Coaches

Melody Shotwell

In her 2nd season at SCAD, Coach Shotwell lead the Bees with a challenging regular season schedule, facing three NCAA Division 2 and six NCAA Division 3 Opponents. The Bees finished the season with a 14-6 record, 5-0 on the road and a perfect Sun Conference record of 6-0 and the #1 seed, finishing as back-to-back Sun Conference Champions. Advancing to the NAIA National Tournament as the 4 seed; they beat the #5 seed Indiana Tech in the Quarterfinals and eventually lost to the National Champions, #1 seed Reinhardt in the Semifinal game.


Coach Shotwell was named 2024 Sun Conference Coach of The Year, Senior Captain Clarke Haas was named NAIA Player of the year and NAIA All-Tournament Team, Sun Conference Offensive Player of The Year and First Team All-American breaking SCAD’s Career Points (284) and Career Goals (248) as well as SCAD 2024 MVP. Also earning recognition under Shotwell was First Team All-American, Grace Gibson also breaking a SCAD record for career CTO’s (78) and SCAD 2024 Defensive MVP. Keagan Plume earned First Team All-American and broke SCAD’s record for career games played (70) while Annise Berkeley earned Second Team All-American and SCAD Offensive MVP. Finally, Lorna Fowles earned Third Team All-American.


In her first year as SCAD’s Head Coach, Shotwell concluded the season with a conference record of 5-1 and season record of 12-6, Sun Conference Champions and second in the Nation. Shotwell also earned the title of 2023 NAIA Coach of The Year, 2023 SCAD Coach of The Year and 2023 IWLCA Coach of The Year. The SCAD Women’s Lacrosse team also took home the 2023 SCAD Team of The Year award.


She then traveled to Italy to coach a team from USA in the Italy Lacrosse Cup tournament held in Como, against Wales, England and Italy and brought home the gold!


Melody Shotwell began her journey as the Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach at SCAD at the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year. With over 15 years of coaching experience to contribute to the program. Coming from a 6A powerhouse in Northern Virginia as a 5-sport Varsity athlete, she then took her athletic career to the NCAA Division One level to play for the former USA Women’s Lacrosse Coach, Sue Stahl at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. as a glorified midfielder. During her collegiate career not only as a captain, she ranked #7 nationally for points in 2003. She finished her career ranking 9th in school history with 124 points and 98 career goals.


Post-Collegiately she continued in the game coaching back home in Northern, Virginia and was named “2009 Coach of The Year” which excelled her coaching career back to the Division one Level at Old Dominion University as an Assistant Lacrosse Coach under her former college coach Sue Stahl.


Moving her career to South West Florida in 2018, she became a Physical Education Teacher, Strength and Conditioning Coach and Head Varsity Girls Lacrosse Coach at a private school in Naples, Florida (CSN) where she had the opportunity to build the program from 17 players to 75 in 5 years by establishing an elementary and JV program to feed the Varsity team. With a CSN career record of 88-21, she led her team to become 2021 District Champions, 2021 Regional Champions and 2021 1A State Final Four members, all for the first time in school history.


Additionally, Melody was the Regional Director of Naples Lax Maniax Lacrosse Club where she coached 100+ players during Summer and Fall practices and tournaments and aided in the recruitment process. She also founded Sunset Lacrosse League, which provided players of all ages the access to Box Lacrosse in the off-season as well as Summer and Fall Camps to elevate their game. Melody was a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Officials Advisory Committee, South Gulf Lacrosse Officials Association Girls Lacrosse (SGLOA) board member, a US Lacrosse Certified Officials Trainer and US Lacrosse Certified Officials Observer. Melody also holds a Collegiate Women’s Lacrosse Officials Associate (CWLOA) National Elite officiating certification which certifies her to officiate at the Division One level.


Melody is a native of Northern, Virginia where she and her 5 siblings were raised by her parents William and Patricia Shotwell. Melody enjoys being outdoors, exercising, live music and her 3 Pomeranian rescues named Clarabelle, Miller and Macie. When asking Melody why SCAD was the perfect fit she stated “as a former Fashion Merchandising and Studio Art degree myself; the opportunity to work with the artist athletes at SCAD who have the same passion as myself, was too good to be true. I am nothing but ecstatic to begin my lacrosse journey at SCAD and continue to give back to the game that has given so much to me.”