a cross-town move when she was named the College’s head coach in July 2005, as she was formerly the head girl’s lacrosse coach at Wooster High School. She helped the Generals to winning records four of five seasons, including an 11-3-2 mark in 2002, and they reached the Round of 16 at the Ohio State Lacrosse Association Tournament in 2004.

Ford also brought significant experience at the collegiate level to the position. In fact, she was an assistant coach at Wooster during the 1998-99 academic year, and prior to that, a graduate assistant in field hockey and lacrosse for two seasons at Washington (Md.) College.

Originally from Glassboro, New Jersey, and a graduate of Glassboro High School, the former Liz Garrett was a four-year starter in field hockey and three-year starter in lacrosse at perennial national power Rowan University. She helped the Profs to NCAA Tournament appearances twice in each sport and picked up all-region honors in lacrosse as a senior captain in 1995.

Ford, who holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Rowan and a master’s in history from Washington, also was a teacher for several years at various schools in New Jersey, Maryland, and Ohio. She is married to Graham Ford and they reside in Wooster with their son, Preston and daughter, Sierra.

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Katie Shideler

Katie Shideler, a standout lacrosse and field hockey goalkeeper, returns to The College of Wooster as the women’s lacrosse program’s full-time assistant coach. Shideler’s coaching tenure began in October 2023.

As a senior at Wooster, Shideler earned first-team Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association All-Great Lakes Region honors and was the program’s first North Coast Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year since 2004. Shideler ranked in the top-25 nationally with a 52.6 save percentage and surpassed 400 career saves in the NCAC Tournament title game, becoming the sixth Scot to hit that milestone. The two-time first-team All-NCAC goalkeeper played on teams that went 39-10 and played in the championship game of the NCAC Tournament each time it was contested.

In field hockey, Shideler eared second-team National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-Great Lakes Region honors and was elevated to the All-NCAC first-team after helping lead Wooster to the NCAC Tournament final as a sophomore. That year, Shideler ranked seventh nationally with an 84.4 save percentage and led a defense that ranked 37th nationally with a 1.30 goals-against average.

Since graduating from Wooster, Shideler has coached lacrosse at South Mecklenburg High School and with the Charlotte Ambush field hockey club.

Shideler graduated with a degree in mathematics and physics in 2021.

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Eric Seideman

Eric Seideman (SIDE-min), who possesses nearly two decades of coaching experience at the NCAA Div. III level, including 11 years as head coach at Mount Saint Mary College (New York), was selected as The College of Wooster's men's lacrosse head coach following a national search. Seideman's tenure at the College began on July 1, 2022.

Wooster enjoyed its best season in Seideman's first year with the program, as the Scots set new program records for wins (13) and consecutive wins (11). Casey Steffen was named an All-American after breaking the NCAA Div. III single-season record with 5.06 caused turnovers per game. Steffen's 86 caused turnovers more than doubled the program's single-season record and are the third-most since the NCAA started officially tracking the statistic in 2013. Additionally, Wooster led the nation by holding the opposition to a 62.7 clearing percentage and had top-three national rankings in groundballs (45.00) and caused turnovers (14.88) per game. Wooster excelled in the classroom as well during Seideman's first year with junior Shane Epstein-Petrullo earning third-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® honors. For his efforts, Seideman was part of the NCAC Coaching Staff of the Year.

Seideman arrived in Newburgh, New York, in 2011 to build up a relatively new Mount Saint Mary program, and his efforts were immediately evident with a program record seven wins in 2012. Seideman's program reached new heights in 2018, winning a record 12 games and advancing to the Skyline Conference Tournament championship game for the first time. Under Seideman's guidance, two Knights earned All-America honors, marking the only two All-America selections for Mount Saint Mary in any sport in a 15-year stretch. He mentored Dylan De Meo, who finished as the 15th-leading scorer in Div. III history at 334 points.

Developing positive and inclusive team culture and emphasizing values like "care for others, growth mindset, leadership, and service in development of the whole person" are hallmarks of Seideman's coaching philosophy. Under his watch, Mount Saint Mary's men's lacrosse program positively impacted the community with over 30 student-athlete-led community service projects, plus collaboration with organizations such as Team Impact and the One Love Foundation. Through these partnerships, Seideman helped incorporate One Love Foundation "Escalation" workshops into Mount Saint Mary first-year experience, athletics, and student club programming.

Seideman's impact extends beyond his team, as the veteran coach is highly active within the NCAA and coaching organizations. He is the current chair of the Div. III All-America committee, and previously served as a top-20 poll voter, a regional advisory committee representative, and a NCAA Div. III Championships site representative. While at Mount Saint Mary, Seideman oversaw compliance for the entire athletic department, worked to create a new policy for academic standards for athletics that was later adopted for the entire student body, and was an adjunct professor of English.

No stranger to success at a high level, Seideman was the offensive coordinator of State University of New York Cortland's national championship team in 2006 as an assistant, and the program returned to the national title game the following year with him on the sideline. He then was an assistant at Ithaca College, helping the program to the national semifinals in 2008, then spent two seasons at Gettysburg College, with the program making the NCAA Div. III Championships both years. In all, Seideman has coached 27 All-Americans in his career.

As a midfielder, Seideman was a four-year starter at Haverford College outside of Philadelphia. There, he earned two All-Centennial Conference honors and was selected as the team's most valuable player three times. He graduated as the program's all-time leader in midfield scoring.

Seideman graduated from Haverford in 2004 with a bachelor's in English and furthered his education with a master's in education at Cornell University. Seideman, and his wife, Melissa, have two sons, Benjamin and Finn.